I've been watching "The Vow" on HBO and wanted to recommend it. It's only 2 episodes in, but some ideas preached by NXIVM feel akin to 'secular buddhism' to me. For example:
- suffering and joy are arbitrary sensory events that needn't inform your choices
- rational behavior is possible only when you divorce action from feelings
- most importantly: your understanding of the world is fundamentally illusory
Zen Masters don't teach any of those things (nor do they teach the opposite of those things). But personally I think they can pop out of a self-helpy approach to Zen.
It's actually sort of uncomfortable watching the show, knowing I've played with those ideas while trying to understand Zen - which is why I'm recommending it, in case others have too. An illustrative case, so it's not just me rambling:
Guishan asked Yangshan, “Speak quickly, without entering into the body-mind clusters and elements of sense.”
Yangshan said, “I don’t even establish faith.”
Guishan said, “Do you not establish it after having had faith, or without having had faith?”
Yangshan said, “It’s just I—who else would I have faith in?”
Guishan said, “If so, you are a listener of fixed nature.”
Yangshan said, “I don’t even see Buddha.”
Nature abhors a vacuum; 'emptiness' is not the result of 'emptying.'
Is your nature fixed? Cult leaders say "no." If Zen is not about behavior, why do Zen Masters judge one another by their behavior? When you speak, are you exposing free people to contagion? (wear a mask people)
Submitted August 31, 2020 at 11:21PM by in_dee_nile https://ift.tt/2YSL4Jr
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