JESUS AND ZEN

by onesong 43 Replies latest jw friends

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  cognizant dissident

  James:

  Such feelings and beliefs support and so sustain the false sense of broken "self" that needs some thing, or some one.

  What this is about is realizing the perfect and pristine wholeness and purity that is our true and real identity, already.

  Well said. This does make sense and speaks to what I think it means to self-liberate even the antidote. Whether we believe the antidote to our perceived problems lies in Jesus, Allah, Buddha, the WTBTS, psychology, or assuaging our out of control egos or neurosis, to find our true selves or natures we must look deeper into ourselves rather than simply following the teachings of others as if they could supply us the answers.

  Cog
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  JamesThomas

  Exactly. All we need, we already have. It's only a matter of seeing.

  j
• 

  Terry

  We all have to wake up and get out of bed.

  We presumably brush our teeth, wash and do the toilet rituals.

  We breakfast and head off to work to earn the cash for food, shelter and clothing.

  In between, our elective time is spent pursuing preferences of behavior that actually constitutes our "life".

  How we feel about all this is largely irrelevent to the necessity of doing it.

  Our beliefs are like so much lint on our sleeve.

  Yet, since our mind is inescapable to ourselves we blow these beliefs into a certrality of importance undeserved in a practical sense.

  Does it actually matter how you decorate your consciousness with flowers and incense? No. It is soup seasoning. We need the soup to sustain our physicality. The taste makes it worth eating.

  The quality of life is in our taste buds.

  The actuality of life is mundanely miraculous.
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  trevor

  This is an interesting thread and I was about to attempt to add something deep and meaningful but I suddenly realized I had nothing to say. Perhaps I have at last arrived.

  First thing tomorrow we are off to the Greek island of Kefalonia where they made the film. ‘Captain Correlli’s Mandolin. There I shall sit and think of you all while I drink inferior Greek wine and ‘decorate my consciousness with flowers and incense.’

  Whether I will discover a true reality, become disconnected from reality or discover the ‘perfect and pristine wholeness and purity that is my true and real identity’ is anyone’s guess.

  As you can see my mind is already on holiday and for now I don't have to 'wake up.'