

Zen is boring - chris_l
http://homepage.mac.com/doubtboy/boring.html

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gps408
Brad Warner is fantastic.

Check out his blog: <http://www.hardcorezen.blogspot.com/>

And his articles at Suicide Girls:
<http://suicidegirls.com/members/Brad_Warner/news/> (the articles are ok but
the site itself is probably nsfw)

Hardcore Zen is my favourite book.

------
bfioca
Slightly 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

------
ereldon
the 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.

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bayareaguy
Zen 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
You'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
Well, 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.

~~~
kashif
You are all wrong and you are all right - that is Zen.

~~~
__
Wrong.

~~~
yters
Frog.

------
ivan
Try vipassana.

~~~
jkush
And here's a book (complete text online) about vipassana meditation that is
very practical:

<http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html>

~~~
rsheridan6
Or you can just do a free 10-day course from this organization:
<http://www.dhamma.org/> or others.

------
rms
If you think Zen is boring, you've never reached Nirvana.

~~~
curi
If you think Christianity is dumb, you've never been to Heaven.

~~~
rms
I'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
i was comparing one imaginary place, and arguments based on it, with another.

~~~
rms
But Nirvana is real. Close your eyes and try and think of nothing. That's
Nirvana. Close enough, at least.

~~~
yters
That'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.

~~~
rms
I am talking about having absolutely no thought in your mind, conscious or
otherwise. How long can you hold yourself like that before you think of
anything?

~~~
chris_l
How can you know whether you have unconscious thoughts in your mind?

~~~
rms
You can't.

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mynameishere
Christianity 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
Zen is not a philosophy; it's a technique. Not unlike masturbation.

