--- mackkup <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> lol, round and round we go where we stop nobody
> knows. i am in no
> position to comment on what true happiness is for i
> have not achieved
> this. i can only speculate and quote what i have
> read. my fear in
> doing this is that you will come back with another
> question or
> comment that requires one to be "enlightened".
Don't worry, I'm not that flippant.
The reason I ask those pointed questions is to try and
bring to everyone's attention the necessity of
overcoming, or transcending, one's intellectual
capacity. I have noticed a very rampant epidemics in
the Buddhist circles (and especially in the Zen
circles) towards avoiding any intellectual activity.
People seem to hurl themselves into one or another
form of Buddhist practice as a relief from the burden
of having to think for themselves. They hear that
Buddhist practice and teaching are beyond thinking,
and they welcome that, with a sigh of relief.
What they don't realize, though, is that the reason
why Buddhist practice is beyond thinking is precisely
because it leads the practitioners to the very limits
of what is possible to achieve via using one's
intellect.
Only when a person has tasted his/her own absolute
limits of intellectual capacity, is that person ready
for the breakthrough, that is, for progressing towards
transcending the intellect. But not before that.
Abandoning one's intellectual propensity half-way
through is the worst possible thing one could do. Such
half-baked solution produces pathetic figures such as
the ones we can observe on many of the public forums
dedicated to Buddhist practice. These people have
rejected their meager intellect with gusto, and
embraced some new age mumbo-jumbo with a vengeance.
Thus, their first order of the day is to make sure
that no trace of intellectual activity ever gets
allowed. They attack anyone who teaches this approach
with a zeal commensurable only with the zeal found in
the worst fundamentalists.
> i can
> share past experiences and what i have learned is
> that most people
> give the appearance of being a happy person on the
> outside but are
> very unhappy on the inside. i should know for i am
> one of those
> people but i am in the process of changing that. i
> have learned that
> i am responsible for my feelings which means nobody,
> nothing or
> situation makes me feel any emotion, i do.
You are right. It's only that I think your diagnosis
is a bit off. I wouldn't say that most people give the
appearance of being happy on the outside while
actually being unhappy on the inside. The situation is
completely reverse -- most people give the appearance
of being unhappy on the ouside, but they are actually
happy on the inside.
The Buddhist training is devised to make us realize
that.
Alex
=====
No karma was produced during the composition of this letter
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