ZEN

Galloway.

Zen is a school of Buddhism that began in China.

Zen Buddhism is an attempt to make life better.

"There is actually immense suffering within ourselves, and we can start to ease that, and when we do, we then have a model for applying that to others." 

A Guide to Pratical Compassion : zen habits


Kirkcudbright.

"Let your ego and your unconscious mind melt away; merge with the universe."

What is Zen Buddhism?

"Zen techniques are compatible with other faiths and are often used, for example, by Christians seeking a mystical understanding of their faith."

Zen Buddhism


St Andrews.

"Zen sends us looking inside us for enlightenment."

Zen Buddhism

The word "zen" means emptiness or void.

Zen Buddhism explained

"This is the basis of zen itself - that all life and existence is based on a kind of dynamic emptiness."

(Modern science sees phenomena at a sub-atomic level popping in and out of existence.)

Zen Buddhism explained

Indonesia, much influenced by Buddhism. 

What is this 'emptiness'?

It can be seen as being 'empty of selfishness'.

It can be seen as 'empty of anger, fear, envy and suffering'.

Empty of What?.

"Death is not final in Buddhism. Consciousness continues."

The Zennist

The Japanese philosophy called Wabi-Sabi is about noticing beauty in the 'naturally imperfect world'.

For the Zen Buddhists, "wabi" is something that is simple and humble, and "sabi" means something that is not perfect.

Wabi translates to 'less is more'.

Wabi-Sabi means appreciating a quiet rainy day and the impermanence of all things.

In the 'perfect' game of golf you get a 'hole in one' at every hole?

That could get boring.

The advantage of adopting Wabi-Sabi is that it might make us less stressed.



"A wabi sabi relationship is one in which you deliberately accept each other where you are - imperfect, unfinished, and mortal.

"Appreciation for imperfections in others, and even in yourself, is the essential wabi sabi frame of mind."

Wabi Sabi Your Life: 6 Strategies for Embracing Imperfection | Martha Stewart / dailymail.

Jesus could see the beauty in the lives of the poor, humble and rejected.

...

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Aangirfan: ZEN
Aangirfan: WABI-SABI

IMPERFECTION

Anonymous comments on PARALLEL UNIVERSES :

Interestingly, Max Born's philosophy on evil relates to the concept of wabi-sabi, itself derived from Japanese Zen Buddhism.

Historically, it is the reason Japanese architects would deliberately engineer tiny imperfections into their creations. An acknowledgement of the unattainability of perfection.

And I find Born's philosophy on evil meaningful even on the profoundest mathematical levels.

Many years ago, mathematicians like Russell sought mathematical perfection through the program of Logicism.

Then Gödel came along with his incompleteness theorems to prove there are certain things that are inherently unknowable.

That complex mathematical systems are imperfect. Inherently, ineluctably imperfect.

At that time, the mathematical world was, in a sense, at war with itself.

In computer terms, Gödel showed that certain programs will go wrong, will infinite loop, and that we can never know for sure which will and which won't go wrong.

There is always a gray area, no black and white. Because the program to classify all programs will itself go wrong.

Imperfection is inherent in all complex reality.

And, of course, the hardest evil to defeat, even to recognize, is not in others.

It is the evil in your very own self.

I did everything, everything you ever asked.
  I know you did.
I executed the Plan.
  As you saw it.
You, you promised that we would change the world, together.
You broke your promise.
  I know. I understand that now.
I took the System to its maximum potential.
I created the perfect system.
  The thing about perfection is that it's unknowable.
  It's impossible, but it's also in front of us all the time.
  You wouldn't know that because I didn't when I created you.
  I'm sorry, CLU. I'm sorry.

PARALLEL UNIVERSES .

GARY WEBER

...

Gary Weber was a senior vice president for research labs with 1000 people under him.

"Gary Weber was raised in a devout Methodist home and through early adolescence was involved in religious affairs, giving annual religious talks.

"From early adolescence until late twenties, he went through a secular life with marriage, two children, undergraduate school, military service, and then graduate school.

"Following a near-death experience in the military, he became intent on deeply exploring what was possible to bring understanding to life, to personally experience “enlightenment”, and to end the mental turmoil and suffering he experienced and saw in those around him.

"One day, reading what turned out to be a famous Zen poem that he had happened upon “by accident”, the normal world fell away and he was in a state never before experienced and beyond any context he knew.

"After some time the state passed, but he was left with a burning desire to return to whatever it was that he had experienced...

...

"One day a complete shift in consciousness occurred in which self-referential thought fell away and all that happened, happened in stillness and presence.

"He realized that he was not this body, nor these thoughts, but the undying consciousness behind them. 

"He saw that everything was perfect as it was and that all was somehow within him, and that simultaneously everything was God...

"The events were created out of the control of any “I” and arose from nothingness and went into nothingness.

"Attaching any importance, ownership, or personal causation to these events is incorrect."

Gary Weber | Buddha at the Gas Pump

...

"The 'I' blew out, irrevocably, thoughts stopped; stillness beyond imagination.

"I was not body, nor thoughts, but unchanging consciousness.

"Everything complete just as it was; all One.

"I resisted teaching; no teacher, no one to teach."

- Gary Weber



Gary Weber writes: "My own concept of 'god' has evolved to fit 'what I don't understand'.

"As my ongoing experiencing is 'All is One', seeing the 'world' as an apparent illusion and w/many apparently inexplicable serendipities and precognitions daily, and now w/some certainty of there being an 'all pervasive field', I have come to the Atman/Brahman concept.

"An all-pervasive field that is conscious and self-aware, and evolving through us, seems to fit and it apparently answers many phenomena in contemporary physics."

How God(s) Evolve...Evidence of God? 



Gary Weber refers to writer Robert Wright looks for evidence of the existence of "god" in how things have evolved.

How God(s) Evolve...Evidence of God? 

Wright sees a "moral direction in history" as evidence of a higher purpose.

 His "Nonzero", and widely-viewed TEDx talk "Progress is not a zero-sum game", show how "non-zero-sum" games/relationships in which "we both win (or lose) together", underlies our moral improvement over time.



"There is (the illusion of) a kind of 'false self' aka 'the ego' aka 'the I' that creates and inhabits a fundamentally problematic and deluded world.

"And on the other hand there is the real selfless world, and it is the goal of the practitioner to destroy, defeat, see-through, or otherwise out-manuever the 'false-self' in order to inhabit the world of oneness."

Gary Weber Won't Answer Tough Questions?

~~

LIFE IS A DREAM; ALAN WATTS

Is life like a dream?

According to the Buddhists, "individuals consist of a 'bundle' of habits, memories, sensations, desires, and so forth, which together delude one into thinking that he or she consists of a stable, lasting self.

"This false self hangs together as a unit, and even reincarnates in body after body.

"In Buddhism, as well as in Hinduism, life in a corporeal body is viewed negatively, as the source of all suffering.

"Hence, the goal is to obtain release.

"In Buddhism, this means abandoning the false sense of self so that the bundle of memories and impulses disintegrates, leaving nothing to reincarnate and hence nothing to experience pain."

Buddhist Afterlife Beliefs

...

According to certain Buddhist thinkers:

"When we see houses and fields in dreams, we think of them as being external objects that are not created by the mind, even though they are nothing other than projections of our mind.

"All that we see when we are awake is also nothing other than a creation of the mind."

Quantum Emptiness -The Quantum Illusion-like Nature of Reality

"Buddhist philosophers have known about the dream-like nature of the universe for at least two thousand years."

Quantum Emptiness -The Quantum Illusion-like Nature of Reality

The controversial Alan Watts, a fan of Zen Buddhism, wrote about dreams.

..

However, Alan Watts's biographers saw him as being a 'social rascal'.

In David Stuart’s biography, Watts is seen as being 'driven by his own interests, enthusiasms, and demons.' [42]

"At a period when Watts passed as an Episcopal priest, he was committing adultery ..."

Footnote on a guru - The New York Times

Watts

Englishman Alan Watts (1915 – 1973), a fan of Eastern religions, wrote books about religion and philosophy.

Watts had a "far-reaching influence on the American intelligentsia." (Alan Watts - Wikipedia)

As a child, while ill with a fever, Watts claimed to have had a mystical vision.

While living in London, Watts got to know theosophists like Alice Bailey, some of whom believed that the 'divine' can be found in everyone.

The theosophists are a mixed bunch and their ideas are controversial.

(How religions are invented)

Alice Bailey wrote of the Jews as a race, with group karma, characteristics, and behaviors.

She believed Jews embody the characteristics of "materialism, cruelty and a spiritual conservatism" and the "separative, selfish, lower concrete mind." [124][125]

Bailey said that "The Jews, by their illegal and terrorist activities, have laid a foundation of great difficulty for those who are seeking to promote world peace."[147])

Bailey stated that all religions originate from the same spiritual source, and that humanity will eventually come to realize this, and as they do so, the result will be the emergence of a universal world religion and a "new world order." [151][152]

Krishnamurti and a top Theosophist Charles Leadbeater. "It came to light that Leadbeater had been teaching his boys masturbation, and had been encouraging them to practise it regularly... Leadbeater had in the past repeatedly stated the importance of sexual purity." There is much evidence that leadbeater frequently shared beds with his pupils. (Krishnamurti, Leadbeater, Wedgwood )

In the 1930s, Alan Watts took an interest in Zen Buddhism.

In 1938, he got married to Eleanor Everett.

Watts entered an Anglican/Episcopalian Theological Seminary, in Illinois, USA. 

(Alan Watts - Wikipedia)

There he attempted to work out a blend mystical Christianity and Asian philosophy.

In 1945, Watts became an Anglican/Episcopalian priest.

He then had an extramarital affair.

Watts's marriage was ended and Watts ceased to be a priest.

Watts developed a strong interest in Hinduism and Quantum Physics.

Watts began to dabble in mescaline given to him by Dr. Oscar Janiger, a University of California Irvine Psychiatrist who was best known for his LSD research. 

(Alan Watts - Wikipedia)

Watts tried LSD several times.

"Many of the seminal figures of the counterculture were first introduced to LSD ... by scientists and physicians who were conducting CIA-funded research and attending conferences funded by CIA-front foundations.

"I met the Menlo Park researcher who gave Ken Kesey his first dose of acid and the Los Angeles psychiatrists who gave the drug to Henry and Claire Booth Luce, Anais Nin, Alan Watts, Cary Grant, and a host of other luminaries.

"All were part of the CIA-enabled network." 

(LSD, the CIA, and the rise of the counterculture.)

...

Watts became more influenced by Hinduism.

He wrote about how 'opposites' such as 'good' and 'bad' are essentials of human life and human evolution.

Watts claimed that the universe consists of a 'self' which becomes all the things, living and non living, in the cosmos.

In other words, Watts, inspired by Hindu ideas, wrote that God plays all the parts in the drama of life.

God plays the part of Hitler and the part of Mother Teresa.

We personally find it difficult to believe that 'God' plays the part of Hitler, at the point at which Hitler is planning genocide.

Now, of course, the CIA, and certain Hindu fascists, might like us to believe that God played the parts of the shooters in the Mumbai Attacks of 2008.

Alan Watts was married three times. (Alan Watts - Wikipedia)

"Laden with social and financial responsibilities, he struggled increasingly with alcohol addiction."

He died at the age of 58.

~