You have made it clear Alex, your attachment to intellect. With so much invested, I am not suprised it is a hard thing to let go of. I understand and have lived your position -- perhaps much more thorougly than you. What do you think is meant by the Great Don't Know? Rod
________________________________ From: Alex Bunard [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Mon 2/14/2005 1:00 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Zen] Suggestions for reading? --- 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 __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Get it on your mobile phone. http://mobile.yahoo.com/maildemo Noble Eightfold Path: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration, Right Livelihood Yahoo! Groups Links [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> What would our lives be like without music, dance, and theater? Donate or volunteer in the arts today at Network for Good! http://us.click.yahoo.com/WwRTUD/SOnJAA/i1hLAA/S27xlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Noble Eightfold Path: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration, Right Livelihood Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZenForum/ <*> 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/
