Dear List (to copy fudo's nice opening line, which I
liked):
Wow! What an amazing post. I must say I devoured it
with much pleasure.
Shit! Why wasn't this the very first post I read when
I got mysteriously hooked up with this group? That
would�ve totally changed the demeanor of my
participation. Talk about the bad timing.
Anyway, since I have been completely discredited on
this list, and since no one will ever take anything I
have to say seriously, I cannot contribute to this
scintillating discussion in a meaningful way. But, for
my own edification, I'll jump in anyway. And those
people who can't stand my guts should delete this post
anyway, so no harm done.
Let me first address the end of fudo's post:
> Nagrajuna was a Mahayana
> ancestor. He was a Zen ancestor as well. To bad
> that someone could
> spend 20 years studying his writings, and miss this
> essential point. I
> guess the finger was just too fat.
OK, this pertains directly to me, so I'll reply
directly: just because someone had spent 20 years
studying something, doesn�t mean that his study is
completed. There is always more to learn. Who's to say
when the threshold should occur? For some people, a
couple of seconds is enough to penetrate the teaching,
for others not even a couple of decades would suffice.
And I never claimed to be brilliant or anything. As a
matter of fact, it's the opposite � being quite dull,
it took me more than 15 years of sustained practice to
experience my first satori. Now, that's certainly not
something to write home about.
Luckily, thanks to you, I got a chance to explore
things further. Do you find that objectionable? Is the
fact that I'm not perfect the reason to kick me out?
But I had a hunch that I should be able to learn a lot
on this list And now things are slowly starting to
emerge from the woodwork. Great! I can't wait for
more�
Moving on to some finer points in fudo's sermon:
> Just get in the well designed boat that has been
> working well for 2500
> years (our practice) and ride it till you learn to
> steer, then join the
> crew and work your way up to captain if you wish. It
> is just fine to be
> an engineer, or a cook who feeds the crew, or
> whatever other niche you
> can fit in on the crew. One need not be the captain
> to make a
> contribution to the effort. You need to train your
> successor before you
> abandon your present post however, or the ferry
> might cease to operate.
I like this. This is a good example of intelligent,
reasonable preaching. Not only this particular
paragraph, but the entire post as well. Very well
thought out.
Now, Alex wouldn't be Alex if he didn't have a bone to
pick. You know me, you know what kind of an asshole I
am, so this certainly shouldn't come as a surprise to
you all.
My only tiny bone to pick with this orientation, as
proposed by fudo, is that I can imagine young
Shakyamuni Buddha receiving pretty much identical
sermon from one of his contemporaries. I can see him
listening to some sanyasin admonishing him: "What are
you trying to claim? What are you trying to discover?
You're still very green. Don't you know that this land
has been claimed thousands of years ago? Don't you
know that the entire infrastructure has already been
built? Haven't you read the Vedas, the Upanishads? All
you have to do is join the crew!"
Luckily for us, Shakyamuni was an asshole who decided
to pass on the offer. They made him an offer he
couldn't refuse, and he still gave them the finger. A
big fat finger. He was a genuine rebel.
Another beef I have to pick up with fudo is that, even
if the infrastructure has really been completely
finished (which is something I'm not really buying,
but anyway), there is absolutely no reason why we
should draw the line and be satisfied with it. Why,
some people are actually creative, and they enjoy
destroying worlds and creating everything anew.
Got a problem with that?
Alex
=====
No karma was produced during the composition of this letter
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