Neutral Milk, I do not mind if you rearrange or even re-write anything I post as long as you note that you're doing so.
Your response is clear, but if Buddhism and zen are the same, why do the vast majority (I'd guess 90%) of Buddhists in the world do not believe zen is a legitimate expression of Buddhism or think of it as a cult? ...Bill! --- In [email protected], Neutral Milk <neutralm@...> wrote: > > On 7/29/05, Bill Smart <Bill@...> wrote: > > <snip> > > I will have to rearrange the order of Bill's questions, for the > purpose of my presentation. I hope Bill won't mind? > > > What is Buddhism? > > If you'd allow me, I would like to use a metaphor as the answer to > this question. Buddhism, to me, is the following situation: imagine a > person who has a thorn stuck in his eyeball. It hurts like hell. The > more that person tries to do something about that thorn, the worse it > gets. Rubbing his eye only manages to aggravate it even more. Same is > with him trying to take the thorn out with his fingers. > > Along comes the Master Physician, Shakyamuni Buddha, who explains to > the aggravated person that the only way to get the thorn out is to use > another thorn. At first, the person is incredulous -- how can the > problem be solved by using the same means that created the problem in > the first place? > > Eventually, the suffering individual may succumb, and agree to use > another thorn to get the offending thorn out. So he does that, takes > the thorn out, and feels tremendous relief while holding the little > bugger in his hand and then tossing it aside. > > However, soon afterwards, the 'liberated' person realizes that the > horrendous pain has returned, and this time with a vengeance. How can > that be? The thorn has definitelly been taken out of the eyeball, so > why is he still squirming in pain? > > It's very simple, actually -- yes, the original thorn has been > removed, but now the new one, the 'expedient mean' thorn ended up in > the same spot. And it now hurts even more. > > Buddhism is a teaching/practice that prescribes how to take the thorn > out with another thorn, without leaving the new thorn inside the > wound. In other words, it's a teaching on how to build a raft to cross > the ocean of birth and death, and then how to abandon the raft and > walk freely about. > > > What is Zen? > > Zen is a special discipline deeply imbedded inside the Buddhist > teaching (which was described above), whereby the practitioner is > brought to realize that there is no such thing, nor could there ever > be such thing as a thorn, an eye, the pain, an attempt to liberate > oneself from pain, the teaching, the expedient means,etc. > > > What are the differences between Zen and Buddhism? > > There are no differences between the two. > > > What is the relationship between Zen and Buddhism? > > It's like asking: "what is the relationship between Zen and Zen" or > "what is the relationship between Buddhism and Buddhism". It's the > relationship of sameness and equality (i.e. samata in Sanskrit). > ------------------------------------ Current Book Discussion: any Zen book that you recently have read or are reading! Talk about it today!Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
