Joe, I empathize with you because I too struggle sometimes over what words or phrases to use to describe experience. It starts from language being dualistic and experience (Buddha Nature) being hoistic; but the difficulty is also compounded by the different meanings the same words have to different people.
I agree 'empty mind' could be interpreted as 'spaciness', although the more I think about this I'm not sure if that's such a bad thing. If you could just tweak 'spaciness' to mean 'naive' it would almost fit; at least it would almost fit for my purposes. I use the term 'illusion' a lot but actually 'illusion' has a heavy visual connotation. I've thought about 'delusion' which is more applicable to thoughts and therefore more closely describes what I mean to say - but 'delusion' also carries a heavy connotation of mental illness. I don't mean that. When your discriminating mind (intellect) creates 'illusions' or 'delusions' it's probably functioning properly. I tried out the term 'mental concept' for a while but discarded that. It's redundant also. There are no 'non-mental concepts'. I guess I could just distill it down to 'concepts'. That works for me but I'm not sure if it communicates effectively to others. Oh well...I guess that's a bog part of the reason I participate in this forum - to try to develop a better way to communicate experience - Buddha Nature. All for now...Bill! --- In [email protected], "Joe" <desert_woodworker@...> wrote: > > Bill!, > > I eschew use of the term "an empty mind" because it could imply -- just on > the off chance, at times, in some readers -- a "spacey" mentality (such as > Astronomers have?). Mere blankness, I mean. > > But using it as a technical term, and avoiding the incursion of the > colloquial connotation, I accept it, and can agree. > > A mind full of concepts, or even full of just one, is not necessarily Zen > Mind, and most likely is not. > > No, I see no disagreement, Bill!. > > --Joe > > PS (It's not like me to quote aphorisms, or out-of-context teachings by > others. But today is an exception. I'm not myself today). ;-) > > > "Bill!" <BillSmart@> wrote: > > > > Joe, > > > > What you wrote below is fine and I agree with it. I also think an 'empty > > mind' is compatible to everything written below. I do not think a mind > > full of concepts (illusions) is compatible. > > > > ...Bill! > ------------------------------------ Current Book Discussion: any Zen book that you recently have read or are reading! Talk about it today!Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
