I won't give up until Joe cries Uncle. What a weird phrase that is. Sent from my iPhone
On May 1, 2013, at 9:44 PM, "bobthomas564" <[email protected]> wrote: > AGREE can we end this NOW? > > --- In [email protected], "Joe" <desert_woodworker@...> wrote: > > > > William, > > > > The only certainty is through effective practice, learned properly from a > > good teacher and practiced face to face with said teacher, and with a group. > > > > I started the conversation, yes, in praise of practice and recovering our > > full human inheritance. Not as a long backward look at Human evolution. > > Practice is in the present, and there's no time like it. If the moment is > > not ripe now, then when? > > > > The discussion of the use of reason and figuring-out as far as awakening is > > concerned is already long since settled: it does not enter, and hinders. > > After awakening, one uses everything freely, provided one continues to > > practice. But for awakening, reason is moot, and instead creates a blockage > > when invoked. One must drop it, and one easily does, if one keeps to one's > > method of practice and allows the body to save its life. Methods are > > compassionately passed from teacher to student: that is the only way to > > learn. > > > > To borrow a figure from Edgar, our practice is "99 percent" physical. > > > > There is no mind. > > > > The feeling that one is "reasoning", and "figuring-out" in Zen, is engaging > > in illusion. One has to drop all such by keeping to one's method of > > practice. That method of practice is not "thinking". > > > > But, neither books nor internet Fora, however kindly and caring, can teach > > how to practice. Fortunately, there are teachers. They have the bottom line > > on the subject, because they embody it, which is what we should do, and can > > do. > > > > --Joe > > > > > William Rintala <brintala@> wrote: > > > > > > And yet you are the one who started this conversation. It has been my > > > understanding that the primary message of Buddhism was addressing > > > suffering. What it is and how to stop it. The Buddha was not searching or > > > teaching ways to survive crises but to end suffering. I can agree that > > > survivability might be enhanced by being fully in the moment but I see no > > > certainty of it. In my readings of Zen the moment of Death is often > > > addressed with an awareness and > > often a smile. The strawberry is so sweet. > > > >
