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Ardent is currently recovering quite well and is regaining strength on his right side, but is still unable to type. All posts are authored by him via dictation. Other contributions to the blog will be noted with their corresponding author.
Commented Apr 21, 2020 on The Tragedy of Mankind at The Zennist
The Tragedy of Mankind
The Buddha and Christ both represent self-knowing spirit. What both the Buddha and Christ realized was beyond the world of the flesh and for that matter all worldly things. Accordingly, nature is the vivid ignorance of spirit. It is only by transcending nature that spirit is fully realized. Each...
n. yeti:
Nothing you've said is an exaggeration. I wish it was.
Commented Jan 6, 2015 on Enlightenment is difficult and so is Buddhism at The Zennist
Enlightenment is difficult and so is Buddhism
The difficulty of comprehending Buddhism (I include Zen Buddhism) is, naturally proportional, with what enlightenment is. If we believe that enlightenment (samyaksambodha) is being always mindful of what we are doing in our daily lives instead of daydreaming, then the discourses of the Buddha ...
n. yeti:
Duke and my dad were friends. My dad was a professional boxer (light heavyweight). He boxed during the 1920s. Duke was a good teacher. You could say I grew up in a martial arts family (my uncle died in the ring).
Commented Jan 1, 2015 on Restoring our spiritual senses at The Zennist
Restoring our spiritual senses
The bulk of my friends are in their twenties. This gives me an opportunity to see how Zen or for that matter, Buddhism, will work in the future. What I have learned is that it is best to lean towards shamanism, in the sense of helping a person restore their spiritual senses. It is then much e...
n. yeti:
I studied Judo in 1955. My teacher was Duke Yoshimura. Great memories. I really meant all martial arts, but I was too lazy to list them all. lol
Commented Dec 31, 2014 on Restoring our spiritual senses at The Zennist
Restoring our spiritual senses
The bulk of my friends are in their twenties. This gives me an opportunity to see how Zen or for that matter, Buddhism, will work in the future. What I have learned is that it is best to lean towards shamanism, in the sense of helping a person restore their spiritual senses. It is then much e...
Electric Black:
In Buddhism we learn there are many realms of the gods or deva. These beings are quite real. And don't forget, the Buddha is the teacher of gods and men. Two things which might help you are Donald Hoffman's paper on Conscious Realism | http://www.cogsci.uci.edu/~ddhoff/ConsciousRealism2.pdf and the Lankavatara Sutra (it is free on the Internet). You can also follow Dr. Hoffman on YouTube. He is no crackpot, but a full professor. Fundamentally, there is no physical world. It is mind or consciousness generated. You are a conscious agent whose life (or lives) is infinite; not a living hunk of meat whose life terminates with the end of the temporal meat body. Ultimately, you must see that all things are Mind-only; moreover they are configurations of discrimination. It is a tall order but certainly doable.
Commented Dec 30, 2014 on Death can be vanquished at The Zennist
Death can be vanquished
I have said this before, in so many words, that the truth of materialism is nihilism which is saying that life is, fundamentally, meaningless. It is not difficult to see this if one is not immersed and drowning in materialism; who has no mind left by which to see anything else. The most aston...
Electric Black:
There are light-bringers but they don't—how should I say it—waste their empowerments on those who have not first attained one-pointedness of Mind.
Sadly, most people are almost evil to the bone. And when they detect the light (unconsciously, of course) they go after you with a vengeance. It is something out of a Philip K. Dick novel/movie.
The puthujjana social order wants to keep entrapping us in rebirth. It is all about maintaing delusion, hostility, and worldly desire. But if a few black dragons come into the world, this evil begins to destroy itself. The lies are brought to the surface, and compassion (spiritual light) begins to grow — and even the ghosts are happy.
Commented Dec 30, 2014 on Death can be vanquished at The Zennist
Death can be vanquished
I have said this before, in so many words, that the truth of materialism is nihilism which is saying that life is, fundamentally, meaningless. It is not difficult to see this if one is not immersed and drowning in materialism; who has no mind left by which to see anything else. The most aston...
Electric Black:
It sort of late to ask me such a question — I have to cut through a lot of your presuppositions which is not easy. But suffice it to say there is no big blank as the nihilists hope. There is another body, the manomaya body, the body made of will/spirit. The Nikayas speak of it as does the Lankavatara Sutra.
I have shown my disciples (airyasavaka) the way whereby they call into being out of this [corporeal] body [yet] another body of the mind’s creation (rûpim manomayam), complete in all its limbs and members and with transcendental faculties (abhinindriyam). — MN 2.17
Commented Dec 29, 2014 on Death can be vanquished at The Zennist
Death can be vanquished
I have said this before, in so many words, that the truth of materialism is nihilism which is saying that life is, fundamentally, meaningless. It is not difficult to see this if one is not immersed and drowning in materialism; who has no mind left by which to see anything else. The most aston...
Electric Black:
Check out the following: O. H. De A. Wijesekera, The Concept of Vinnana in Theravada Buddhism, [Journal of the American Oriental Society 84.3 (1964): 254--259].
Commented Dec 29, 2014 on A night at the pub at The Zennist
A night at the pub
Last night, I was talking with some of my graduate student friends at our local pub. I would call them believers in the theory that consciousness is generated by brain tissue. By contrast I am one of those who says, “Brains come from consciousness” when we look at the world from its absolute s...
Midazolam is also a very effective date rape drug. Kate Cox of The Sun-Herald writes (snip):
"It is very fast-acting, and very rapidly absorbed through mucous membranes. It blocks out your memory from even before you got it, so you go fuzzy and you don't remember anything."
Although they generally remain awake, police fear that many victims may fail to come forward because of this amnesiac effect.
Other drugs, such as ecstasy and alcohol, may also be mixed with the drug, making it difficult to identify."
Commented Dec 29, 2014 on A night at the pub at The Zennist
A night at the pub
Last night, I was talking with some of my graduate student friends at our local pub. I would call them believers in the theory that consciousness is generated by brain tissue. By contrast I am one of those who says, “Brains come from consciousness” when we look at the world from its absolute s...
Gui Do:
You are a secular Buddhist which means you have no idea what Buddhism or Zen Buddhism truly teaches, especially, when it comes to rebirth. Arrogant westerners like yourself tend not to know that there is a transmigrant in Buddhism. It is consciousness (not âtman). In Mahayana, it is consciousness, also, which transmigrates. But you may stick with your materialistic ideology and the epistemological nihilism that attends it — just don't bring it to Buddhism.
Commented Dec 29, 2014 on A night at the pub at The Zennist
A night at the pub
Last night, I was talking with some of my graduate student friends at our local pub. I would call them believers in the theory that consciousness is generated by brain tissue. By contrast I am one of those who says, “Brains come from consciousness” when we look at the world from its absolute s...
Gui Do:
On the subject of rebirth keep in mind what Bodhidharma said:
The Buddha said people are deluded. This is why when they act they fall into the River of Endless Rebirth. And when they try to get out, they only sink deeper. And all because they don't see their nature.
Commented Dec 28, 2014 on A night at the pub at The Zennist
A night at the pub
Last night, I was talking with some of my graduate student friends at our local pub. I would call them believers in the theory that consciousness is generated by brain tissue. By contrast I am one of those who says, “Brains come from consciousness” when we look at the world from its absolute s...
Gui Do:
FWIW:
He [thus] dwelling contemplating impermanence in those feelings, contemplating dispassion, contemplating cessation, contemplating renunciation, does not grasp at anything in the world, and not grasping he is not perturbed, not being perturbed he attains utter nibbana in his very self. He knows ‘Destroyed is birth, lived is the holy life, done is what was to be done, there will be no more of being such and such. — Culatanhasatnkhaya Sutta
Commented Dec 28, 2014 on The death of clock-work consciousness at The Zennist
The death of clock-work consciousness
The world has changed, radically, with regard to consciousness/mind. The materialist version of consciousness, or perhaps better, the clock-work version, is in the morgue. It is dead. This means the general dogma that consciousness is somehow a by-product of the brain has been quietly superse...
Gui Do:
The Buddha is not the author of the Visuddhimagga. It was composed by Buddhaghosa approximately in 430 CE in Sri Lanka.
"Nirvana exists - but no one who enters it. " (Visuddimagga, 513)
Commented Dec 28, 2014 on The death of clock-work consciousness at The Zennist
The death of clock-work consciousness
The world has changed, radically, with regard to consciousness/mind. The materialist version of consciousness, or perhaps better, the clock-work version, is in the morgue. It is dead. This means the general dogma that consciousness is somehow a by-product of the brain has been quietly superse...
Gui Do:
In the treatise On No-Mind attributed to Bodhidharma the term no-mind is never meant nor intended to leave us with the impression that no-mind is against direct intuition or awakening to something transcendent. A more pithy meaning for no-mind is "no discriminating mind." Such a no discriminating mind is the same as True Mind. In fact the treatise says: "Indeed, no-mind is nothing other than true mind. And true mind is nothing other than no-mind" (trans. App). Further on the treatise says: "What is called no-mind is nothing other than a mind free from deluded thought” (trans. App).
Commented Dec 23, 2014 on A night at the pub at The Zennist
A night at the pub
Last night, I was talking with some of my graduate student friends at our local pub. I would call them believers in the theory that consciousness is generated by brain tissue. By contrast I am one of those who says, “Brains come from consciousness” when we look at the world from its absolute s...
Gui Do:
The Buddha was not a materialist; nor does Zen Buddhism teach materialism. The substance of the cosmos is Mind, not matter. If you can't agree with the sastra, _The Awakening of Faith_, you're in the wrong religion.
Commented Dec 22, 2014 on A night at the pub at The Zennist
A night at the pub
Last night, I was talking with some of my graduate student friends at our local pub. I would call them believers in the theory that consciousness is generated by brain tissue. By contrast I am one of those who says, “Brains come from consciousness” when we look at the world from its absolute s...
Electric Black:
I can only say that was a great comment — awesome. Of course, if we were to say put the attâ before temporal breathing the contemporary Buddhists would crucify us! LOL
Commented Dec 21, 2014 on Getting over emptiness at The Zennist
Getting over emptiness
In the original teachings of the Buddha there is no mention of emptiness (suñña/shunya & suññatâ/shûnyatâ) as being important in his enlightenment. It’s movement from obscurity to a rising star, where it gained prominence, was due to the Madhyamaka system of Nagarjuna. In the Pali Nikayas emp...
Electric Black:
You've discovered that there is no other logical way to look at meditation. What is the point of following the breath or just comfortably abiding in Mara's body? We have actually never been a body; nor are we a byproduct of our brain. We are minds or spirits attached to the psycho-physical body in the belief that I am this body. I believe material shape is me, including feeling, perception, volitional formations and consciousness.
Commented Dec 20, 2014 on Getting over emptiness at The Zennist
Getting over emptiness
In the original teachings of the Buddha there is no mention of emptiness (suñña/shunya & suññatâ/shûnyatâ) as being important in his enlightenment. It’s movement from obscurity to a rising star, where it gained prominence, was due to the Madhyamaka system of Nagarjuna. In the Pali Nikayas emp...
Gui Do:
About the 40 teeth of the Buddha (the 17th mark), this shows that the Buddha had the same attitude towards all beings treating them with equal kindness, etc. This is all symbolic. The Buddha has no corporeal body. He is neither a god nor a human.
Commented Dec 19, 2014 on Getting over emptiness at The Zennist
Getting over emptiness
In the original teachings of the Buddha there is no mention of emptiness (suñña/shunya & suññatâ/shûnyatâ) as being important in his enlightenment. It’s movement from obscurity to a rising star, where it gained prominence, was due to the Madhyamaka system of Nagarjuna. In the Pali Nikayas emp...
Gui Do:
Maybe the great Nagarjuna should read the Buddhist canon for a change. He seems to be contradicting the Buddha's enlightenment.
The knowledge and vision arose in me: ‘Ushakable is the liberation of my mind. This is my last birth. Now there is no more renewed existence.’ ~ S.v.423
The Buddha is not speaking of the destruction of mind or that it is illusory (Illusory to whom or to what? Something non-illusory?).
Commented Dec 18, 2014 on Getting over emptiness at The Zennist
Getting over emptiness
In the original teachings of the Buddha there is no mention of emptiness (suñña/shunya & suññatâ/shûnyatâ) as being important in his enlightenment. It’s movement from obscurity to a rising star, where it gained prominence, was due to the Madhyamaka system of Nagarjuna. In the Pali Nikayas emp...
Electric Black:
Not too long ago, "old world atheists" welded science and materialism together although science and materialism, strictly speaking, are worlds apart. And now thanks to the efforts of Dr. Donald Hoffman, whose paper on _Conscious Realism and the Mind-Body Problem_ is quite extraordinary, the tables have been turned against materialism.
Commented Dec 14, 2014 on Being pushed to insanity at The Zennist
Being pushed to insanity
In terms of mental illness, the U.S. is fast going downhill or so it seems if you look at the usual MSM data. But is this really so or are people being pushed to insanity? There is a lot of money to be made by putting people on medically prescribed drugs for various pseudoscientific mental dis...
Electric Black:
The Zennist has addressed this. But unless one is steeped in Hegel, it tends not to gain the interest of the blog reader.
"Absolute Mind (ekacitta) had to lose itself to find itself or put another way, because in itself there is no contrast or marks to be found, Mind opposed this by creating an illusory world of dependent originations. In this loss or non-knowledge (avidya) of itself, Mind found the only way possible by which it might recognize itself. It is by penetrating through the empty antithetical veil it had generated."
Believe me it works.
Commented Dec 10, 2014 on A letter to an avuso (friend) at The Zennist
A letter to an avuso (friend)
It is always necessary to keep in mind that Buddhism, including it various schools, is about awakening to ultimate reality. Next, it is necessary to understand what is blocking our realization of that awakening. It is over-identification with the psychophysical body otherwise known as the five ...
Electric Black:
In Buddhism people are divided into those who are worldly, the prithagjana, and those who are arya or spiritual (ones who have entered the stream to nirvana). There are also icchantika who deny the awakened nature or Buddha-nature. Buddhism's main demon is Mara the Evil One who is our psycho-physical body. These demons do not like the light or even talk of it and above all they don't like the idea that our true nature is undying (that which animates our mortal body is undying). What they hate most is that meditation is a means to this light which is an eternal essence. A person of light can easily sense another of light.
Commented Dec 8, 2014 on Being alone with nature at The Zennist
Being alone with nature
Nature wants us to be alone with her when we decide to go on a spiritual quest. I know it sounds rather odd to be saying this, but it is true. Something in your heart changes, so as to open up, when you are finally able to be alone in some small cabin or a run down old house, that is miles awa...
Electric Black:
I guess you might call it ironic, but the very principle of animation, the âtman, is denied by these people. It's somewhat like a radio denying the radio signal because it is not like its transistors, etc.
Commented Dec 8, 2014 on Being alone with nature at The Zennist
Being alone with nature
Nature wants us to be alone with her when we decide to go on a spiritual quest. I know it sounds rather odd to be saying this, but it is true. Something in your heart changes, so as to open up, when you are finally able to be alone in some small cabin or a run down old house, that is miles awa...
Electric Black:
What is anterior to the psychophysical body is the âtman (= animative principle). But because of our primordial ignorance (avidya) we attach to the psychophysical body in the belief that it is who we are. From this ignorance we go in either two directions: 1) the finite psychophysical body is my true self; 2) there is no such thing as a self or âtman. Both of these positions the Buddha rejected. One way to break our attachment to the psychophysical body is by pari-mukha-sati which is almost impossible to render into English. One day, many years ago, I just did it. I ran over to the library to see the term in Pali. And there it was. I have argued with Buddhists over this term. They don't want to listen to me, so I don't bother teaching it anymore except on my blog, occasionally. They prefer to sit on their asses.
Commented Dec 7, 2014 on Being alone with nature at The Zennist
Being alone with nature
Nature wants us to be alone with her when we decide to go on a spiritual quest. I know it sounds rather odd to be saying this, but it is true. Something in your heart changes, so as to open up, when you are finally able to be alone in some small cabin or a run down old house, that is miles awa...
Check out this blog: From and Incorporeal Perspective: http://zennist.typepad.com/zenfiles/2009/04/from-an-incorporeal-perspective.html
Commented Dec 6, 2014 on Being alone with nature at The Zennist
Being alone with nature
Nature wants us to be alone with her when we decide to go on a spiritual quest. I know it sounds rather odd to be saying this, but it is true. Something in your heart changes, so as to open up, when you are finally able to be alone in some small cabin or a run down old house, that is miles awa...
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