Mike, I'm not disagreeing with your basic premise, that humans are the only sentient beings we know of that create "a spiritual or religious path which transcends their basic instincts".
This "spiritual or religious path" is of course delusional, and maybe 'transcending your basic instincts' is not really such a good idea. I do think this topic is pertinent to zen because I think zen practice is geared to reduce delusions, at least the attachment to them, and allow you to act more spontaneously on what might be called your 'basic instincts'. In zen it's called 'Buddha Nature' and 'Original Nature'. In Ch'an Buddhism it's called the 'Tao'. How do you think Buddha Nature/Original Nature/Tao differ from a human's 'basic instincts'? ...Bill! --- In [email protected], uerusuboyo@... wrote: > > Bill!,<br/><br/>I'd say the point here is that only Man takes these ultimate > issues and have created paths to follow out of them. Whether these paths are > illusions or delusions is beside the point (in regards to this ongoing > thread). No other animal has created a spiritual or religious path which > transcends their basic instincts. Man alone is unique in this regard. > <br/><br/>Mike<br/><br/><br/>Sent from Yahoo! Mail for iPad > ------------------------------------ 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/
