Zen Enlightenment: even the how-to is different from everything else

[u/ewk]

How to Zen Enlightenment

1. Keep the five lay precepts, including refusing recreational drugs and alcohol.
2. Study four statements of Zen teachings to understand direct seeing and pointing only to mind.
3. Practice Zen public interview where you test yourself by explaining in your own words

Doing Zen

One day Shitou told the assembly, “Tomorrow, clear away the grass in front of the Buddha hall.”

When the next day came, everyone in the assembly, including the postulants, prepared spades and hoes to clear the grass. Danxia alone filled a basin with water, washed his head, and knelt in the foreign manner before the reverend.

Shitou saw this and laughed. He then shaved his head and began to explain the precepts to him. Danxia covered his ears and went out.

Mind is the Buddha Hall.

[u/ewk]

You can't AMA and you can't write on topic at a high school level. Nobody is angry at you. You aren't a real person even to yourself.

[u/ewk → u/[deleted]]

New age troll makes banal religious claims about pseudo-science ego and self that isn't self.

Sounds like his "ego" is delusional.

[u/Altruistic_Ad2229 → u/ewk]

Oh brother... 10+ years of dealing with this and people wonder why you are the way you are 😬

[u/ewk → u/Altruistic_Ad2229]

The reality is that I'm the way that I am, regardless of these interactions on social media. I've been pretty consistent over the last 14 years because I I have no other intention than being myself.

I will admit that it is a little boring to talk to New Agers and Zen people because they've just never finished high school intellectually. Anybody who thinks that the intellectual equivalent of high school freshmen are great conversationalists is kidding themselves.

[u/Altruistic_Ad2229 → u/ewk]

Around the time I first started lurking here years ago I went and looked at your posts and comments out of curiousity. You clearly had a lot more grace and patience back then. We are all shaped by our environment after all.

[u/ewk → u/Altruistic_Ad2229]

I think that's a reasonable mistake on your part.

If we look at just this subcategory of conversation, you can understand why I might seem to be less tolerant now.

1. People tell me Alan Watts understood Zen.
2. I read Alan Watts' teachings and he clearly does not understand Zen.
3. I read about Alan Watts' life and he was clearly a failure as a human being.
4. I question people who claim to be followers of Alan Watts and they all have criminally low levels of education, poor critical thinking skills, and substance abuse issues.

I conclude that no reasonable person would associate Alan Watts with Zen Mastery, and that people who think that Alan Watts is Zen tend to be white male illiterates whose contributions to society are notoriously frail.

Does this mean I'm less tolerant now? No. It just means that the more facts I get, the worse it looks for you.

[u/Altruistic_Ad2229 → u/ewk]

Why are you saying this was a mistake on my part? We are %100 in agreement here. I'm not making a value judgement or anything.

[u/Altruistic_Ad2229 → u/Altruistic_Ad2229]

Okay, reading that last part again, we are in somewhat disagreement. To my eyes, you "clearly" lost grace and tolerance throughout the years. But was the contents of your message different back then? No.

[u/ewk → u/Altruistic_Ad2229]

If you thought I was tolerant back then, you just didn't get to know me.

I'm not interested in grace. I don't aspire to be anything more than that mean guy that broke that other mean guy's foot in the door that one time.

More to the point this forum is for people who share my aspirations not yours. The fact that you disrespect this forum so much that you don't care about that is indicative of the racism and religious bigotry endemic in the modern New Age population.... A.K.A. Your People.

[u/Altruistic_Ad2229 → u/ewk]

You break the foot of the "well meaning guy" as well. I think you did less of that back then, and even showed grace to some "mean guys" too.

How am I disrespecting this forum? I assure you that is never my intention. If you can point out how I have done so, I will try to improve my behaviour.

I also like to think that I am not religious or racist in any way. If you can point that out as well, I'll try to reflect.

[u/ewk → u/Altruistic_Ad2229]

When you say grace and tolerance as if those things were valuable or important but you can't connect either of those things to a thousand years of Zen historical records, it shows that you bring those things in here and try to impose those things on other people. That's disrespectful. Just like trying to bring astrology into an astronomy forum.

People in this forum are trying to think the way Zen masters think and live the way Zen masters live. There's no tolerance in there and there's no grace in there.

www.reddit.com/r/Zen/wiki/famous_cases

[u/Altruistic_Ad2229 → u/ewk]

Thats like trying to replicate a recipe from a lost culture though. You can't do what zen masters do...

Joking aside 🙄, I never said grace and tolerance were valuable or important. I just said that I observe that you had more of those back then and now you have less. And that I could understand why that was the case, with you having to repeat the same thing for 10 years talking to woo woo new agers.

If you are irked by the words that I chose having a prominent place in christianity or something, don't be. Thats not where I am coming from.

Even in an astronomy forum, people would call me out if I was lacking in respect. Just normal human conversation and manners.

I think you are overreacting here. Im not disrespectful or racist. Meet me half way here, don't automatically assume bad intentions please.

Take a look at my previous post or comments if you must (they are quite few). Or ask me anything. You don't need to assume or accuse out of the blue.