Hi ED,
It is true that spirituality can not be communicated accurately. Thank you.
That's why it is time to address it, because Chan practice in the truest
sense is a spiritual practice.
It will take some effort to explain it, because it seems to me that Zen
has reduced all verbage to its bare minimum. For instance, "Zen is
One." but "Chan is One and this One is ALL". The second half was
missing in Zen. Without it, we are then attached to absolute emptiness.
JM
Be Enlightened In This Life - We ALL Can
http://chanjmjm.blogspot.com
http://www.heartchan.org
On 4/7/2011 8:09 AM, ED wrote:
Talking about "spirituality" is of no value, because the word has a
private meaning for each human, which meaning cannot be communicated
accurately to anyone else. --ED
--- In [email protected], "Bill!" <BillSmart@...> wrote:
>
JMJM,
My comments are embedded below:
> JMJM:
> From you input, it seems to indicate that in the western culture, the
> word "spirit" and "spiritual" are not part of everyday life. These two
> words are in the supernatural domain and beyond everyday conversation.
> Is this true? Or is it just in Zen_Forum?
[Bill!] No, that is not true. Some, maybe most, consider spirits and
sprituality as part of everyday life. EVERYONE that considers
themselves as
belonging to a religion (Christianity, Judism, Islam, Hindi, etc...)
believes in
spirits. These terms and topics are frequently used in everyday
conversation.
Of course so are UFO's and Obama's birth in Kenya. Being part of everyday
conversation doesn't validate them.
> In the Chinese culture, spirit or spiritual states are very common in
> everyday life. Usually if I say that I am happy or sad, it also means
> that my spirit is high or low. Nothing supernatural about it. I would
> say to the majority Chinese, mental state is spiritual state. I don't
> know whether Anothony agrees with this or not. It could be just me.
> Besides, my Chinese is not very good either.
>
> Please respond. I do understand that generalization are risky. But
> this could be important to know.
>
> Thank you,
> JM
[Bill!] We also have an alternate meaning of 'spirit' that is used
like that.
When you sad you could say you're in 'low spirits'; happy is 'high
spirits'.
'Spirits' also refer to alcoholic drinks. The reason I zeroed in on the
supernatual meaning of 'spirits' is because I think the people who
told you they
were 'spiritual but not religious' were using it in the supernatual
way - not
the casual 'mental state or general feeling' way.
...Bill!
