Hi Bill, That whole process of first experiencing Buddha Nature (kensho) and then integrating it into your life without being fooled (as I've described above) is the purpose of Zen Buddhist koan study. [siska] I'd love to do koan study. It is not possible to do this without a teacher, is it?
Thanks for your response Bill, it was such a relief that you get what I was trying to say. It is always difficult for me to put it into words. Ps: the red corvette sounds like a fun ride :-) siska -----Original Message----- From: "Bill!" <[email protected]> Sender: [email protected] Date: Thu, 07 Apr 2011 02:10:39 To: <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Zen] Why bother with Zazen? Better Orgyhouse Siska, My comments are embedded below: > [Bill!] I don't really understand this statement well enough to respond. Why > do you qualify decisions with 'big', > [siska] what I meant by 'big decision' is decision that have 'longer' (?) > impact. Say, deciding to marry someone, or deciding to leave everything > behind and go forth. I suppose we can do this by intuition, and perhaps we > should. But sometimes I find that intuition is not intuition, there is still > very subtle framework behind what comes up as intuition. [Bill! 2] I know what you mean and I of course do that also. BUT, sometimes I think I might FIRST make the decision basen on impulse or 'intuition' (or homones) and then LATER JUSTIFY it with logic. This process can happen very, very quickly. Like deciding to buy a red Corvette convertible because it will retain it's value. Ha! > > [Bill!] and why should they be handled differently than any other decision? > [siska] I'd definitely be less concerned with this when it comes to deciding > what I should have for lunch today, although I suppose this is dualism point > of view? :-) [Bill! 2} Okay, that's a key. You're concerned with how they will affect 'you' in the 'future'. Both 'you' and 'future' as I'm sure you know are illusory - but again I must confess I do the same thing myself. > [Bill!] I'm not aware of any non-attachment 'attitude' that does not come > from awareness. Where would it come from? Unless by 'non-attachment attitude' > you just mean disinterst? > [siska] I did not mean disinterest. Now, this is a little difficult for me to > describe. > > The mind can be very tricky. Maybe, at one point, it experienced a state > where it was 'un-attached to anything' (not sure if this is the right way of > describing that state). When the mind is not in this state, it adopts what it > regards as being non-attached as an 'attitude'. But because the mind is not > actually in that state, choices and decisions made are still based on a > framework instead of real intuition. > [Bill! 2] I can again relate to this. I think our discriminating mind quickly learns and adapts to this 'no-attachment' thing and soon begins to present things to you as if there are no attachments - but there are. They're just hidded a little better than they used to be. That whole process of first experiencing Buddha Nature (kensho) and then integrating it into your life without being fooled (as I've described above) is the purpose of Zen Buddhist koan study. I'm also sure the process is never complete. > Feels like too much thinking going on in my head :-p > [Bill! 2] Yeah, I know the feeling! ...Bill!
