Zen Thought For the Day

[metadigital]

FATHER:  What the hell?!  When...  Why did you get your tongue pierced?!?

 

DAUGHTER:  Well - ya know - I wanted to show my individuality.  ...And - ya know - all my friends were doing it!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's tribalism. We are in the era of body art by permanent disfigurement.

[Walsingham]

Thus it seems to me self-evident that we must, irrespective of race or creed act in every way to avoid the extinction of the species.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Nice post... just one thing you need to clarify for me though ... surely if we *must* act in such a way to avoid the extinction, this in turn takes away our free will, don't we get to choose whether we want to propagate or not?

 

 

DL

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Good point. I guess I'd counter by saying that your very question implies that free will is something worth pursuing. If the species dies out, then the general exercise of free will is abruptly terminated. Whereas the longer we continue the greater potential there is for the exercise of free will.

 

Meta: WTF? Are you saying I have to contend with zombie crabs now?

 

Risk seeking behaviour can be a good thing. Cause sometimes the risks pay off. I don't fully understand the biochemistry that underlies it. Something to do with mono-amine oxidase. If anyone knows about this, I'd love to know more.

 

 

EDIT: Meta it is possible that the fish have evolved to permit the infection by the bacteria because it makes them risk-takers. We do, after all, generally accept mind alteration, and particularly alcohol for its beneficial loosening of inhibitions. Sometimes the propagation of the species needs a helping beer goggle. Perhaps that's how the fish work?

[metadigital]

...

Meta: WTF? Are you saying I have to contend with zombie crabs now?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Fact is stranger than fiction.

Risk seeking behaviour can be a good thing. Cause sometimes the risks pay off. I don't fully understand the biochemistry that underlies it. Something to do with mono-amine oxidase. If anyone knows about this, I'd love to know more.

 

EDIT: Meta it is possible that the fish have evolved to permit the infection by the bacteria because it makes them risk-takers. We do, after all, generally accept mind alteration, and particularly alcohol for its beneficial loosening of inhibitions. Sometimes the propagation of the species needs a helping beer goggle. Perhaps that's how the fish work?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

As per the Sacculina Carcini, above, the fish don't get much out of the transaction; just eaten! It's more a spuer-effective weapon developed by the parasite, than a good mutually-beneficial symbiotic relationship, so No, fish: bad.

 

My point about the cat toxoplasmosis link is that the bacteria exists in people; we just don't know if it has the same effect on humans ...

[EnderAndrew]

I know for a fact that I don't have zombie crabs. I went to the clinic and got that cleared up!

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Humans (and higher apes) are smart enough to understand the social network, and to attempt to deconstruct it and rebuild it in a more "useful" framework for them.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Is this attributed to instinct rather than rational thought, or to genetical similarity instead?

[Walsingham]

Humans (and higher apes) are smart enough to understand the social network, and to attempt to deconstruct it and rebuild it in a more "useful" framework for them.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Is this attributed to instinct rather than rational thought, or to genetical similarity instead?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I would have thought it would have to be rational. Or do I mean usually rational? People typically only move to different social structures when they are educated about them, or move into an existing one. It is rare in my experience that a person 'invents' a new system.

 

EDIT: on reflection I'm not at all sure about this.

[metadigital]

I used the "higher apes" adjectival clause because we genetic cousins have the mental faculties to manipulate our meta-environment, but I agree that it requires more than the tools to get the job done.

 

A lot of (most) people are quite content to work within a given social system, regardless of their initial position within it. As George Bernard Shaw said, it requires the unreasonable man to change the status quo ...

[Nightblade]

Isn't the desire to change a desire in and of itself?

 

To crave to stop craving..

 

Unfortunately that's not what most people crave when they come to practice. They usually crave some sort of solution to their worldly problems, dreaming about a blissful state of mind. This is of course something they'll never find, as zen/buddhism is not a path to joy, but primarily to a clear mind (that's what it is supposed to be anyway).

 

It *is* possible to fight fire with fire though. A good teacher can, if you so desire, help you see yourself for who/what you really are, i.e. you slowly come to see yourself, your own traits and your own behaviour clearly. This can be a rather humiliating process, and it often exhausts you and leads you to a state where you no longer feel the need to play games or uphold your image/attitude/behaviour/old way of life etc. When you see how drainy your previous behaviour was, you simply let it go and forget about it. No craving involved, rather the opposite. Like when you're about to burp,.. do you crave to burp? Sooner or later you'll burp, don't worry about it. This "letting go" can of course take some time.. years, or maybe decades. Using the desire to end desire is in the Tibetan tradition, I believe, often referred to as "turning the root poison into medicine". A way of fighting fire with fire.

 

If you've met serious and dedicated Buddhists, especially those studying under the old japanese roshis in the US, you can see the transformation they've been through by looking at their eyes and faces. Calm and quiet eyes, a steady look and not a great deal of facial expressions. They have an air of calm and carefreeness, which often can be mistaken for an irresponsible nonchalance.

Freedom from desire.

 

 

N.

[Walsingham]

I personally do not see how abstinence from worldly pleasure has to be a part of clarity. It is attachment and desire that are part of the bardo (if I recall correctly). And it is they that cause suffering. If one is able to enjoy life when it is enjoyable, and not become attached to the things that bring you joy, nor cry out when bad things happen, then you have achieved clarity.

 

Part of this is the notion that it is fear that brings much suffering. However, turning away from the living world is in part fear, and causes you to miss much. Living without fear is the main objective in my life at present, hence my interest in the Way of the Samurai over monastic buddhism.

[EnderAndrew]

It is not the absense of pleasure, but the absense of desiring pleasure.

 

However for most people, they lead ascetic lives in trying to remove the desire.

[Darth Launch]

Good point. I guess I'd counter by saying that your very question implies that free will is something worth pursuing.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Eep... sorry to dig up this old point, seeing as though you guys have moved onto something different... :">

 

Just have to ask whether life is truly worth living if we don't pursue our right to exercise free will, our right to make a choice etc....

 

DL

[Walsingham]

Good question, darth. I believe that to even if one decides we live without free will, and that free will is essential to meaning, then one should continue to exist and breed, because it is possible we will evolve to a form that has free will.

 

(I'm a bit keen on humans, as you may have guessed)

[EnderAndrew]

I completely agree. That's the clinching point of the arguement personally.

 

If we believed there was no such thing as free will, wouldn't apathy and ennoi set in? I believe in free will, because I can't accept the reverse arguement.

[Nightblade]

Living without fear is the main objective in my life at present, hence my interest in the Way of the Samurai over monastic buddhism.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

You think bull-shido will lead you to fearlessness? The desire to scream and wield some sword is usually the result of some infantile-ninja dream, and as such a desire to be something/somebody. My guess is, you're trying to impress the chicks by posing as some sort of martial-artist.

 

N.

[EnderAndrew]

Bushido is not necessarily the desire to attack someone with a sword. It is the way of living life as a Bushi would, living with honor and having no fear of death.

[Walsingham]

I have no desire to impress people as a martial artist. Partly because most peopel aren't impressed! But fear of death is a part of many things we do, like worry about our appearance as we age. Worry about life decisions. Worry about what career to pursue. These things shrink when one accepts the inevitability of death and just gets on with it.

[Nightblade]

Bushido is not necessarily the desire to attack someone with a sword.  It is the way of living life as a Bushi would, living with honor and having no fear of death.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yeah.. that's what I thought too, 20 years ago when I was a teenage-mutant ninja turtle like the rest of you.

 

There are many ways to achieve fearlessness, but I seriously doubdt some self-appointed US Sword teacher is gonna succeed in getting you there. Bushido might have been a way of life in medieval Japan - today it caters to spotty teens with self-esteem problems. Mostly.

 

N.

[metadigital]

Living without fear is the main objective in my life at present, hence my interest in the Way of the Samurai over monastic buddhism.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You think bull-shido will lead you to fearlessness? The desire to scream and wield some sword is usually the result of some infantile-ninja dream, and as such a desire to be something/somebody. My guess is, you're trying to impress the chicks by posing as some sort of martial-artist.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Is there any other reason for doing anything?

 

Seriously, though, courage is not the absence of fear, it is doing what must be done in the presence of fear.

[Nightblade]

Is there any other reason for doing anything?

 

No, but very few realize that.

 

N.

[metadigital]

Is there any other reason for doing anything?

No, but very few realize that.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi, my name is meta Deconstruction digital. Nice to meet you.

[Walsingham]

Bushido is not necessarily the desire to attack someone with a sword.  It is the way of living life as a Bushi would, living with honor and having no fear of death.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yeah.. that's what I thought too, 20 years ago when I was a teenage-mutant ninja turtle like the rest of you.

 

There are many ways to achieve fearlessness, but I seriously doubdt some self-appointed US Sword teacher is gonna succeed in getting you there. Bushido might have been a way of life in medieval Japan - today it caters to spotty teens with self-esteem problems. Mostly.

 

N.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Well, maybe so. But firstly, i'm no spotty teenager. Secondly, I recall being a spotty teenager, and needing every helping hand I could get!

 

Seriously though, philosophy, any codified philosophy appeals to those who have lost their way to an extent. It give syou a compass, so to speak, and I think such things can be helpful.

 

Going back to bushido, by accepting death, one of the concomitants is that by accepting the transience of the grossly physical things like wealth and status one raises the comparative importance of intangible things like honour. No bad thing, IMO.

[EnderAndrew]

That and ninja turtles get to eat pizza all day.

[metadigital]

A lot of dorm rooms look worse than sewers, too.

[Nightblade]

Going back to bushido, by accepting death, one of the concomitants is that  by accepting the transience of the grossly physical things like wealth and status one raises the comparative importance of intangible things like honour. No bad thing, IMO.

 

Just out of curiosity, how do you (you personally) practice to learn to truly accept death? Do you believe that by adopting some philosophical viewpoint you'll learn to transcend your fear of dying?

 

N.

[metadigital]

...

THE FIVE STAGES OF FACING DEATH

Stage One

Denial, shock, and disbelief. Feeling of numbness. The inability to accept what has happened and insistence that no change has taken place.

 

Stage Two

Anger that the situation could occur, possibly directed to others.

 

Stage Three

Beginning to accept the reality of the situation, but trying to 'bargain' for a bit more time to live, whether through expressions of religious belief or increased compliance with medical instructions.

 

Stage Four

Depression, characterized be feelings of hopelessness and despair about what has already been lost and what else will be lost.

 

Stage Five

Acceptance of the loss, and quiet discussions of death with closest friends and relatives. An emotional reprieve from negative emotions. Feelings of peaceful resignation about one's own fate. Lack of interest in, and withdrawal from, the everyday affairs of life, such as political affairs, social events, news stories, and so on.

...

 

Sounds like Walsingham's on about stage 3.5 ...