hey mike..finally dawn has come...took you a while eh?... not being truly human..yes yes yes yes..we made it ...that's it..you get the point..!..merle
Bill!, I like what the Dalai Lama said. "Kindness is my religion". I take this to mean that acting with compassion is open to any religion and not just restricted to one (such as arguing that only being awake to Buddha Nature is the Truth). If we act with compassionate awareness of what we're doing, then I'd say *that* is being truly human. The examples Merle keeps giving of wanton cruelty are examples of *not* being truly human. Mike Sent from Yahoo! Mail for iPad ________________________________ From: Bill! <[email protected]>; To: <[email protected]>; Subject: Re: [Zen] rise above to where? Sent: Tue, Jun 25, 2013 9:22:31 AM 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 >
