Thanks, Bill. Quite illuminating. --ED
--- In [email protected], "Bill!" <BillSmart@...> wrote: Siska, Yes, the concept of cause-and-effect is illusory. The belief in cause-and-effect is an attempt by your discriminating mind to 'understand' reality, to 'make sense'of experience which is fundamentally chaotic. It is a process of breaking up wholistic experience (Just THIS!) into pieces, and then to categorize and even directly associating some pieces with others by assigning a dependent cause-and-effect relationship to these pairs or sets of pieces. The establishment of these cause-and-effect relationships are done to fit your needs at the time. They are not absolute, objective or real. They are relational, subjective and illusory - this is because they are dependent upon your dualistic concept of self/other. The illusion of cause-and-effect helps you feel more comfortable and gives you a certain sense of control of life. The concept of karma is a spritualized version of cause-and-effect which is usually thought of as purely a physical relationship. The letting go of this illusion is sometimes referred to in zen stories as 'leaping into the abyss', or 'taking a step off the 100-ft flagpole'. These are teachings telling you that you must let go of your attachments (espcially to logic and the belief in cause-and-effect), come out of your fantasy comfort zone, throw away your illusory security blanket and throw yourself completly into the stark unknown and unknowable. There's no comforting assurance of cause-and-effect there. Just THIS! ...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/
