Hell Merle, mind is in the mind! *L*
KG
On 8/27/2012 1:42 AM, Merle Lester wrote:
glenn..hell is in the mind..merle
Hi, Joe,
I resonate with your answer to the koan.
I used to say that if god wanted to send me to hell, he would make me
move for eternity (I'm glad to be in a home I plan to live in for many
years; and yet, everything is impermanent . . .) Hell is a difficult
thing for me to talk about; it still has too much Christian residue
sticking to it. There's plenty of hell on earth; no need for one in
the here-after, whatever that is. And yes, a bodhisattva chooses to
enter that hell every day because s/he accepts whatever the universe
brings that day, which may be blessed (heaven), suffering (hell)
and/or neutral.
Glenn
--- In [email protected] <mailto:Zen_Forum%40yahoogroups.com>,
"Joe" <desert_woodworker@...> wrote:
>
> Glenn,
>
> It might be "a sin to say", from one perspective, but ...some have
even vowed to go to hell, for the good it may do for OTHERS, there.
>
> Of course, this -- or these -- is/are the Buddhist Hell(s), not the
Christian one. But the Buddhist hells don't sound very cushy and
comfortable, either. Knife-mountains, where everyone must climb these
hills covered in razor-sharp blades. Etc.
>
> The one that most made me squirm, as an adolescent, was the made-up
"Buddhist-Hell-of-Perpetual-Dentistry". Ouch. Nightmare stuff. ;-[
> We don't find this one in the Sutras, though, fortunately. ;-)
>
> Some Buddhist bodhisattvas vow not only to put off their own final
and complete enlightenment, but to "do time" in hell to comfort
others, where "time" means Eternity. But what's eternity compared to
just a couple of kalpas?
>
> In my best moments, I too have vowed to go to hell, feeling that
I've known enough of pain and pleasure to be done with both of them,
and just in order to help and comfort others, and help them to practice.
>
> Well, we'll see about the final (?) disposition of my spirit (?).
>
> Yes, is there a spirit? And anything which survives this life?
>
> Maybe "survives" is not the operative concept. Is there any residue?
I think, "Yes". It is the original stuff, of which we are only
differentiated piles of.
>
> Old Alan Watts had a beautiful phrase I loved. He spoke about the
Absolute, or about original nature. He called it, "The WHICH than
which there is no whicher." Puts a smile on my face to this day, 40
years after. But that's a short time, in the scheme of things.
>
> "The Ten Thousand Things return to the One; but what does the One
return to?"
>
> Why, to the Ten Thousand Things, I say. That's what's so friendly
about It.
>
> (but that's "my" answer to the koan; not yours) ;-)
>
> --Joe
>
> > "Glenn Rogers" <rgthiessen@> wrote:
> >
> > Thanks for this, Joe. I forget that it wasn't too long ago that I
struggled between the poles of the revealed and mystical traditions.
>
