Well, this is what I meant by linguistic tricks. I was on another forum in which I was talking about how my OCD was related to my fear of death. I had two different reactions - one along the lines of "why worry about death?" (telling someone with OCD not to worry or why worry is exactly the wrong thing to do) the other was that I had to admit that my OCD was an illusion. This last one really bothered me, and the poster went further on to say that "disease = dis ease," which I thought was trite and not very helpful. I soon gave up on that forum.
--- In [email protected], <billsm...@...> wrote: > > Dave, > > > > My comments are embedded in your post below: > > > > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf > Of DP > Sent: Sunday, August 15, 2010 9:36 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [Zen] Namaste- first message > > I have been doing zazen for awhile now, but I've gone weeks and months at a > time without doing it... getting up and doing it regularly is very difficult > for me. > > [Bill!] Difficulty is a good thing - a teaching thing. > > I like to consider myself, in the words of Evelyn Underhill, a "practical > mystic." I find koans sometimes useful, but I find that I am also drawn to > the ideas of Thich Nhat Hanh, of imbuing everything with purpose (of course, > this can be hard with OCD, in which every action seems to have hidden > consequences). > > [Bill!] I would think that anyone with OCD would not find it difficult at > all to 'imbue everything with purpose'. That's what OCD means, doesn't it? > Zen is the opposite of that. Zen has no purpose, no goal. Zen is Just > THIS! > > I'm a little turned off by some of what I find obfuscating in some zen > messages, the people who hide behind linguistic tricks. Is that a little too > cynical? Am I asking too many questions? :) > > [Bill!] What I think you see as 'linguistic tricks' in zen are probably just > the results of frustration at trying to communicate non-dualistic > experiences using language which is based on dualisms. That, or an attempt > at using language in a non-ordinary way (like koans, which you said you find > 'useful' sometimes) to help induce a break in dualistic thinking. > > .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: [email protected] [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/
