Hi Joe, I felt your heart. A bow to you. JM On 6/23/2012 8:36 AM, Joe wrote:
Well, P2, And nonetheless there are indications that many of us have done our homework, I'll tell. To assume otherwise as you do is uninformed: which is to say, ignorant. Not the Ignorance that Buddhists talk about, but "small I". Stick around a while and come to know some of the ways of expression that you'll find on this board and others. And keep your hammer-head on the handle of Ash. To the basic thread: I won't say you owe me or the Group an answer, but I replied to you that we WILL gain a clear sense of the nature of sentient beings when we awaken, and I cautioned that to "speak too plainly" about the content of this part of the experience may de-fuse some of the surprise and impact of it in us, which is to say its power to transform us and society. Zen is the "Sudden" School. Zen does not rely on writings. (All the metric-tons of Zen writings reiterate this). Again, in a practice situation, such murmurings might be helpful to a practitioner, but the audience would indeed be a select one, such as the folks at the Fifth Patriarch's place, where Hui Neng shelled rice. And, granted that words to the effect you emphasize are used in the PLATFORM SUTRA, they can't be counted on to help anyone, and indeed, in the wrong hands can harm. The PLATFORM SUTRA itself is almost "not Orthodox", being the only writing of Chinese origin in the entire Buddhist canon, as you must know and appreciate. I would say, trust in the SUTRA, though. And in the traditions of the Ch'an and Zen sect (not uniform by any means, and populated by sub-sects of stellar brilliance). Now, what is that tradition? It is a tradition of practice. It is not a tradition of teaching, nor of intellectual understanding. The SUTRA emphasizes practice, and tells the story of a practitioner's breakthrough with his teacher. All the content of the SUTRA are in the breakthrough. I think we are urged, by the power of the writing, to have that experience, too, and undergo that transformation. The account of the content of the experience is of little value, UNLESS YOU CAN FIND SOME WAY OF PRACTICING with it that is effective. But I urge that you will need a teacher to do this with, and would advise that you ought not do it on your own. And probably, you should stop spreading documents that have the look of official-dom, stamped with an HTML image seal, especially since they have the power to do harm. I'll let this thread go at that, although I am interested in your repl(y)(ies) to me such as you may have, however belated and tardy as this is. Take a while for any dust or ire to settle, and reply, or email me directly. But I am sure that there are others here, too, who would like to hear from you in your words, and would value what you have in mind. Go ahead and post it as an ordinary post: it's tedious to read pronouncements and critiques that are wrapped in gaudy HTML trappings. Such costume-posing mitigates any message; this is something that many of us have given up by the end of our childhood; seeing it is embarrassing. With regards, --Joe > "pudgala2" <pudgala2@...> wrote: > > Bill! > > So far none of the replies in this thread contain any indication of > having read > or understood [snip]
