Intellectualization

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jundo cohen
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Re: Intellectualization

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Johnny Dangerous wrote:
Naw, it's another dodge. IN the right context, you are right, it is the most profound question.

In this one, it is just you messing around because you don't want to engage, but DO want to win.
There is no winning or losing, and this can't be dodged. What is the place of intellectualization in Zen:

Who are you?

It is not a profound question.

Gassho, Jundo
Priest/Teacher at Treeleaf Zendo, a Soto Zen Sangha. Treeleaf Zendo was designed as an online practice place for Zen practitioners who cannot easily commute to a Zen Center due to health concerns, living in remote areas, or work, childcare and family needs, and seeks to provide Zazen sittings, retreats, discussion, interaction with a teacher, and all other activities of a Zen Buddhist Sangha, all fully online. The focus is Shikantaza "Just Sitting" Zazen as instructed by the 13th Century Japanese Master, Eihei Dogen. http://www.treeleaf.org
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Re: Intellectualization

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jundo cohen wrote:
Johnny Dangerous wrote:
Naw, it's another dodge. IN the right context, you are right, it is the most profound question.

In this one, it is just you messing around because you don't want to engage, but DO want to win.
There is no winning or losing, and this can't be dodged. What is the place of intellectualization in Zen:

Who are you?

Gassho, Jundo
In this particular time and place, it appears I'm the Marvelous Magical Manifestation of the guy you won't answer because you want to save face and win the "Zen guy" DW medal.

Who are you?
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Re: Intellectualization

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Johnny Dangerous wrote: In this particular time and place, it appears I'm the Marvelous Magical Manifestation of the guy you won't answer because you want to save face and win the "Zen guy" DW medal.

Who are you?
Ah, you seem to miss the point. Try again. There is no rush.

Who are you? This is the place of intellectualization in Zen.

Gassho, Jundo
Priest/Teacher at Treeleaf Zendo, a Soto Zen Sangha. Treeleaf Zendo was designed as an online practice place for Zen practitioners who cannot easily commute to a Zen Center due to health concerns, living in remote areas, or work, childcare and family needs, and seeks to provide Zazen sittings, retreats, discussion, interaction with a teacher, and all other activities of a Zen Buddhist Sangha, all fully online. The focus is Shikantaza "Just Sitting" Zazen as instructed by the 13th Century Japanese Master, Eihei Dogen. http://www.treeleaf.org
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Re: Intellectualization

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jundo cohen wrote:
Johnny Dangerous wrote: In this particular time and place, it appears I'm the Marvelous Magical Manifestation of the guy you won't answer because you want to save face and win the "Zen guy" DW medal.

Who are you?
Ah, you seem to miss the point. Try again. There is no rush.

Who are you? This is the place of intellectualization in Zen.

Gassho, Jundo

Nope I don't miss the point, there are plenty of Zen teachers who could actually answer some of these questions (or at least would out of kindness and a basic sense of respect) without this sort of facile game.
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Re: Intellectualization

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Johnny Dangerous wrote:

Nope I don't miss the point, there are plenty of Zen teachers who could actually answer some of these questions (or at least would out of kindness) without this sort of facile game.
Oh boy! Then you had better ask them. However, sometimes kindness is not recognized.

Who are you?

A clue:

When Priest Yaoshan was sitting in meditation, a monk asked,
“What do you think about, sitting in steadfast composure?”
Yaoshan said, “I think not thinking.”
The monk said, “How do you think not thinking?”
Yaoshan said, “Non-thinking.”

The Great Daido Loori responds in simple words, most no longer then 3 syllables ...
Abide in neither thinking nor not thinking. Thinking is linear and sequential, a separation from the reality that is the subject of thought, and thus is an abstraction rather than the reality itself. Not thinking is suppressive. It cuts away thoughts the moment they arise, making the mind into a great impenetrable mountain — dead, unresponsive. Non-thinking has no such edges. It is the boundless mind of samadhi that neither holds on to, nor lets go of, thoughts. It is the manifestation of the buddha mind in which the dualism of self and other, thinking and not thinking dissolve. This is the dharma of thusness that is the right thought of all the buddhas in the ten directions.

... Thinking is one side. It’s linear, sequential. On the other side you have not thinking, which is blank consciousness. We call this state "eyes staring out of the coffin" or "making a living in a ghost cave" or "being stuck on top of the mountain." Dogen’s Zen and Yaoshan’s Zen and the Zen of the great masters wasn’t about leaving the world; it was about manifesting the Dharma in our everyday activities. Thinking falls on one side, not thinking falls on the other side. How do we leap clear of these two extremes? Yaoshan says, by non-thinking. Non-thinking has no such edges. It’s the boundless mind of samadhi that neither holds on to, nor lets go of, thoughts. But this doesn’t mean suppressing thoughts, either.

... Students read the question and when they don’t immediately understand it, they begin to think about it because that’s the way we’ve all been taught to solve problems. That’s the way we’ve earned our little gold stars in elementary school and our A’s in college — through good old, linear, sequential thought. But thinking doesn’t help in seeing a koan. A whole other aspect of consciousness needs to open up. We need to exhaust that process of linear thinking, and when the mind finally stops functioning, out of the blue the realization of the koan appears. It is like a quantum leap. It’s a very different way of using the mind. It is non-thinking that is neither intellectual nor based on the subconscious.

http://www.abuddhistlibrary.com/Buddhis ... inking.htm
So, I ask-non-ask you:

Who are you?

Gassho, J
Priest/Teacher at Treeleaf Zendo, a Soto Zen Sangha. Treeleaf Zendo was designed as an online practice place for Zen practitioners who cannot easily commute to a Zen Center due to health concerns, living in remote areas, or work, childcare and family needs, and seeks to provide Zazen sittings, retreats, discussion, interaction with a teacher, and all other activities of a Zen Buddhist Sangha, all fully online. The focus is Shikantaza "Just Sitting" Zazen as instructed by the 13th Century Japanese Master, Eihei Dogen. http://www.treeleaf.org
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Re: Intellectualization

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I'm not playing your game, and don't want or need instruction from you. Either you can answer the questions in the OP, or you can't..the latter seems to be the case.
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Re: Intellectualization

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conebeckham wrote:In Zen, as I understand it,(based on very little exposure,) such sorts of analysis, intellectual reasoning, conceptual elaboration, are beside the point at best, and antithetical to the Zen path at an extreme.
The largest amount of canonical works by a specific school of Buddhism in East Asia is by the Zen tradition. This itself shows a strong conceptual and literary aspect.

Many of the famous teachers of the past have produced written teachings, and a number of them have even engaged in systematic philosophising. And those who appear only in stories were also apparently familiar with the scriptures to the extent to be able to freely quote them.

Historically speaking, those who were abbots - i.e. most of the "patriarchs/ancestors" - were members of the educated elite who interacted with the top echelons of the aristocracy and literati in order to ensure the stability of their monastic institutions.

The iconoclastic and anti-intellectual style of Zen is really just a style, as sophisticated and artificial as calligraphy, or a weird piece of modern art.
1 Myriad dharmas are only mind.
Mind is unobtainable.
What is there to seek?

2 If the Buddha-Nature is seen,
there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.

3 Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —
this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.

4 With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,
the six paramitas and myriad means
are complete within that essence.


1 Huangbo, T2012Ap381c1 2 Nirvana Sutra, T374p521b3; tr. Yamamoto 3 Mazu, X1321p3b23; tr. J. Jia 4 Yongjia, T2014p395c14; tr. from "The Sword of Wisdom"
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Re: Intellectualization

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Astus wrote:
conebeckham wrote:In Zen, as I understand it,(based on very little exposure,) such sorts of analysis, intellectual reasoning, conceptual elaboration, are beside the point at best, and antithetical to the Zen path at an extreme.
The largest amount of canonical works by a specific school of Buddhism in East Asia is by the Zen tradition. This itself shows a strong conceptual and literary aspect.
Most of the Zen teachers of old were highly educated. Most were conversant with the standard Sutra literature and Buddhist philosophy. Some dabbled in their own intellectual systems.

But so many of the teachers that we cherish, while highly educated, wrote pages and pages waving us away from standard intellectualization as a dead end and distraction. Useful, of course, for getting around in the world. An obstruction to the heart of the matter. One can sit here and philosophize all one wants on "the place of intellectualization in Zen". However, if one then scoffs at the anti-intellectual aspect of Zen, and the thinking non thinking aspect ... then it is like saying, "please discuss apple pie without mentioning pie or apples". Something vital ... perhaps the most vital to a discussion of Zen ... is left out.

So I ask again ... the place of intellectualization in Zen ...

Who are you?

Folks who say "give me a straight answer!" do not realize that, in Zen, the "ordinary thinking" is crooked and the crooked is sometimes straight to the heart.

Who are you?

Gassho, J
Last edited by jundo cohen on Mon Apr 11, 2016 6:55 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Intellectualization

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Astus wrote:
conebeckham wrote:In Zen, as I understand it,(based on very little exposure,) such sorts of analysis, intellectual reasoning, conceptual elaboration, are beside the point at best, and antithetical to the Zen path at an extreme.
The largest amount of canonical works by a specific school of Buddhism in East Asia is by the Zen tradition. This itself shows a strong conceptual and literary aspect.

Many of the famous teachers of the past have produced written teachings, and a number of them have even engaged in systematic philosophising. And those who appear only in stories were also apparently familiar with the scriptures to the extent to be able to freely quote them.

Historically speaking, those who were abbots - i.e. most of the "patriarchs/ancestors" - were members of the educated elite who interacted with the top echelons of the aristocracy and literati in order to ensure the stability of their monastic institutions.

The iconoclastic and anti-intellectual style of Zen is really just a style, as sophisticated and artificial as calligraphy, or a weird piece of modern art.
Yes, I would agree with all of this, based on my own knowledge and experience. The caveat I'd add is that sometimes it's not "just a style"--you know?
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
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Re: Intellectualization

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jundo cohen wrote: But so many of the teachers that we cherish, while highly educated, wrote pages and pages waving us away from standard intellectualization as a dead end and distraction. Useful, of course, for getting around in the world. An obstruction to the heart of the matter. One can sit here and philosophize all one wants on "the place of intellectualization in Zen". However, if one then scoffs at the anti-intellectual aspect of Zen, and the thinking non thinking aspect ... then it is like saying, "please discuss apple pie without mentioning pie or apples". Something vital ... perhaps the most vital to a discussion of Zen ... is left out.
Not only did I not scoff at the anti-intellectual aspect of it, but as Cone alluded to, that aspect is actually shared by others systems, including areas of Vajrayana and Dzogchen. If you notice, I have not scoffed a bit at Zen, and mentioned in fact that I not only hold it in high regard, but maintain interest it in, and consider my time in it valuable.

What I am taking issue with (not scoffing at) is *your* misappropriation of "Zen style" to not answer questions. This has nothing to do with a "Zen method" (the idea that there is such an orthodox way of being non-orthodox is kind of funny to me personally) of answering questions, and everything to do you with your actions.

It's like you feel compelled to come in here, and then try to use Zen style non-talk (or whatever you want to call it) as a way to escape needing to answer questions in normal language, or to repeatedly point out how someone else "just doesn't get it". Why do you need to do that at all? I'd point out here, these question arose due to your criticism of others words, and your refusal to lend that criticism any clarity.

So let's be clear, that and that alone is what I'm taking issue with here, not Zen practice or method, which I both have deep respect for, and in fact some connection to - whether you want to accept it or not.
Last edited by Johnny Dangerous on Mon Apr 11, 2016 7:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Intellectualization

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jundo cohen wrote:Useful, of course, for getting around in the world.
1. I might be missing something, but so far I have not seen that knowledge of Buddhist teachings is a lucrative business.
2. Getting around in the world is the best anyone can expect, being free from all the entrapments and allures, moving like clouds.
An obstruction to the heart of the matter.
1. From thinking comes understanding, from understanding comes realisation.
2. Thoughts are not hindrances in Zen.
if one then scoffs at the anti-intellectual aspect of Zen, and the thinking non thinking aspect
Non-thinking and anti-intellectual slogans are two different things.
1 Myriad dharmas are only mind.
Mind is unobtainable.
What is there to seek?

2 If the Buddha-Nature is seen,
there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.

3 Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —
this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.

4 With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,
the six paramitas and myriad means
are complete within that essence.


1 Huangbo, T2012Ap381c1 2 Nirvana Sutra, T374p521b3; tr. Yamamoto 3 Mazu, X1321p3b23; tr. J. Jia 4 Yongjia, T2014p395c14; tr. from "The Sword of Wisdom"
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Re: Intellectualization

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Johnny Dangerous wrote: What I am taking issue with (not scoffing) is *your* misappropriation of "Zen style" to not answer questions.
Sometimes one can explain and link to explanations by others and all manner of information to show what one is doing, and folks only hear and see what they wish. You think I am dodging. So, let me try again:
Not What You Think by [Soto Zen Teacher] Steve Hagan

[S]ome people unfamiliar with Zen think that Zen practice is about acting strange and silly, or making outlandish statements, or forgetting everything and just letting the flowers bloom. Some scholars and writers have even claimed that the purpose of koans is to break down and destroy the intellect. None of this, however, is true.

Though koans do reach beyond reason, they’re not a call to destroy or deny the intellect. They simply point out that Reality is not to be captured in a thought, or a phrase, or an explanation. Reality is the direct seeing of the world as it is, not as our intellects map it, describe it, or conceive it.

It’s not that human intellect is bad or that we must get rid of it; but we must bring ourselves back to the fact that the intellect can only construct models of Reality, never Reality itself. Our problem, however, is that we get taken in by our mental constructions, mistaking them for Reality. The fact is that Reality cannot be constructed, nor does it need to be. It’s already here—and we’re all inseparable from it. If we could only see this, we’d be freed from a great and painful burden. We’d no longer be confused or cowed by human life.

...

Koans also have a reputation for being paradoxical, enigmatic, and inscrutable—and, thus, Zen itself has gotten a reputation for being the same. But koans themselves are not paradoxes at all. Rather, they direct our attention to the sense of contradiction or paradox that naturally arises in any conception of the world. Koans help us to see that these apparent contradictions in fact occur only within our minds, not within the world itself.

Rather than serving up an idea or conceptual framework that will supposedly save us, koans help us to recognize how we constantly do indeed reach for prefabricated explanations and answers. They also help us to see that this never gets us anywhere. Indeed, it is this very grasping for conceptual solutions and explanations that causes us so many problems. Yet even as we grasp at concepts, we overlook the supreme treasure that is right at hand—Reality itself.

http://dharmafield.org/resources/texts/ ... ron-flute/
Steve is famous for some of the clearest and plainest explanation of why Zen is Zen. So, now I hope you understand why I declare the place of intellectualization in Zen:

Who are you?

Astus wrote:
1. From thinking comes understanding, from understanding comes realisation.
2. Thoughts are not hindrances in Zen.
Well, only if we see through the thoughts in illumination (I am not talking about a thought such as about fixing the kitchen sink, but rather the thoughts at the heart of self-identity ... such as Who we Are, what the world is that seems to be not who we are, etc.). Need to see through them. Only then are such thoughts not hindrances. No way to intellectually get to realization otherwise.

Gassho, J
Priest/Teacher at Treeleaf Zendo, a Soto Zen Sangha. Treeleaf Zendo was designed as an online practice place for Zen practitioners who cannot easily commute to a Zen Center due to health concerns, living in remote areas, or work, childcare and family needs, and seeks to provide Zazen sittings, retreats, discussion, interaction with a teacher, and all other activities of a Zen Buddhist Sangha, all fully online. The focus is Shikantaza "Just Sitting" Zazen as instructed by the 13th Century Japanese Master, Eihei Dogen. http://www.treeleaf.org
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Re: Intellectualization

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conebeckham wrote:The caveat I'd add is that sometimes it's not "just a style"--you know?
If you refer to not getting stuck with words, that's not a unique concept of Zen. It's been around since the Nikayas.
1 Myriad dharmas are only mind.
Mind is unobtainable.
What is there to seek?

2 If the Buddha-Nature is seen,
there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.

3 Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —
this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.

4 With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,
the six paramitas and myriad means
are complete within that essence.


1 Huangbo, T2012Ap381c1 2 Nirvana Sutra, T374p521b3; tr. Yamamoto 3 Mazu, X1321p3b23; tr. J. Jia 4 Yongjia, T2014p395c14; tr. from "The Sword of Wisdom"
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Re: Intellectualization

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jundo cohen wrote:Need to see through them.
How are they seen through?
1 Myriad dharmas are only mind.
Mind is unobtainable.
What is there to seek?

2 If the Buddha-Nature is seen,
there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.

3 Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —
this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.

4 With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,
the six paramitas and myriad means
are complete within that essence.


1 Huangbo, T2012Ap381c1 2 Nirvana Sutra, T374p521b3; tr. Yamamoto 3 Mazu, X1321p3b23; tr. J. Jia 4 Yongjia, T2014p395c14; tr. from "The Sword of Wisdom"
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Re: Intellectualization

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Sometimes one can explain and link to explanations by others and all manner of information to show what one is doing, and folks only hear and see what they wish. You think I am dodging. So, let me try again:
I don't think it's just me seeing what I want to see, so much as it is the fact that you refuse to qualify almost any of your criticism, or answer any questions posed, preferring instead to retreat into "Zen mode" when it suits you. No amount of copypasta is gonna change that.
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Re: Intellectualization

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Astus wrote:
conebeckham wrote:The caveat I'd add is that sometimes it's not "just a style"--you know?
If you refer to not getting stuck with words, that's not a unique concept of Zen. It's been around since the Nikayas.
To be clear, I do not mean that.

I mean that it can be a "defense mechanism" against hearing or thinking about things that make one uncomfortable, or it can be used as a defense in argumentation.
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
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Re: Intellectualization

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conebeckham wrote:I mean that it can be a "defense mechanism" against hearing or thinking about things that make one uncomfortable, or it can be used as a defense in argumentation.
Like when they say "all is relative", but what they mean is "I don't care what you mean, I know I am right".
1 Myriad dharmas are only mind.
Mind is unobtainable.
What is there to seek?

2 If the Buddha-Nature is seen,
there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.

3 Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —
this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.

4 With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,
the six paramitas and myriad means
are complete within that essence.


1 Huangbo, T2012Ap381c1 2 Nirvana Sutra, T374p521b3; tr. Yamamoto 3 Mazu, X1321p3b23; tr. J. Jia 4 Yongjia, T2014p395c14; tr. from "The Sword of Wisdom"
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Re: Intellectualization

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Astus wrote:
conebeckham wrote:The caveat I'd add is that sometimes it's not "just a style"--you know?
If you refer to not getting stuck with words, that's not a unique concept of Zen. It's been around since the Nikayas.
I don't mean to get stuck in semantics myself, but I mean such a radical rejection of our usual way or seeing the world and who we are (apparently separately) in it, that it might as well be called "anti-intellectual". We truly are trying to return to our inner mountain and wind and six pounds of flax. Words don't apply, and up is down and all around ... and what up or down round and round? Totally and completely "anti-intellectual".

That being said, we need ordinary thinking to function, fix the sink, make a society of laws, practice medicine etc. Of course, Sometimes we even try to express Buddhism with it. Often by doing so, we make Buddhism worse (like the whole "Bilss in Zen" fiasco which drags us in the wrong direction).

If you try to have a discussion about "intellectualization in Zen" ... then omit or discount as trickery or distraction all the word games that have that "stink of Zen" ... well, you are seeing things from one ignorant side only., You are totally missing the place of "intellectualization in Zen". Otherwise, it is like having a philosophical discussion of humor while leaving out being funny. a discussion of the the solar system while omitting the planets or sun. You are trying to have a discussion of Zen leaving the Zen out of the Zen.

Gassho, J
Priest/Teacher at Treeleaf Zendo, a Soto Zen Sangha. Treeleaf Zendo was designed as an online practice place for Zen practitioners who cannot easily commute to a Zen Center due to health concerns, living in remote areas, or work, childcare and family needs, and seeks to provide Zazen sittings, retreats, discussion, interaction with a teacher, and all other activities of a Zen Buddhist Sangha, all fully online. The focus is Shikantaza "Just Sitting" Zazen as instructed by the 13th Century Japanese Master, Eihei Dogen. http://www.treeleaf.org
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Re: Intellectualization

Post by jundo cohen »

Oh, sorry, I forgot ...

Who are you? :smile:

Gassho, J
Priest/Teacher at Treeleaf Zendo, a Soto Zen Sangha. Treeleaf Zendo was designed as an online practice place for Zen practitioners who cannot easily commute to a Zen Center due to health concerns, living in remote areas, or work, childcare and family needs, and seeks to provide Zazen sittings, retreats, discussion, interaction with a teacher, and all other activities of a Zen Buddhist Sangha, all fully online. The focus is Shikantaza "Just Sitting" Zazen as instructed by the 13th Century Japanese Master, Eihei Dogen. http://www.treeleaf.org
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Astus
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Re: Intellectualization

Post by Astus »

jundo cohen wrote:You are trying to have a discussion of Zen leaving the Zen out of the Zen.
What is Zen? (so we don't omit it)
1 Myriad dharmas are only mind.
Mind is unobtainable.
What is there to seek?

2 If the Buddha-Nature is seen,
there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.

3 Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —
this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.

4 With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,
the six paramitas and myriad means
are complete within that essence.


1 Huangbo, T2012Ap381c1 2 Nirvana Sutra, T374p521b3; tr. Yamamoto 3 Mazu, X1321p3b23; tr. J. Jia 4 Yongjia, T2014p395c14; tr. from "The Sword of Wisdom"
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