As the title might suggest, why should we not just die?
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The illusions are in the mind. Zen says attain no mind.
SAT today_/_
Rich
MUHYO
無 (MU, Emptiness) and 氷 (HYO, Ice) ... Emptiness Ice ...
https://instagram.com/notmovingmind -
We will. But until then, enjoy the illusion....you only get one.
Gassho, Kyotai
Sat todayComment
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Rich
MUHYO
無 (MU, Emptiness) and 氷 (HYO, Ice) ... Emptiness Ice ...
https://instagram.com/notmovingmindComment
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Why are you placing a value on an illusion?
Gassho
Sat TodayComment
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Hello illusion, come sit with me! =)
Gassho
Shingen
#sattodayComment
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There is no where to go.
Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_Comment
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It is all illusion.
But the beatings still hurt.
Geoff.
SatToday.Nothing to do? Why not Sit?
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I watch occasional movies and sometimes TV, although they are not real. The past few months my daughter and I watched the series Breaking Bad. It was nice to spend bonding time with her, and the show elicited similar emotions to a roller coaster ride (another illusion!) No use for any of it whatsoever, but, why not? Kyotai is right, we are all floating toward death, but we can enjoy the scenery on the way.
Gassho,
Jakuden
SatTodayComment
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I was just watching Matrix last night (unless I am in a pod just seeming to watch Matrix!
Anyway, better story the second time.)
This question actually comes up in one way or another from time to time (unless I am dreaming that too!). Here is what I usually say ...
Buddhism (and modern neuro-science) do posit that our experience of the world is more "mind created" then we realize. Traditional Buddhist psychology was way ahead of its time in attempting to describe how the mind creates, in the brain, a 'virtual' experience of the world and of your 'self'. Modern science, though still so incomplete, understands this process better every day: Your experience of your self and of the world is ultimately a fiction created when brain, sense organs and the 'outside world' (everything that is "out there" in the world really, whether you experience it or not) come together ... much like a movie you call "me and the world" created when the world is 'virtually' recreated inside the brain via data that is collected by the senses, passed by chemical-electrical signals to neurons, then (in processes we still barely understand) mixed with all the inner emotions, instincts and everything else the brain has learned about interpreting, organizing and responding to the world since you were a baby. The result is the inner movie you call your "experience of life". In fact, you have never actually seen "the world" at all ... you have never actually even directly seen or touched any of the people in it you love ... only a virtual recreation inside your head of light that entered your eyes, somehow recreated and interpreted within the lobes of the brain as objects that, for example, you stick names on and find pleasing, displeasing or neutral and ... here is part of the problem ... place all kinds of stories, demands, complexes, fears and neurosis on too.
In other words, when you hug your loved one, you have never actually touched or seen the loved one apart from the mental image recreated behind your eyes and between the ears, the feeling of a hug transmitted up your nerve endings, all to be simulated as the experience of the hug in your mind. However, although that hug may be something of a dream ... and the feeling of separation of hugger and huggee too ... nonetheless hug well, with love and not hate! Don't fill the relationship with lots of other harmful imaginings too.
Dogen said that we live in a dream within a dream ... a dream so dreamy, one might thus say it is as real as real can be ...
... but such is our dream, so best dream-live it well!
In other words ... this dream is a dream of your life, and your loved ones ... it is your life. Why squander it?
Even if life is something like a film we watch, why walk out? It is a darn good film (Better even than Matrix!!)
In a very real sense, since we are the universe manifested as us ... when you dream, it is the universe dreaming!
Dogen's Shobogenzo Dream Within A Dream is Dogen at some of his dreamiest, word and mind-bending best if anyone wants to go along for the wild ride ...
So, it may be a dream ... but it is your dream of you. Dream well.Every dewdrop manifested in every realm is a dream. This dream is the glowing clarity of the hundred grasses. What requires questioning is this very point. What is confusing is this very point. At this time, there are dream grasses, grasses within, expressive grasses, and so on. When we study this, then roots, stems, branches, leaves, flowers, and fruits, as well as radiance and color are all the great dream. Do not mistake them as merely dreamy.
However, those who do not wish to study buddha dharma believe that expressing the dream within a dream means speaking of unreal dream grass as real, like piling delusion upon delusion. But this is not true. When you say, “Within confusion is just confusion,” still you should follow the path in the vast sky known as “delusion throughout delusion.” You should endeavor to investigate just this thoroughly.
The expressing of the dream within a dream is all buddhas. All buddhas are wind and rain, water and fire. We respectfully maintain these names of buddhas, and also pay homage to those names of other buddhas. To express the dream within a dream is the ancient buddhas; it is to ride in this treasure boat and directly arrive in the practice place. Directly arriving in the practice place is riding in this treasure boat. Meandering dreams and direct dreams, holding and letting go, all freely flow like gusting breezes.
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When we learn this in practice, roots and stalks, twigs and leaves, flowers and fruit, and light and color are all the great dreamstate, which is not to be confused with dreaminess. Yet people who prefer not to learn the Buddha’s truth, when they encounter this “preaching a dream in a dream,” idly suppose that it might mean creating insubstantial dreamy things which do not exist at all; they suppose it might be like adding to delusion in delusion. [But] it is not so. Even when we are adding to delusion in delusion, we should endeavor just then to learn in practice the path of clarity of expression on which the words “delusion upon delusion” are naturally spoken. “Preaching the dream-state in the dream-state” is the buddhas, and the buddhas are wind, rain, water, and fire.
Gassho, J
SatToday
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More of the dream-within-dreaming Dogen here (Tanahashi-Leighton Translation) ...
For anyone new to reading Dogen oh-so-dreamy way of expressing the Teachings ...
SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Dogen - A Love Supreme
Last edited by Jundo; 03-20-2016, 10:37 AM.ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLEComment
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Hi.
The thing is that we just don't know if it's an illusion or a simulation. Still we need to work to get food to our tables. And at the end we will die. So why don't just do what you need to do, sit zazen, have fun... and eventually you'll get your answer.
Gassho,
Kyonin
#SatTodayHondō Kyōnin
奔道 協忍Comment
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Hello,
What makes you think you're not dead?^^
Gassho
Myosha sat todayLast edited by Myosha; 03-20-2016, 01:18 PM."Recognize suffering, remove suffering." - Shakyamuni Buddha when asked, "Uhm . . .what?"Comment
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For me I think this is a question of compassion. If you saw someone walking around really confused and deluded in their own little world would you think 'Oh I better put that person out of their misery'? Or would you feel compassion for them and try to treat them with kindness and help them? Surely it's the same with ourselves isn't it? It's a good question - thank you.
Gassho
Lucy
Sat todayComment
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Rich
MUHYO
無 (MU, Emptiness) and 氷 (HYO, Ice) ... Emptiness Ice ...
https://instagram.com/notmovingmindComment
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