Mike, This post of yours seems to have no connection with reality. Was it supposed to be a joke? If so please add a smily so readers can tell the difference between bad jokes and delusions! :-)
Edgar On Nov 23, 2012, at 12:30 PM, mike brown wrote: > > Joe, > > Asked if he believes that it is possible to survive for 6 years on yam leaves > and rice, Edgar answered "I think not" and promptly disappeared. > > Mike > > From: Joe <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Sent: Friday, 23 November 2012, 4:56 > Subject: [Zen] "thoughts, pensees, Meditations, and the Cogito" > > > Group, > > I'm interested in your "pensees". > > Rene Descartes was the French philosopher who published his "Pensees" to > great acclaim; it has been an influential study in Western Philosophy, and > elsewhere, for centuries. > > The book, "Thoughts", or "Meditations" is the record of his attempts to find > what he calls "clear and distinct" ideas. He tried to begin with the most > basic thought, or idea: he looked for what he could absolutely not DOUBT. He > looked, and he looked. Some would say he meditated on it (but not in the Zen > way, probably). This is why the title is almost always translated as > "Meditations" in English. But we know what the translators mean (if we can > remember to the time before we began meditation practice). I think of the > book as "Thoughts", or "Pensees". > > Descartes writes that when he engages in his meditations, he finds that what > he cannot doubt is that he "thinks" (probably many of us do, too, when we > meditate). > > He took it a step further, and deduced that, because he thinks, he exists. > > The "cogito" is the famous proposition he coined: > > "Cogito, ergo sum." > > "I think, therefore I am." > > Now, a question for the group is, how does an awakened person view the cogito? > > Or, what would an awakened person say, instead?, if asked to find something > that he/she could not DOUBT. > > Don't all say "Mu", at once, though. I'll worry it's a stampede. > > And, is there something like the cogito that an awakened person would compose? > > --Joe > > > > >
