Hi Catalin -- good post -- brings everyone out of the woodwork. Without address details of your reasoning, which my own reasoning would disagree with on many points, let me address what I suspect is the underlying motive.
It is as though you've heard a description of zen -- and looked around to say "what is like that" and then found it in your cat sitting on the desk. If a cat is outside of enlightnemnt, then you can avoid ever acting like the cat. And if the cat is enlightened , that's easy, now you can just duplicate your cat, and think what would my cat think, what would my cat do, a nice conecptual package to refer to. It doesn't work this way, I'm afraid. Enlightenment being 3 pounds of flask, or a tall/short reed, or a cat, or a flower -- sure you may be able to see it, ALL of it, anywhere. If it could be categorized as sub-human or animalistic nature, a nueral state, or part of the brain, well we'd visit neruosurgeons and enter nirvana. Instead it is without boundaries or categorizations. You can act like a cat all day long, and probably not be any closer to a zen practice... Just the practice of acting like what you think being a cat is like... One step entirely the wrong direction. Rod Scholl -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Catalin Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2005 8:22 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [Zen] Enlightenment=Becoming an animal? In Zen practice there is a great emphasis on non-conceptual thinking, on "just sitting", "just eating", "just ....". Words are not priced and the same is true for reading scriptures (not for the scriptures themselves) instead of "just sitting". Knowledge is not considered a value, it's considered an obstacle. Someone is Enlightened when it sees things just as they are, not contaminated by egoist/conceptual thinking. Don't animals do exactly that? Animals don't have conceptual thinking, don't read, don't speak, don't waste time learning, and see things just as they are, their views are not spotted by conceptual thinking and false ideas because they don't have false ideas. When an animal sits it just sits, it doesn't think about the nature of life, about the universe, about yesterday or about tomorrow. Does that means that "Enlightenment" means regressing to an animal mind? Isn't an animal considered an inferior form of life because rebirth as an animal is considered a bad thing and an animal is considered not able to become Enlightened? So how (why?) can "Enlightenment" lead to becoming an animal when an animal cannot become Enlightened? And why do we have the capacity of conceptual thinking, the capacity to imagine, to think about future and about past, the ego and the capacity to use words if that is something bad that keeps us away of enlightenment? But without those capacities then we would be.....just hairless monkeys. My dog just sits now, is he now a Buddha doing zazen? Why mu? :) My head hurts :) ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease? Network for Good is THE place to support health awareness efforts! http://us.click.yahoo.com/UwRTUD/UOnJAA/i1hLAA/S27xlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Current Book Discussion: Appreciate Your Life by Taizan Maezumi Roshi. New or used at: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1570622280/ref=ase_actionh eroesc-20/002-4507763-9442460?v=glance&s=books> Yahoo! Groups Links ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease? Network for Good is THE place to support health awareness efforts! http://us.click.yahoo.com/UwRTUD/UOnJAA/i1hLAA/S27xlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Current Book Discussion: Appreciate Your Life by Taizan Maezumi Roshi. New or used at: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1570622280/ref=ase_actionheroesc-20/002-4507763-9442460?v=glance&s=books> 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/
