Monday, 6 June 2022

No teacher: What does it mean when you can't answer questions?

I was chatting on Discord with this guy I blocked on Reddit about multiple posts which were clearly obviously blatantly misleading. By far he contributes more than he doesn't, so why should I block him?

My answer was why so many on topic posts, salted with this little bit of dishonest stuff? What was the real deep down motivation? I'm motivated by the dharma interview... so I ask, what motivated these exceptions to the "good contributor" rule?

  1. https://www.reddit.com/r/zen/comments/tpzl5o/mods_should_keep_their_bias_out_of_rzen_悟_and_the
  2. https://www.reddit.com/r/zen/comments/tjow96/what_is_zen_meditation/
  3. https://www.reddit.com/r/zen/comments/tcuixz/you_might_be_someone_who_could_use_meditation_to/
  4. https://www.reddit.com/r/zen/comments/teagw9/enlightenment_and_meditation_are_the_same_thing/
  5. https://www.reddit.com/r/zen/comments/tf0nn7/meditating_on_facing_a_wall/
  6. https://www.reddit.com/r/zen/comments/thmn61/are_the_mods_here_trying_to_sell_you_a_specific/
  7. https://www.reddit.com/r/zen/comments/tgp4uz/rzen_says_ama_and_zen_are_the_same_thing_this_is/

The Discord conversation ended with unanswered questions, and I glanced through these posts again. I pondered r/zen's fledgling AMA tradition which is an echo of the Zen tradition of Dharma Interviews. What's the difference? The big one is that people come to this forum and simply refuse to answer... because they have no teacher and no community to compel them. r/Zen AMAs are voluntary, that's the difference. In Zen culture and tradition, the whole monastic community is watching when the teacher asks you a question.

r/Zen People without a teacher can simply refuse to answer.

Why enter a conversation when you have no intention of having that conversation?

What is your "practice" if not coming to terms with your faith, your beliefs, your ideas?

We see this same pattern of can't answer in the new agers who post in this forum, the Buddhists who post in this forum... their practice isn't practicing in getting to the root of anything.

Why say "Buddhism" when you can't say what Buddhists believe? Why say "meditation" when you can't link that word to any religious textual tradition where a ritual practice is linked to a faith-based outcome?

When you can't answer, what kind of person does that make you?

What's the difference between the teacherless people who come to this forum to lie outright, whether one time or every time?

Does the number of lies matter to a teacher? From "refuse to answer" r/zen trolls to Brad Warner's refusal to read Bielefeldt to www.reddit.com/r/zen/wiki/sexpredator followers who claim dharma transmission from a precept failing fraud?

No teacher? That's why they can't answer.



Submitted June 06, 2022 at 04:57PM by ewk https://ift.tt/RvzlZtX

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