Edgar, First of all, I thought "Zen/reality is all" (they're your words not mine), so you've contradicted yourself. Second, this is just a reworking of the oldest Descarte joke in told by undegraduates in philosophy departments. I don't think a smiley face is gonna help your sense of humour much, but here goes.. : )
Mike ________________________________ From: Edgar Owen <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, 23 November 2012, 17:33 Subject: Re: [Zen] "thoughts, pensees, Meditations, and the Cogito" 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 > > > > > >
