The structure of zen

Often times people may see Zen as taking a negative approach to pointing out people's true inherent goodness. "Not this, not that."

You might even get someone picking apart your every single word. "Good?" They might say. There IS no good and bad in Zen. You are wrong. I am right.

I say that's semantics. Not zen.

My father was like that, too. Always negative. Toward himself, toward the environment, didn't matter. He was fond of saying, "Not this, not that."

 

On reddit (and this subreddit is no exception), some people are hyper-aware of the fact that if they think certain things, express certain ideas, or write certain combinations of words, they will almost inevitably be told, "NO."

In the world, in reddit, and in this subreddit, there is a culture of "yes and no", of "right and wrong". If you agree with the group, you are "yessed" to death. If you disagree, you are "noed" to death.

Being told no is a part of human life, because as long as there is a difference between me and you, we will bump into each other.

But what does that have to do with zen?

What can we learn about ourselves from these differences?

 

In Zen, I've heard people say "No coming, no going."

That is not the same as just saying "No".

It implies coming and going.

Submitted February 26, 2018 at 06:54PM by charmander12345678 http://ift.tt/2oyk2nF