... now they're just mountains once more.
Bill Smart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
ZenBob,
Thanks for your excellent post.
Before I continue I want to make sure my posts are received as I intend them.
Ive been accused in the past of sounding preachy, assertive or dictatorial.
All my posts are my opinions only. They are based on many things including
reading and experience, although reading alone is not a very good reference
zen. I write them in an assertive manner because, when I write, I do my best
to write, and try not to wobble.
My remarks are embedded below:
>On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 11:53 PM, ZenBob wrote:
>There is no guy on the train. There is no train. Get it? This is just a
mental construct.
The guy and the train are not mental constructs.
>But it could be a mental construct that is positive or good. Sure sh-t
happens. However, because we have minds, we also have choices to make about
everything we >experience and how we choose to experience...
Positive/negative or good/bad are mental constructs. And, if youre
choosing how you experience things, then youre not practicing zen.
>On both a Zen and Quantum level, we have the power to form the
universe...when we can select a positive choice we recreate the >world of
resulting changes that are positive. It is a gradual and ongoing process, not
a singularity event.
Again, if youre choosing how you create the world, youre not practicing
zen. Ill let the gradual/ongoing process go for now.
>[
stuff cut
], and Zen is established on the basis of Buddhism.
This depends on your use of the term established. Zen is not a RESULT of
Buddhism, but zen is usually explained or taught using Buddhist terms and
concepts. Zen itself is not rational so it cant be EXPLAINED, and it has no
TERMS or CONCEPTS, except those used to teach. Those are the fingers pointing
to the moon, but they are not the moon; and Buddhism does not have the market
cornered on fingers.
>Buddhism addresses the essential dilemna of suffering, duality, ignorance
and spiritual progress via the Eightfold Path. We >are bound most by our
mental constructs than we are the world itself. Liberation is a necessary step
toward enlightenment, >and that comes only after we give up our attachments to
false belief and false desires. Determining the ultimate reality of >our
existence is the basic and difficult daily work. It is easy to trap oneself in
the illusion of the world, and to spin >fearful constructs based on "if." Our
lives take on greater meaning when we understand that happiness depends less on
what >we think we want, and realize that it occurs most naturally to those
without expectation who delight in the moment of here >and now, and delight in
the joy or surprise of others.
I normally cut out most Buddhist rhetoric to emphasis the independence of zen
from Buddhism, but the paragraph above is well-stated, and are good
teaching-words for zen. Notice there is a complete absence of CHOOSING. To
make sure of that I would change the word DETERMINING in the third sentence to
REALIZING or ACCEPTING.
>[
balance cut
]
>Cheers, Zenbob
Bill!
---------------------------------
Sent from Yahoo! - a smarter inbox.
