Tuesday 23 August 2016

ZEN

...

All the various religions and philosophies are like the curate's egg - good in parts.

Zen Buddhism is like the curate's egg.

"Buddha's first step toward enlightenment was his abandonment of his wife and child, and Buddhism (like Catholicism) still exalts male monasticism as the epitome of spirituality."


It was the custom in India for young men to leave home to seek enlightenment.

Buddha came back to his family after enlightenment.

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 now have a model for applying that to others. To one other person, to a thousand, or to the world."

A Guide to Practical Compassion : zen habits

"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

"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

...

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

...

Labels: , , , ,

4 Comments:

At 23 August 2016 at 12:56 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I saw Heaven once after ingesting about 10 grams of psychedelic mushrooms!

 
At 23 August 2016 at 14:07 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

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

I hope that is true, because I warm towards Buddhism in many ways but not its nihilism. This part of Buddhism gets difficult to understand but it seems to be based around each person's personal experience. They say the personality, or ego, does not survive and that makes sense. But it is hard to imagine objective consciousness, that there can be consciousness with an individual sensing it.

 
At 23 August 2016 at 15:11 , Anonymous Brabantian said...

What is key above is the reference to Buddha abandoning his wife & child

That is inexcusable, horrible & a perversion, it is a 'bad' tradition of India denying the good one

In fact, India has two diverging spiritual traditions - one more 'Vedic' promoting the richness of life and sensuality, Hinduism being the most sexual & married-life-centred of religions (Kama Sutra - Temples of Khajuraho)

Another Indian tradition - the false one, to many of us - is the more ascetic, desire-denying 'Shramana' tradition that branched into the stricter types of Buddhism, & allied to Roman Catholic Vatican 'priests' so often abusing children ...and beyond that very extremist fanatics such as the Cathars trying to deny sex and families to everyone

There is no excuse for abandoning one's spouse & children when the relationship is humanly workable ... one must never leave a spouse & children without support

The whole 'celibacy' tradition may well be a tool of devious gays seeking to dominate 'stupid' straight people with spouses & children

It is okay to be gay ... but not okay to pretend that you are 'better' than those married with children

And it is not 'okay' to sell celibacy as a 'higher state', that is a life-denying fraud

Meeting God via your spouse is at the height of superb ways to meet the divine ... no one should ever be lured into thinking a non-spousal life is 'better'

 
At 25 August 2016 at 14:01 , Anonymous azly said...

Money will no longer be the currency, religion and faith will. Question is, what do we believe.

 

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home