8 ms·
Zen is boring
- ivan 19y agoTry vipassana.
- jkush 19y agoAnd here's a book (complete text online) about vipassana meditation that is very practical: http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html
- andyn 19y agoI recommend that book as well.
- ivan 19y agourbandharma has perfect content :) also buddhanet.net is full of books on meditation practice.
- rsheridan6 19y agoOr you can just do a free 10-day course from this organization: http://www.dhamma.org/ http://www.dhamma.org/ or others.
- deleted 19y ago[deleted]
- bayareaguy 19y agoZen and the whole "enlightenment" thing is a basically a sedative which some people mistake as some kind of puzzle or IQ test. The whole point is to help you achieve a kind of inner peace. Although it may be entertaining to some, that's not its purpose and it has little to offer anyone already living a healthy life.
- jkush 19y agoYou're quite wrong. It's not really about achieving an inner peace, it's about being right here, right now. If you're angry, you're angry. If you're ecstatic, you're ecstatic. It's about learning to not waste the time we have by paying attention to what we do have. It's not about being sedated at all, if anything, it's about waking up.
- chris_l 19y agoWell, I have no first hand experience of the phenomenon we're talking about ;) But the way I understood it, it's about no longer not seeing reality by being distracted by your own thoughts.
- bayareaguy 19y agobayareaguy read jkush's comment, and was at that moment Enlightened.
- 19y ago
- bfioca 19y agoSlightly off topic but I just sat quietly for a few minutes and received a bit of enlightenment in the form of some creative fixes to some bugs in my code. :P
- mynameishere 19y agoChristianity without a god, I suppose. Or, swaying in a hammock without a hammock. "Zen" seems mainly interesting for the paradoxical aphorisms it induces. One hand clapping and all that... Think twice about anyone selling a philosophy so unfalsifiable.
- asdflkj 19y agoZen is not a philosophy; it's a technique. Not unlike masturbation.
- gps408 19y agoBrad Warner is fantastic. Check out his blog: http://www.hardcorezen.blogspot.com/ http://www.hardcorezen.blogspot.com/ And his articles at Suicide Girls: http://suicidegirls.com/members/Brad_Warner/news/ http://suicidegirls.com/members/Brad_Warner/news/ (the articles are ok but the site itself is probably nsfw) Hardcore Zen is my favourite book.
- rms 19y agoIf you think Zen is boring, you've never reached Nirvana.
- curi 19y agoIf you think Christianity is dumb, you've never been to Heaven.
- deleted 19y ago[deleted]
- mixmax 19y agoWell neither have you. unless the Internet stretches farther than I am aware.
- rms 19y agoI'm not talking about the religion of Buddhism, I'm talking about a mental state of nothingness. I only wish I could reach that state without the use of mind altering substances. As great as Nirvana is, it doesn't seem worth the effort to train the unenhanced mind to get there. That process is what is boring. But if you're looking for shortcuts, I've got plenty of them.
- curi 19y agoi was comparing one imaginary place, and arguments based on it, with another.
- rms 19y agoBut Nirvana is real. Close your eyes and try and think of nothing. That's Nirvana. Close enough, at least.
- yters 19y agoThat's easy, what's with the mind altering substances? I've never seen the need; it isn't hard to get into a state of semi sleepiness and drift off somewhere in your imagination.
- ereldon 19y agothe beatnik in the author comes out at the end: You don't need to go hang-gliding over the Himalayas, you don't need to screw your luscious and oh-so-willing secretary or party all night with the beautiful people. You don't need visions of merging with the totality of the Universe. Just be what you are, where you are. Clean the toilet. Walk the dog. Do your work. That's the most magical thing there is. If you really want to merge with God, that's the way to do it. This moment. You sitting there with your hand in your underwear and potato chip crumbs on your chin, scrolling down your computer screen thinking "This guy's out of his mind." This very moment is Enlightenment. This moment has never come before and once it's gone, it's gone forever. You are this moment. This moment is you. This very moment is you merging with the total Universe, with God Himself.