Jundo Tackles the 'BIG' Questions - VII (Life After Death?)

[Myosha]

"My Grandfather's Axe"


My grandfather's axe, like any axe,
consists of two parts,
a handle and a head.
My father replaced the handle,
and I replaced the head.


But it's still my grandfather's axe . . . .



Transition.


Gassho
Myosha sat today

[Jishin]

I think that's what you're saying here.

Hi Luciana.

It's hard to say.

Gassho, Jishin, _/st\_

[Jundo]

Hello, Taigu--I'm new to this forum and don't know whether anyone will even see this post to a very old thread. And perhaps the question really belongs in the Karma discussion. But I have a problem with "And a would-be "good action" arising from the field of fear or greed has a poisonous nature that will even outgrow its primary direction."

I have heard that Karma is considered to arise from one's intention rather than one's action, and I think that's what you're saying here. Yet, how can this be? If the action has a good outcome for the other person, how can the action be completely negative? I can see where the do-er of the action may cause further suffering for him- or herself if the motive isn't pure, but I can't see how the act of feeding a hungry baby (for example), with whatever motive, could ever have an entirely 'poisonous nature', especially for the baby.

Hi Luciana,

I am going to take the liberty of try to speak to this (Taigu has been reborn as the teacher at our Blue Mountain sister group, and is not around here much these days).

I agree with you. I believe that our volitional actions can have mixed results. So, for example, if I feed a hungry baby out of some personal greed (for example, as a film star adopting a child just trying to make a photo opportunity for the paparazzi, without really concern for the baby), the baby still gets fed. Nonetheless, the greed in the film star's heart will likely be poisoning her own heart, and I would bet that it will be causing damage to the people around her in other ways.

(Did you ever see the movie "Mommy Dearest, about the film star Joan Crawford and her abusive relationship with her adopted daughter?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NOmw_kzrJQ

Putting aside the issue of any future lives, greed, anger, jealousy and all the rest in this life will inevitably poison the individual, the people they come in contact with and the wider society, even if some good also results as well.

Gassho, J

[Getchi]

Lovely thread, thankyou all for the great thoughts!

Taigu's story of the samurai and the monk is beautiful and ill keep (and share) it for a long time!

And Jundo, your description of the leaves on the tree offered me a very sudden "whoa!" moment; ive thought deeply on the waves and the plane trip and all the imponderables, but the tree idea is just wonderful.

Suddenly i understand our interconnections!

As for everything else? "Don't know".

Gassho,
Geoff.
SatToDay

[Luciana]

Dear Jundo,

Thank you.

0
/\

L.

sat today

[Cyd]

Sat2day

[Budo-Dan]

Oh boy...I have a lot to think about.
Gassho
Dan
Sat2day

[Jundo]

Oh boy...I have a lot to think about.
Gassho
Dan
Sat2day

And not think about. And think-non-think-about!

(oh, I gotta million of 'em!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHYiyv68q2o

Gassho, J

SatTodayLAH

[cosmiceye]

.....I am writing a book now on something called the "anthropic coincidences", that I think has some important implications for ideas of causation and is evidence against the happenstance of human existence (and I am bending over backwards to be conservative in drawing any conclusions in my book)....



Gassho, Jundo

Does anyone know if this book is in print yet?

Gassho,
Kristin
Sat2day LAH

[Jundo]

Does anyone know if this book is in print yet?

Gassho,
Kristin
Sat2day LAH

Hah! I suppose I should know, as I am supposed to be the author. Also by coincidence, I am just finishing my manuscript on Dogen this week which touches on this in parts, although indirectly in its discussion of the deep interconnections and inter-flowing of all phenomena in the universe that contribute to our life. Now, I just have to find out if anyone in the universe will publish it!

If you would like to watch a series of interviews with famous physicists and thinkers about the anthropic coincidences, I highly recommend all the interviews here (all the places to click are different interviews). My one complaint is that they did not include many possibilities beyond "brute fact vs. vs. multiverse/selection effect vs. intelligent designer." There are other possibilities, some presented by Eastern beliefs, that are barely touched upon in the discussion of possible explanations. Even most of the very conservative scientists (not all) admit that there something that requires explaining here.

https://www.closertotruth.com/topics/cosmos/our-special-universe

Gassho, Jundo

[Daitetsu]

Hi Jundo,

Now, I just have to find out if anyone in the universe will publish it!

There is always the possibility of publishing via Book on Demand (BOD). AFAIK you can also do this with Amazon and even have the choice of publishing it as an ebook besides the printed version.
It might even have advantages (or not - it depends) over the whole hassle of telephone calls with the publisher's reader, sending manuscripts, waiting for answers, discussions about layout, title and changes, etc.




The whole Anthropic thing used to be a very important question for me many years back before I came to our practice. However, it has slightly lost importance for me.
It's a bit like the question about whether the glass is half empy or half full - nowadays I simply prefer to take the glass and drink it. ;-)

Coincidence or not? IMHO we will never know.
A creator/intelligent design is not necessary to explain this universe/our existence (which does not mean he/she/it does not exist!).
We don't know how many universes without life there were before ours. Maybe there were billions of lifeless universes before ours before finally there was one supporting life. Then the existence of life would be kind of inevitable, nothing special.
Or there are billions of universes existing next to each other - then the same as above, it would be no big coincidence, that at least one of them supports life.

However, does it really matter? For looking at the stars we are basically looking in the mirror...

Gassho,

Daitetsu

#sat2day

[Jundo]

It does not matter. Chop wood, fetch water.

But I take the question one step further ...

Coincidence or not? IMHO we will never know.
A creator/intelligent design is not necessary to explain this universe/our existence (which does not mean he/she/it does not exist!).
We don't know how many universes without life there were before ours. Maybe there were billions of lifeless universes before ours before finally there was one supporting life. Then the existence of life would be kind of inevitable, nothing special.
Or there are billions of universes existing next to each other - then the same as above, it would be no big coincidence, that at least one of them supports life.

I take our personal existences (Daitetsu and Jundo) as so preposterous, with every twist and turn of physics/star development/chemistry/planetary development/biology/evolution and all world and personal history having to be so precisely right for our personal births ... not a single left turn by a turtle or fish in our ancestral tree who needed in that moment to turn right, not one ancestor eaten a day too early by a predator before having a chance to mate, not one pebble or grain of sand or atom out of place if somehow necessary for our births ... that the multiverse would have to include all of that and every other option.

Nonetheless, there is still no explanation why, even if there is such a multiverse, that Daitetsu and Jundo have to be conscious and self-aware in this universe, right here and now, which appears to be the one where we need to be. In other words, there may be countless universes of Daitetsu or Jundo, and countless universes without, yet those Daitetsus and Jundos are seemingly not you and me here and now, and we need to be us here and now because here we are here and now. Also, why is there even a Daitetsu and Jundo anywhere at all, and why do we happen to be aware of that fact? How amazing that reality should need any Daitetsu or Jundo at all, let alone these two right now where we need to be right now to be chatting about the fact.

This question is not often addressed, for the Anthropic Coincidences are usually discussed as "what is necessary for life in general" or "what is necessary for intelligent life generally like ours," but rarely if ever "what would be necessary for our lives."

Anyway, one universe or infinite universes, chop wood and fetch water (or, in some of them, fetch wood and chop water, or nothing at all).

Gassho, J

SatTodayLAH

PS - I think this book is good, really good, if I say so myself (although I am very biased; Kirk's editing has helped a lot). So, I want to talk to the usual Buddhist publishers and see what they say first. In this day and age, publishing oneself is also an option. It is called "Letters from Dogen," turning several of Dogen's writings into letters written to modern people, and an explanation on how to read Dogen, Zazen etc. Dogen is actually not as complicated as people make him out to be.

I set up and did the ebook Amazon thing for my Uncle Robert's book on Leonard Bernstein (Bob was Bernstein's assistant conductor for a few years), 600+ pages if anyone is a really REALLY serious Leonard Bernstein fan. This is my Uncle Robert Mandell, retired now in the UK Midlands (the musical talent on that side of the family skipped me):

https://sites.google.com/site/westsidemaestro/

[Daitetsu]

Hi Jundo,

Thanks a lot for your elaborate reply, wonderful!
I can hardly wait for your book to come out, it sounds interesting indeed.
I hope you have luck with the publishers, IMHO there is demand for it.

Chopping wood I chop the universe,
fetching water I fetch myself

Gassho,

Daitetsu

#sat2day