On 7/27/05, Spider63 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I cannot
> understand why anyone that adamantly refuses to read anything Zen or
> Buddhist would be on a Zen Forum.
The answer is simple -- we live in an anti-intellectual age (some
people call it the Dharma-ending age).
Zen, when approached superficially, can be very seductive to the
anti-intellectual crowd. "Abandon words, abandon thinking", that must
sound like heavenly music to thick-headed people. And Zen appears to
be the most fierce advocate of the anti-intellectual attitude. No
wonder so many bozos litter Zen meditation halls.
Ah, but how deceptive that lure is. In truth, all the accomplished Zen
masters throughout history have been intellectuals par excellence.
Even Hui Neng, the allegedly 'illiterate' Sixth Patriarch, was an
awesome intellectual, whose mental and intellectual prowess was beyond
most mortals.
It would be absolutely impossible to make any meaningful progress in
Zen practice without engaging and exercising one's intellect to the
fullest capacity.
People confuse the absolute need to transcend one's intellect and
think that it means 'to abandon the intellect'. How unintelligent.
Current Book Discussion: Appreciate Your Life by Taizan Maezumi Roshi
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