Hi Ed,
I noticed that you have addressed to me the following article.
We teach people how to Sit the Chan way. It is just a practice.
Through this practice, each of us experience our own journey. Then each
of us can explain, describe and share whatever we deem precious.
Bible is the description for Jesus. Sutra is the description for Buddha.
In other words, each path is unique and precious. Language is simply
not adequate to describe every journey.
Sit down and experience it the most important.
This is what we teach.
Thank you for asking.
JMJM
Be Enlightened In This Life - We ALL Can
http://chanjmjm.blogspot.com
http://www.heartchan.org
On 10/23/2010 9:21 AM, ED wrote:
Bill, Mike, Mayka, JM and All, does this below look kosher to you?
Thanks, ED
*"Q. Zen emphasizes a kind of selflessness, or self-transcendence. Why
is this desirable, and why so difficult to achieve? *
Let's take your last question first. It is difficult to escape from
the lifelong habits of our many-sided self.
This is because some of our egocentricities are not only innate, but
are habit-patterns that have hardened ever since we were infants.
It is very difficult to reverse any conditioned behaviors that have
had such a long head start.
/Zen and the Brain/ discusses a way to represent -- as a psychological
construct -- this complex we refer to as *"self."* For shorthand
purposes of description, one may think of this "self" in terms of its
three interactive components: *I , Me, and Mine.*
Unfortunately, it takes years to fully realize that this triad
combines liabilities with assets. True, this I-Me-Mine complex does
confer survival value on each person.
But many dark, unfruitful aspects also inhabit the triad. The I is
arrogant; the Me feels besieged; the Mine is captured by its greedy
impulses. The result generates much anguish and impairs our performance.
Before I started Zen training, I could never have imagined how it
would feel to lose the "self." Nor could I have then foreseen how much
this fact of experience implies for our scientific understanding of
consciousness.
Only after I underwent two different kinds of alternate state
experiences -- one more superficial and one at a deeper level -- would
it become obvious: each event had peeled off different layers of my
egocentric self.
A term, /internal absorption/, describes the first, shallower category
of such experiences. It briefly dissolves the sense of the /physical/
self.
In contrast, the later variety reflects a deeper penetration, an
"awakening" to insight-wisdom. It is also known as /kensho-satori/ in
the Zen tradition. In this category of experiences, the sense of one's
/psychic/ self dissolves.
A gardener might recognize this process as reminiscent of a kind of
"pruning." Why? Because during this particular "awakening," many
unfruitful aspects of the triad are seen to drop off.
Thereafter the person finally starts to become liberated from old,
maladaptive conditioned responses.
Source: James H. Austin, M.D. discusses/ Zen and the/ Brain )
http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/AUSZP/austin/interview.html
