From the band nirvana to Buddha’s Nirvana

From the band nirvana to Buddha’s Nirvana

A few introductory quotes from popular songs

I don’t know if I care

I’m a jerk, life's not fair

From Papa Roach’s She Loves Me Not

I feel stupid and contagious

Here we are now, entertain us

From Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit

Everything’s so blurry and everyone’s so fake

And everybody’s empty and everything is so messed up

From Puddle of Budd’s Blurry

Zen discussion with Zen quotes

Is this concept of emptyness related to zen?

Is this stupidity, is this “lack of care”, is this acusation of “fakery” related to zen?

Maybe it is related to the trolling and obnoxiousness in r/zen, but I am not talking about that - I mean to real zen, to seeing your true nature.

Life is suffering

Buddha

Is facing suffering in life, facing it head on and refusing to look away part of seeing your true nature? These bands seem to take a look almost directly at suffering, but I’d say with some degree of attachment even if I don’t know if to what, maybe exactly to hate, to aversion.

Because for one thing these singers, kind of emo, seem radically passionate about what they are singing about:

Have you not read the saying, ‘When independent and unimpassioned, you yourself are Buddha’!

Maybe not all intensity is an intensity of passion?

Western Zen, Western Buddhas

To a great degree I ask because it’s nice to see other cultures, it’s nice to value things from the Chinese tradition that is so long lasting and kept so well records of it’s history. But are we not doing a disservice, not only by misreading, by false equivalencies, but also by not valuing our own tradition, our own culture?

You want to listen attentively to Buddha; why doesn’t Buddha listen to himself? If you seek a formal Buddha outside the listening, it will not resemble you.

There is still desire there!

When I was journeying in the past, I called on teachers in one or two places; they just taught day and night concentration, sitting until your buttocks grow callouses, and all the while your mouth is drooling. From the start they sit in the utter darkness in the belly of the primordial Buddha and ignorantly say they are sitting in meditation conserving this attainment. At such times, there is still desire there! Have you not read the saying, ‘When independent and unimpassioned, you yourself are Buddha’! An ancient remarked, ‘If you poison the milk, even clarified butter is deadly.’

Maybe part of the story is that in capitalism we as workers are supposed to be mechanical transactional beings. Dispassionate. Disinterested (other than in terms of money). Objective. And yet - not only in meditation but also in this mechanical world, “there is still desire there”.

Trying to repress feelings of suffering does not count as acceptance. Repression is not acceptance. Fundamentally. A distinction is very important. Not acknowledging desire does not mean it is not there.

Submitted March 17, 2021 at 07:27PM by 2bitmoment https://ift.tt/3qUFYrf