This video was randomly recommended to me and it's only 15 minutes long but it has it all, including a Buddhist Master who draws penises on the walls of temples.
@dioma No, it was a bit of a misunderstanding. There is a saying that if you see the Buddha, you should "kill the Buddha", because the Buddha is not separate from yourself, so any separate Buddha is a false Buddha.
The conversation was about why Buddhists bow to statues of Buddha if they're not supposed to respect a Buddha outside of themselves, and then the exchange took place.
There is another koan about "dropping ashes on the Buddha" I will tell you in the next comment.
@dioma The koan does like this (paraphrasing):
A man is smoking a cigarette in the temple and dropping his ashes on the Buddha because he believes that all things are Buddha and thus the statue of Buddha is no different than an ashtray. What would you say to him to help him?
The man is very strong and will not allow you to hit him, and you cannot use force. He knows enough about Zen to understand all things have Buddha nature, but is unenlightened.
What would you do?
Hmh I would say that although all things are buddha, water can't be set a blaze. And a statue is not an ash tray.
(Is Buddha nature then like a body made up of many different materials with distinct purposes, but united in a common purpose? Or is everything really the same, but why can't water be used like fire then?)
@dioma That was a good answer actually. Well done.
Buddha nature is just shorthand for "the absolute", the real. Call it Buddha Nature, the Tao, the "True Self", the "Big I", the Logos, the Kingdom of God, or whatever you want.
These are all mere vocabulary. You cannot describe it because all words identity in order to separate. Something is A and thus is not B, C, D, etc.
However "It" is everything, including A - Z, and everything in between. Thus words are meaningless, and yet we use words
I would have never learned about Nietzsche or Buddhism without you. Thanks!
Knowing that nothing objectively matters really takes the edge out of things, while also allowing me to focus on what is important to me and not be shamed into doing someone else's biding. And Buddhism justifies why we should still act with compassion to each other because we are all connected. I like that combination.
Its weird that this point of view is not more widespread. Current scientific understanding underlines that nothing we do makes any difference to the inevitable heat death of the universe. Yet almost no one seems to act on that understanding. They keep running around pretending that what they do is super important.
I get it though. I still feel anxious and jealous sometimes even though it makes no rational sense. That's just part of being human.
@dioma My guess is that it has a lot to do with the fact that enlightenment and personal actualization is hard to monetize.
watching TV or playing videogames are are very flawed and ineffective form of meditation when you get down to it. It's all about mindlessly "flowing", but TV and videogames are monetizable, while sitting zazen or taking a peaceful walk through nature is difficult to monetize.
You don't need a lot of money to be happy once you give up impressing other people.
@Tfmonkey I am all for clear thinking. Enlightenment as defined in this video (there is no separate self) is bullshit. This "Enlightenment" is just as fanciful as heaven and hell.
You can practice being present, and compassionate, and being in flow without denying a separate self.
But good on that monk to get the unenlightened to bring him liquor and beautiful women. What a good con.
@redmaple I see it as the opposite. The existence of a separate self implies a soul, or some individual "self" that exists, and THAT is fanciful.
Your sense of self-awareness and conscious reality are emergent properties of your brain. Your identify is mere memory. There is real science to confirm this. Here is a Ted Talk about it (there are longer videos about this too, but this is a nice bite-size one): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyu7v7nWzfo
@Tfmonkey I don't know if we are talking about the same thing. The existence of a "separate self" I do not translate to a soul. To have a self is to realize there is a limit to your pyhsical control and experience. So if I get cut, you don't bleed. And if you think thoughts, I don't hear them.
Because your identity is memory does not mean it is not real. We mentally experience ourselves through our memories/mind. We physically experience ourselves through our body.
@Tfmonkey To say your identity is just a memory is like saying your face is just matter. It doesn't mean anything.
@redmaple the body is not a self. It is a biosystem of billions of living things that are constantly living, dying, and being regenerated from food.
When you dream you are completely unaware of the body, and yet you have a sense of your own existence. When you awaken from a dream there is an instantaneous persistence of identity. You knew you were "you" in your dream, and you know you are "you" when you awake and once again become aware of the body.
What is the "you"? Where does it come from?
@Tfmonkey The mind is a map of the information that the body experiences. And within that information, the mind realizes there is a "you", it's human nature to identify a you.
Just like a red marker on a map that identifies where you are on a map. Because the "you" in your mind is a representation, does not mean "you" don't exist in the physical. The mind is a map of the physical.
@redmaple Once again, your body is not a "you", it is billions and billions of living organisms, half of which aren't even human cells, but are microbes and bacteria that influence your health and even what foods you like.
There is no "you" except in the abstract sense. You are a hallucination of your body. Your body is a biosystem in relationship with everything else.
There is no individual self that objectively exists. There is only an abstraction, a hallucination, an illusion.
@Tfmonkey well we will have to agree to disagree. From my perspective, just because the body is a complicated system with other organisms does not invalidate the identity of "you".
And if a stranger came on your property and used this same logic of your property is abstract, it's an ecosystem, it wouldn't fly practically. You is a useful tool to identify that which you are responsible for navigating through the world. It reflects the physical.
But everyone gets to choose their own worldview.
@redmaple The idea of the self is very useful, just like the idea of "rights" is useful for ethics and morality.
The monk answered you may spit we bow. In the sense that bowing was the monks way of disrespecting the idols.
I hope I remembered that right.