do what you will mel..tis your choice..you are the captain of your own ship...we are all on a destination... the journey so to speak...take it easy..don't forget to breathe and laugh...happy wandering through the maze..merle
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ MEL: That is quite true..there are those who are holy, and those who are holy..and irrespective of whatever religious inclination they follow. Christianity and its 2 other cousins from the Oriental Near East have so much to offer, but only through study of their respective scriptures. Each of these Big 3 from the above mentioned region have so much to offer if time is taken to examine as such..but how much time does one have? The Buddhist writings themselves are so vast that it would take more than a lifetime to cover them As I was sitting typing here, a young and blind-drunk Pacific Islander kid of no more than 15 or 16 (compared to my 50) ranted on about how much of a 'holy man' as such he was. So it's quite true. The kid looks like a church-going type who would never dream of telling his mother where to go(SWEARING, in other words), but he looked messed up. I've seen him in his high school uniform with the rest of the other regular street gangs in the mid-afternoon peak hour after school, and that to me tells that he can read (including scripture) instead of just relying on the drivel from the pulpit. Without that full scripture knowledge and acceptance of both OLD and NEW, how can one know what this god they speak of wants? I can continue being a Quaker and attend the Sunday morning meetings, and then be with the Sangha at the local Soto Zen temple in the evenings. Which way should one go? One has to eventually make the choice....and that's something the Big 3 above makes pretty clear from the beginning. I'll be truthfull here and say there is beauty in being a Quaker who lives life according to scripture, but there's much less stress and indeed more peace in the world of Zen...even without reading the Buddhist writings. I've read up to First Book of Kings, but I've only read ZEN MIND BEGINNERS MIND (quite a few times) from the Buddhist side. Sometimes, less is indeed better ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MIKE: Merle, Guess I met too many Christians. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MEL: And this is just me personally, but the problem with a lot of evangelistics from all the Big 3 is that they seem to be more interested in filling not only the house and yards at both sides, but the whole street and even neighborhood. First of all, one must clean one's own house before filling it with anything, and sometimes, less is better. A clear space....Buddha(or Tao if you prefer)... ________________________________ From: Merle Lester <[email protected]> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, 4 August 2012, 0:58 Subject: Re: [Zen] Samadhi godfathers, mike..you live in a world where there are millions of christians and your not the least interested or curious to find out the nitty gritty of it all....... why?..merle ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ MEL: The one thing that so many Christians out there forget is to study scripture, and that means both OLD, and NEW TESTAMENTS(and for the keen, they may add APOCRYPHA if they wish). My understanding of that 'nitty gritty' as such is the reading material itself. Without the study, one is basically just one of the mindless herd
