Sam Harris

unsmoked - 18 September 2008 06:33 PM

“Tell me, why was he like this?”

(Except for the names and the subject of Sander’s sermon, quote is taken from the book, ‘ZEN LETTERS - Teachings of Yuanwu’ - Translated by J.C. Cleary and Thomas Cleary).

It’s because of the arrogant presumption of how much fucking good you think you’re doing by spewing this stuff all over the forum. You think it’s such hot shit that everyone else needs a dose of it, otherwise you’d be happy with personal and subjective observations. Like Stein’s Oakland, however, there is no “there” there. And this is not the not-there you think you’re talking about. It’s the not-thereness of the hot shit that isn’t there, but purports itself to be.

It is hilarious how much ego we see caught up in these attempts to demolish the ego. It is breathtaking how much banality is exhibited in broadcasting how enamored one can become of one’s own self-assessed capacity to breathe in profundity.

Get the picture?

McCreason - 18 September 2008 06:45 PM

LOL Unsmoked. Are you OK? Sometimes I wonder.

Just tell me that McCain isn’t going to win.

I think McCain will win. America is full of fuckwittery yet still…what can I say.

WWBD? (What Would Buddha do)

Salt Creek - 18 September 2008 06:49 PM

. . . there is no “there” there. And this is not the not-there you think you’re talking about. It’s the not-thereness of the hot shit that isn’t there, but purports itself to be.

Get the picture?

You mean like, ‘the pine tree in the yard’?

unsmoked - 18 September 2008 07:06 PM

You mean like, ‘the pine tree in the yard’?

There is no pine tree. Only Zuul. Or was that McCain? I know that wasn’t the name of the Bruce Willis character in the “Die Hard” series, but it’s close enough.

It’s not McCain’s fault that there are people who will elect him, even though they have a choice. I’m out of politics because of them. I’m an ex-pat in my own country. Ave atque vale!

Salt Creek - 18 September 2008 07:24 PM

There is no pine tree. Only Zuul. Or was that McCain? I know that wasn’t the name of the Bruce Willis character in the “Die Hard” series…...

That would be “John McClane.”

Dude, how cool would it be if he could run for president?

Celsus - 19 September 2008 12:15 AM

Dude, how cool would it be if he could run for president?

I’ve thrown all my support behind Clint Eastwood. Did you see the way he perpetrated the mercy killing in that film he did about the girl boxer? Next: De-regulators of the lending industry. They don’t get a lethal injection. They get their skins flayed and salted.

Oh, wait. I forgot. I’m out of politics. Where’s the Zen in that? Sorry.

unsmoked - 17 September 2008 05:43 PM

The Zen Shortcut

“The shortcut of Zen is to leave the present and directly experience the state before birth, before the division of wholeness.”  - Zen Master Mi-an (circa A.D. 1100)

Sam Harris comments in THE END OF FAITH:

. . . “It also seems a matter of common sense that the more the feeling of selfhood is relaxed, the less those states that are predicated upon it will arise - states like fear and anger.  Scientists are making their first attempts to test claims of this sort, but every experienced meditator has tested them already.  While much of the scientific research done on meditation has approached it as little more than a tool for stress reduction, there is no question that the phenomenon of selflessness has begun to make its way into the charmed circle of third-person experimental science.”

(If you have a copy of THE END OF FAITH, read the above paragraph in context, pages 218-220 - paperback.)