[nevadapatriot]

Zen. Don’t even think about it

[poconopundit]

Here’s a personal story I’ve long wanted to write for my FRiends on Free Republic. Consider it a break from politics.

Would love to hear comments from mediators and others who have had interesting religious or transcendental experiences.

[Paladin2]

Looks like the sailor in the small boat pic has his left hand on the tiller....

[moovova]

I was involved with Transcendental Meditation after leaving the Navy. Pretty diligent about it for couple of years. For me, it was more of a mental exercise that left me feeling rested, relaxed, mentally sharp and focussed. I enjoyed it at the time but let the wild side of life intrude. Probably wouldn’t hurt to revisit it.

[sergeantdave]

I’ve read that the zen master Dr. Suzuki tried to persuade the WWII Japanese imperialists that they had chosen the wrong path that would lead to defeat, and the imperialists tried to throw him in prison.

Thus ends my understanding of zen buddhism.

[meowmeow]

Thank you for sharing this! It was exactly what my cluttered mind needed this evening.

Oh...I'm also a Christian. It's hard to connect with my Savior when my brain is so full of the garbage of this world. I've already parted ways with TV so that was a great start. FR is my guilty pleasure but writing like yours makes it less guilty.

Going off now to stare at my flower garden and ponder the sound of color in the fading daylight.

[SteveH]

Very nice essay, thank you for sharing

[tinyowl]

Hey Poco -

Zen is not Zen. Zen is like, if you find yourself in a field of manure, making a walkway of manure patties to get out of the field. Zen itself like medicine made of thinking, to cure thinking disease.

It is not in conflict with Christianity. Consider if you were pinned beneath a tractor and suffering greatly. You probably would not be able to perceive, for example, the sweet smell of the air. But if I tell you how to remove the tractor using a remote control in your pocket, and you can then smell the sweet air, that does not mean that my method replaces, or is in conflict with, or competes against as truth, the sweet smell of the air. So Zen is only a tool.

The Buddha himself called Buddhism (and therefore Zen) a raft. It is a tool to get across the river. You wouldn't use a raft to cross a river and then drag it with you across the land with you all day.

So Zen is not the truth. It is a tool. What can be realized with Zen is the truth. Some call it 'God', some call it 'The Absolute', some call it 'Satori' or 'Enlightenment.'

But in true nature, there are no attributes, no essence. So if you say Enlightenment is this or that ... you are always lying. So how can you talk about it? Only if you know and agree, in the context of talking about it, that talking about it is only using manure patties as tools to help yourself and others get out of the manure field. What's outside of the manure field has no words, language, name, form, attributes.

The Heart Sutra says "No Attainment, with nothing to Attain." So how can you ever realize yourself while sailing a boat? If you say you can, then you are a squirrel chasing a nut. If you say you can't, then you are attached to emptiness. But if you are only sailing a boat, then the universe is Just Like This.

It is only necessary to put down all thinking, all opinions, all notions, and the universe is already clear. But it is hard to put down the tool which we mistake as ourselves - we sense that beyond that is death, so we cling to the aggregation of mind made illusions we call 'self,' just as if we were afraid to put down the framing hammer because we think the frame will disappear. We mistake the tool for the object of the tool. The tool of course can not 'know' it's object. A framing hammer knows nothing of a frame. Similarly, mental activity knows nothing of it's object, yet we think we are the mental activity, and with it, we seek to know 'the truth.'

The Koan might as well be 'what color is 2 + 2 = 5?.' Every thought is not necessarily wrong, but every thought IS wrong if you think it is the truth. So 'what color is 2 + 2 = 4' is equally as insane.

When you realize what the Buddha realized, just BEFORE you will be in awe, but just after you will laugh, laugh, laugh.

Here is a koan for you: Why is the Fat Buddha laughing and What does he know that you don't already know?

Thanks for writing - was fun to read! Hope you are doing Great! (And soon become enlightened!)

[blueunicorn6]

Robert Pirsig passed away not too long ago.

Your title indicates that you are familiar with his writings.

His second book was about another trip that he took. This trip was on a sailboat. The book is LILA. It is subtitled “An Inquiry Into Morals”.

Since you have read his first book, you should read his second.

[Big Red Badger]

Experience with Zen...

I used to be a Sailing in
Mission Bay!

[SeafoodGumbo]

it was a pure meditative practice whose object is to transcend your intellect (or as Alan Watts says “the incessant chatter of the skull”

That's a good description for why I meditate - to quiet my loud brain.

All I do is lie on a yoga mat with my eyes closed and count my breaths from 1 - 4, repeating that for 10 minutes. I'll get all kinds of random thoughts, but just try to focus on the breathing. It helps for dealing with this crazy world.

[GOPJ]

Thanks for sharing...Interesting. Was the title a take off on Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance?

[onona]

Sailing is the most peaceful endeavor I have ever experienced.

[Harpotoo]

As a teen we had a guy in the hood who would give free yoga lessons and afterwards lead us into a meditation session. Once done I would come out of it with a great calm. What it taught me was to free my mind, clear it of all thoughts. It didn’t lead me to any revelations it just taught me how to put all thoughts away for small periods of time. That little interlude I call peace. I do not need to do yoga or meditation to do it now a days I just calm myself and free my mind. Peace, it’s a beautiful and fleeting thing:-)

[daniel1212]

I imagined myself sitting in a small boat at sea on a breezy day. And in my left hand I held the “main sheet” or rope attached to the boom from which the sail hung against the breeze. In my right hand I held the tiller which controlled the boat’s rudder in the water. The insight I had was that my physical body was not a separate entity: I had become integral to the boat being sailed. Subject and object disappeared.

Which fantasying disconnection from reality and objective Truth is akin to drugs or is cultic, and can open the door to types of demonic deception, such as Eastern religions or Roy Master's meditation does, only to find Hell as a reality in death.

What is needed is repentant humble faith in the risen Lord Jesus for forgiveness and being born again, and surrender to Him, and and appreciation of and meditation in who the Lord is and what He did as manifested in so great salvation

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. (Colossians 3:1-2)

For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. (Romans 8:6)

I know both but am trying to only be the latter.

[boatbums]

Then he also gave me an alternative koan to work on, “How do you realize God while sailing a boat?” And he quickly added, “Believe in God. No believe in God” – and he shook his head… and then emphasized “Realize God!”

This wasn't a personal experience with Zen, but it was quite profound for me:

My husband and I were helping friends bring to Florida a sailboat they had bought in Tortola, BVI. One of the longest legs of the trip was a four day, non-stop trek from Fajardo, Puerto Rico to the Turks and Caicos islands, Being that there were only the four of us, a wonky compass, troubled steering and no working autohelm - which meant hand steering, it was grueling four hour watches for each of us - two on, two off. About the second night while on my watch, it was a moonless, dark, clear starlit sky and we were at depths in the thousands. You couldn't really tell where the sky stopped and the sea started. I started thinking we were hundreds of miles from any land and then panicked as I realized we could go down here and NO ONE would ever find any trace of us. But no sooner had I started to be fearful, a passage of Scripture came to my mind:

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you. (Psalm 139:7-12)

My fear vanished and I began to delight in the peace and majesty of my surroundings. That was God speaking to me and was how I realized God while literally sailing a boat.