What are your views on karma, cause and effect?
if you harm another you will be subject to retribution. even a buddha should not resist physical violence with physical violence (he shames himself). yet we are told that zen's second patriarch disrobed and lived a mundane life.
im not worried about cause and effect, but i do not ignore them.
wrong views are held by those who still have views. to the person who still has views these will be harmful. to the person who is not attached to anything they are a reminder of places where he has been. the thing is not to identify with or as anything (until you let go of that too.).
a buddha though free, commits no harmful actions. he is in harmony with things as they are.
a buddha rejects and counteracts what is harmful, he is concerned by these things but not worried by them.
emptiness is not nothingness, a time comes where emptiness has crystalised into substantive 'reality'. it is no longer seen, but it is still known. all has become real. all has become one.
to say that one should be without accepting and rejecting is to reject ones humanity and is a contrivance, not natural. if the buddha found a meal bitter he would eat only a little (so i speculate).
cause and effect are significant, still, i say i am concerned with cause and effect, but not worried by it.
you will excuse me i hope if i am unable to reply to you'r posts. i am staying with my Parents and so have access to the net. i dont want to loose my equanimity through getting involved in discussing concepts and wish to give my undivided attention to my Mum and Dad.
i will however reply if i am able to until tomorrow afternoon (but that is unlikely).
Vasana, you are excellent, but please dont waste your time on me. you will only hear a zen argument. better to study zen, than argue with a beginner.
your's with respect, Tom.
