This is my comment on the article see the link below. It's worth it to comment since that path of reductionism that some Buddhists practise is inherently flawed and leads to delusions. The same practice - being in the present moment - if performed incorrectly, can lead to the opposite result.
Our entire lives are nothing but a chain of moments in which we perceive one sight, taste, smell, touch, sound, feeling, or thought after another. Outside of this process, nothing else happens.
Such reductionism means that the author lost the sense of integrity of the situation - to what enlightenment could this possibly refer? Enlightenment is an understanding of a situation in its entirety, so the path of reductionism is inherently flawed. First, it's not correct to say that when it comes to Zen mind, you perceive just the object you're looking at: you perceive the whole situation at once. Secondly, the same applies to the perception of time: it's true that understanding can only be achieved through the present moment (this is so because we understand by denying, which is a pure sensation of the present moment), but understanding is in fact grasping a situation in its past, present and future at the same time.
There is no place for understanding in the author's scheme. Liberation is the result of the final understanding: as soon as you recognize yourself (the universe recognizes itself), the world doesn't scare you anymore.
There is nothing superfluous in our nature; you just need to put things right: to integrate them properly. The same concerns and desires. Desires give us energy: without the former there is no the later. It's true that in the learning process you go through a stage when you feel dead (and as I know, some even confuse this state with enlightenment); but then you must resurrect, ie, become enlightened: realize how the world works (what death really is) so it doesn't scare you anymore. If the author hasn't experienced anything like that, this doesn't mean it doesn't exist. When we were children, we were afraid of many things that no longer scare us as adults. Similarly, Buddhism is just the natural process of maturation that completed. The understanding of how the world works frees us from the fear of chaos and even makes us suspicious of stability.
Once we know what the present moment comprises, the next question is: Are these components delightful and lovely? We often think that images, smells, and so on can be wonderful.
When the components of mundane existence are themselves unsatisfactory, can we reasonably hope to fashion happiness from them?
The answer is yes: each individual component is unsatisfactory, but the very wholeness is wonderful. The whole can not be reduced to its parts - this has become a banality. In fact, a single sulfur atom doesn't have such a property as yellow; it's only when they're in large chunks this property emerges. The problem is if you go down the funnel to the quantum level, for example, this won't give you the understanding of what is going on at the top (this has become a banality too.) In fact, Zen practice is the exact opposite of reductionism: when you see not just a leaf but at least the whole tree.
Because delusion blurs the separate moments of perception together, making experience look seamless. After the color sparks out, subsequent moments of consciousness replay the image from memory, dubbing it “sunset".
Do such large scale features that we use when we think and label as 'sun', 'forest', 'river', perhaps 'sunset', really exist, or they're just patterns in our minds? Not only philosophers but also mathematics puzzle their brains over that (see The Collapse of Chaos: Discovering Simplicity in a Complex World by Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen, for example.) Is there such a feature as 'tree', or each tree is a unique entity? They are the features in which we think, but the question is does nature think in them too? And the further up the more abstract they become: 'trees', 'species', and so on. Do they really exist? Maybe yes and no at the same time: each such feature in the long run is not truth, but truth, among other things, includes these features.
If you have problems, you can solve them, or ignore. The presence of internal dialogue indicates that you have internal tension: some unresolved problems. If you just discard them in order never to return, you'll turn into a walking or sitting mummy: without tension no energy. Meanwhile, the natural result of the correct Zen practice must be the one that you're full of energy. It can't be otherwise because if you recognize yourself while looking at the external world, you'll see that it's under tremendous tension - it's full of energy, so you must be too! The universe is equally beautiful in all its manifestations. If you realize this, you'll understand that it makes no sense to be afraid of chaos. And the realization that you're actually alone in the entire universe will give you absolute freedom. You'll also become free from karma but for reasons other then that gives the author. In addition, to appeal to the First Noble Truth is not relevant here too because what makes you happy and free is understanding of what death is.
There is another reason why correct Zen practice ultimately makes you full of energy and optimism, but I won't venture to describe it here - read attentively my blog.
What’s So Great About Now?
Our entire lives are nothing but a chain of moments in which we perceive one sight, taste, smell, touch, sound, feeling, or thought after another. Outside of this process, nothing else happens.
Such reductionism means that the author lost the sense of integrity of the situation - to what enlightenment could this possibly refer? Enlightenment is an understanding of a situation in its entirety, so the path of reductionism is inherently flawed. First, it's not correct to say that when it comes to Zen mind, you perceive just the object you're looking at: you perceive the whole situation at once. Secondly, the same applies to the perception of time: it's true that understanding can only be achieved through the present moment (this is so because we understand by denying, which is a pure sensation of the present moment), but understanding is in fact grasping a situation in its past, present and future at the same time.
There is no place for understanding in the author's scheme. Liberation is the result of the final understanding: as soon as you recognize yourself (the universe recognizes itself), the world doesn't scare you anymore.
There is nothing superfluous in our nature; you just need to put things right: to integrate them properly. The same concerns and desires. Desires give us energy: without the former there is no the later. It's true that in the learning process you go through a stage when you feel dead (and as I know, some even confuse this state with enlightenment); but then you must resurrect, ie, become enlightened: realize how the world works (what death really is) so it doesn't scare you anymore. If the author hasn't experienced anything like that, this doesn't mean it doesn't exist. When we were children, we were afraid of many things that no longer scare us as adults. Similarly, Buddhism is just the natural process of maturation that completed. The understanding of how the world works frees us from the fear of chaos and even makes us suspicious of stability.
Once we know what the present moment comprises, the next question is: Are these components delightful and lovely? We often think that images, smells, and so on can be wonderful.
When the components of mundane existence are themselves unsatisfactory, can we reasonably hope to fashion happiness from them?
The answer is yes: each individual component is unsatisfactory, but the very wholeness is wonderful. The whole can not be reduced to its parts - this has become a banality. In fact, a single sulfur atom doesn't have such a property as yellow; it's only when they're in large chunks this property emerges. The problem is if you go down the funnel to the quantum level, for example, this won't give you the understanding of what is going on at the top (this has become a banality too.) In fact, Zen practice is the exact opposite of reductionism: when you see not just a leaf but at least the whole tree.
Because delusion blurs the separate moments of perception together, making experience look seamless. After the color sparks out, subsequent moments of consciousness replay the image from memory, dubbing it “sunset".
Do such large scale features that we use when we think and label as 'sun', 'forest', 'river', perhaps 'sunset', really exist, or they're just patterns in our minds? Not only philosophers but also mathematics puzzle their brains over that (see The Collapse of Chaos: Discovering Simplicity in a Complex World by Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen, for example.) Is there such a feature as 'tree', or each tree is a unique entity? They are the features in which we think, but the question is does nature think in them too? And the further up the more abstract they become: 'trees', 'species', and so on. Do they really exist? Maybe yes and no at the same time: each such feature in the long run is not truth, but truth, among other things, includes these features.
If you have problems, you can solve them, or ignore. The presence of internal dialogue indicates that you have internal tension: some unresolved problems. If you just discard them in order never to return, you'll turn into a walking or sitting mummy: without tension no energy. Meanwhile, the natural result of the correct Zen practice must be the one that you're full of energy. It can't be otherwise because if you recognize yourself while looking at the external world, you'll see that it's under tremendous tension - it's full of energy, so you must be too! The universe is equally beautiful in all its manifestations. If you realize this, you'll understand that it makes no sense to be afraid of chaos. And the realization that you're actually alone in the entire universe will give you absolute freedom. You'll also become free from karma but for reasons other then that gives the author. In addition, to appeal to the First Noble Truth is not relevant here too because what makes you happy and free is understanding of what death is.
There is another reason why correct Zen practice ultimately makes you full of energy and optimism, but I won't venture to describe it here - read attentively my blog.
What’s So Great About Now?
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