Jeff, First of all, WELCOME TO THE YAHOO! ZEN FORUM. We're all beginners here, so I hope you will feel right at home.
Since you're a newbie, I'll be especially gentle with you. My comments on your posting are imbedded below: --- In [email protected], "JEFF K." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hello, > My name is Jeff K., and I am a new member, and a newcomer along the path of Zen Buddhism. I am wrestling with the Buddhist concept of "no birth-no death", which I first encountered in Thich Nhat Hanh's book, "The Heart of the Buddha". > > When I first came upon the concept, I was mystified and confused. Thankfully, I continued reading the book (which I find excellent!) and Thay returned to the "no birth-no death" concept from another angle. Now I am beginning to understand the concept, though not as deeply as I'd like. First of all, a concept like this 'No Birth-No Death', is not an important component of zen. In fact no concepts are. Any concept you, or Thich Nhat Hanh, or even Siddhartha Guatama himself had or have are a not an imporant component of zen. Second of all, UNDERSTANDING, such as 'understanding concepts like this one', or 'understanding koans', or 'understanding Buddhist dogma', is not at all necessary to practice zen - in fact in my opinion the more 'understanding' you have, the further you are from Buddha Mind. > > My superficial understanding is: Most people fear death because we believe that once we "die", we are annihilated. Buddhism teaches that the person is never "destroyed"; rather, our existence continues, albeit possibly in another form. Even a cremated body is never totally destroyed or eliminated; ashes, bones, and vapors still exist. I analogize this to the concept in physics that matter cannot be destroyed. These elements of our body, now in the soil and/or air, will sustain other life forms. > > Perhaps I have it all wrong, but I'd greatly appreciate feedback from other group members. > ...Jeff K. > You don't 'have it wrong'. Your understanding of this concept is as good as any, and better than most - but I again want to emphasize that whatever that understanding is, it is not relevant to zen. My 'understanding' of 'No Birth-No Death' is just what it says: There is no such thing as 'Birth' or 'Death'. They are both just concepts which attempt to characterize a begining of life and and end of life. Life is not 'you', as in your ego, your sense of being or sense of individualism. Ego and individualism, the subject-object or me-you separation, are just illusions - dreams. Since life does not begin at your birth, and does not end at your death, then what good are these words? What do they mean? Birth-Death, No Birth-No Death. You might also say 'No Good-No Bad', or 'No Me-No You'. None of these things exist. There is only THIS! But again I want to empahsize that whatever MY understanding of this concept is, it is not relevant to zen. Only THIS! And to experience THIS, you need only to meditate (zazen). You don't need to UNDERSTAND anything. ...Bill! Current Book Discussion: any Zen book that you recently have read or are reading! Talk about it today! Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
