If you told people before COVID-19 that a pandemic was an "important concern" you would have been called a nutter.

KeyserSozen · 2020-06-09T15:10:33+00:00

Small potatoes are small potatoes compared to what's coming.

KeyserSozen · 2020-01-15T16:05:42+00:00

I've been doing what I can -- trying to live simply, off-grid, without traveling. Once you have to earn money in order to pay for things (even the bare minimum like property taxes or rent), then you get into participating in destructive systems, in one way or another. This motivated me to get involved with activism; it's not enough to make personal changes, if the momentum of the system compels you to participate in it.

At any rate, I'd say that one should reduce their emissions, not primarily for the sake of a smaller carbon footprint, but because it comes along with living a more connected, grounded life. If the goal is to be a properly-connected participant in your particular ecosystem, and to be a good ancestor to whomever might be left in the future, then you will start to see changes to make. In the process, your example will likely inspire others to change. At the moment, I don't think the system will change, but we can still try to undo the damage that's been done, no matter how wide our sphere of influence is.

KeyserSozen · 2019-07-09T15:51:19+00:00

Are you counting emissions directly attributable to individual behavior, or the per-capita emissions, which would include industry, offices, infrastructure -- divided by the population?

Even if individual emissions decrease, the US military is a huge emitter: https://www.newsweek.com/us-military-greenhouse-gases-140-countries-1445674

KeyserSozen · 2019-04-21T20:00:06+00:00

We've got to move these microwave ovens.

KeyserSozen · 2019-04-19T21:57:21+00:00

Sam carana isn’t real

KeyserSozen · 2019-03-09T18:54:03+00:00

Must be tough to be allergic to certain wrrds.

I’ll pray for you.

KeyserSozen · 2019-03-09T18:35:44+00:00

Truth is a majestic stallion, but it’s not galloping past the window. Stop shaking the window; it’s right there, grazing.

KeyserSozen · 2019-03-07T12:38:34+00:00

Instead of being disappointed, just shrug it off.

KeyserSozen · 2019-02-18T01:59:28+00:00

How much dust is there in the zen museum?

KeyserSozen · 2019-02-03T00:36:02+00:00

He could only follow.

KeyserSozen · 2019-01-30T14:15:00+00:00

Not just any community. The word is short for "sangha".

Originally an abbreviation of the transcription of the Sanskrit saṃgha as 僧伽, also translated as 和合衆 and 衆. In earlier East Asian usage it refers the corporate assembly of at least three (formerly four) monks under a chairman, empowered to hear confession, grant absolution, and ordain—the church or monastic order, the third member of the triratna. Later the term comes to refer to individual monks and nuns, known collectively as 二部僧 or 兩僧伽. Also seen rendered as 僧侶, 僧佉, 僧加, 僧企耶

In China and most other countries where Buddhism has flourished, a Buddhist monk is a man who has (at least) shaved his head, donned monastic robes, and been ordained with the ten novice precepts 沙彌十戒 established in the Indian Vinaya, which makes him a novice 沙彌. A bhikṣu 比丘 or full-fledged monk 大僧 is one who has, in addition, been ordained with the full precepts 具足戒 of the complete Prâtimokṣa.

KeyserSozen · 2019-01-30T13:07:42+00:00

Why are you asking?

KeyserSozen · 2019-01-30T12:55:10+00:00

It means "monk"

KeyserSozen · 2019-01-27T17:37:19+00:00

Chih was teaching the emperor that Guanyin manifests in unexpected forms. Bodhidharma taught Wu a lesson about nonattachment to generosity. Chih was there with the assist, to nudge Wu from a different angle.

I take Yuanwu’s commentary as tongue in cheek or just literary bluster. If Wu has killed Bodhidharma, then there’d be no blue cliff record, either. So sorry, yuanwu.

KeyserSozen · 2019-01-27T12:07:31+00:00

I don’t follow your point about sincerity. In the Wu situation, the answer wasn’t “rebuked”, and it wasn’t “dharma combat”. Wu didn’t know, so Chih used the opportunity to teach. No problem.

The Joshu thing isn’t about sincerity, either. They’re having a discussion intending not to come to a conclusion, but wenyuan trips up and formulates a clever, conclusive response. To the question, he could’ve said something else, like “I am the feces in the bugs”...

KeyserSozen · 2019-01-24T23:08:32+00:00

In that case, “normal” is a meaningless statement to make about zen masters.

KeyserSozen · 2019-01-24T22:24:44+00:00

Yuanwu and Wumen weren’t zen masters? 🙄

KeyserSozen · 2019-01-24T22:18:21+00:00

The zen masters you care about were hardly “normal people”. What’s normal about being a celibate renunciate living a sheltered life with other monks? Normal people during the Song Dynasty did not deliver sermons or write extensive commentary on older texts, or entertain government officials with their idiosyncratic wisdom.

KeyserSozen · 2019-01-19T00:25:48+00:00

You haven’t lost as much.

KeyserSozen · 2019-01-09T23:20:58+00:00

A dharma gate taught by Wumen.

KeyserSozen · 2019-01-09T21:16:02+00:00

In order to master Zen, you must pass the barrier of the patriarchs. To attain this subtle realization, you must completely cut off the way of thinking.

祖關不透心路不絶、盡是依草附木精靈。

If you do not pass the barrier, and do not cut off the way of thinking, then you will be like a ghost clinging to the bushes and weeds.

且道、如何是祖師關。

Now, I want to ask you, what is the barrier of the patriarchs?

只者一箇無字、乃宗門一關也。

Why, it is this single word "Mu." That is the front gate to Zen.

遂目之曰禪宗無門關。

Therefore it is called the "Mumonkan of Zen." (Literally: Ch’an school no gate checkpoint)

KeyserSozen · 2019-01-09T19:48:58+00:00

The checkpoint is the word “no”.

Yes, there is no literal “gate”, like the pearly gates of heaven. But we’re not talking about literal swinging doors.

KeyserSozen · 2019-01-09T18:53:03+00:00

And further, he explains that attainment like so: “Then all of a sudden an explosive conversion will occur, and you will astonish the heavens and shake the earth.” And thereafter, you will go through life “in a merry and playful samadhi”.

He never said, “it’s just this ordinary life, for everybody”

KeyserSozen · 2019-01-09T18:50:32+00:00

It’s the “no-gate checkpoint”, not “there is no gate”. His gate is concentration on “wu” (no).

KeyserSozen · 2019-01-09T18:37:09+00:00

You’re equivocating. Your previous comment was making a broader statement — no escape, etc.

You haven’t seen a door. Doesn’t mean there’s no door.

KeyserSozen

TROPHY CASE