With all respect to you, rewisk, you have made a lot of assumptions about me without knowing me. I do not believe in reincarnation, or life after death. These are things I cannot know, because I have not died. And as far as how long it "should" take for a practitioner to "attain" anything, who is to say? I should hope I don't ever feel that I have reached a "place" in my understanding, I wish to just experience my life in the present moment with the growing of my understanding of Emptiness.
--- In [email protected], "rewrisk" <rewrisk@...> wrote: > > Sorry to have to tell you this Matt but you will not survive your death. > Some people seem to think that life could only be fair if we are reincarnated > but they fail to recognise that if life was fair you would have to pay for > your advantages and not just your sins. If life is fair then it can't be a > gift. > Six years huh? > It only took me three and less than a year after I got serious about it. I do > not say this to boast only I wonder about you meditative technique? I suppose > if I include the time of my initial curiosity maybe four or so. > I felt great need though, likely this is the difference. > Still I would expect any person who regularly practised an effective form of > meditation to atleast have attained a sense of thier personal illusion. > > --- In [email protected], "mattmodrow" <fourforsure@> wrote: > > > > Myself, I do not feel that it is a matter of salvation. The matter, is the > > "great matter of birth and death." One of my favorite authors, Stephen > > Batchelor, in his book -Alone with others- says that the "aim" is for "the > > optimum mode of being." To me what this says is, that the aim of life > > would be living in awareness, as you grow and age through the years, > > hopefully you will become wiser. I recently had Dokusan with one of my > > teachers, and she said that Zen practice and enlightenment is kind of like > > in those old cartoons, when someone is about to receive a gift and they are > > told NOT to look. In the cartoons, we always see them peeking with one eye > > at the gift before it is given to them. So, I have been practicing since > > 2006, I have never had an "awakening experience," and that is fine with me. > > Zazen has taught me many things, and I know not to "peek," or in other > > words, to conceptualize what I think enlightenment is and then strive for > > it. Rather, I just live my daily life, always, constantly coming back to > > direct experience. > > > ------------------------------------ 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/
