#6

15/03/2000

klein@zen.ru

 

In this issue:

Zen thoughts
Short conversations
Long conversations
A koan from Lotos
Scary stories
Homework
To the reader

Brothers, if I hurt you, I'll do it regretfully.

Zen Help

weekly Internet magazine
chief editor: Klein

  

Zen thoughts

 

Right concept of concentration

European concentration – is in space. The right-necessary (oriental) concentration - is in time. The right-necessary concentration in time is equal to “relaxed” in eastern meaning and is not equal to “relaxed” in European meaning. Understood?

Stick out your tongue at him

Somebody is sitting up there and laughing! Only the maximum concentration allows sticking out your tongue at him and saying – beee! Be-be-beee!… :))))))))))

The world exists

“The world exists” is, in my opinion, a more constructive position. It allows to stop mucking about on top of a mountain away from the world (this stage “away from the world” had been passed a long time ago and it is not necessary to repeat it), and to act in the world. In general, this is the essence of Ch'an – to throw a person into a layer where the mountain and the world for him flow together. And more exactly – they appear as something different which has 1 dimension more and which allows him to manifestate himself as a Great Warrior of the Mountain and a Great Warrior of the World simultaneously.

White magic and “good purposes”

High sensitivity (together with the right approach):))) will change into: intuition, strategic thinking, extrasensory perception, ability to work white magic… :))) White magic – it is somethig quite different from what is usually meant by “white magic” :))) I think that any manifestation of magic that you know is black magic. “Good purposes” do not make the magic white as everybody usually thinks :)))

Magic formulas

It impossible to spell magic formulas with impunity, sorry… playing about with magic formulas cannot pass without leaving a trace – ignorance of the law does not free from the responsibility – the world is bigger than we always imagine to ourselves and therefore it is necessary to act as carefully as possible – the law of cause and effect exists and every second each of us is getting the results of his actions in the form of response-reaction... :))))

Magic action

Magic formulas get beaten by magic action! 

How to drag a piano to the 7-th floor

- How did you manage to drag the piano to the 7-th floor?

- I've tied it to the cat…

- But the cat… it is…

- Well, I've got a whip!…

 The word “cat” can be replaced by the word “Zen follower”, “dragging a piano to the second floor” by “enlightening" and so on… :)))

“At your own expence”

Whatever you do – you have to do it “at your own expence”. If you do it “at someone else's expence” you do it all wrong. This (this!) is how the notion of DUTY appears in addition to FREEDOM… This is how it appears for the dumb ones, for whom it is necessary to chew everything over a lot of times. :))))))))))))))))

Touchiness

Aren't you, by chance, too touchy in some perverted form of touchiness? I know, that the property “intellectuality” can easily get along with the property “stupidity” and “non-discerning-ty” because of – maybe - having some perverted form of touchiness… :))

  

Short conversations

 

Bug off

- Or in the beginning – bug off everybody, I am getting enlightened, and then – welcome? :)

- No :)))) Bug off – always :)))

Completeness of feeling of existence

- But will your feeling of existence, life, be complete without understanding that you have done everything as it should be done toward those who are close you and who need something from you, while you make Enlightenment your aim?

- I do not make Enlightenment my aim. And I do not care about completeness of feeling of existence. My feeling of existence - speaking not very clearly, but shortly :))) - does not depend on anything.

Passage to Ch'an enlightenment

- The passage to Ch'an enlightenment can be compared with death…

- Everything can be compared with anything :))) And what? :))) It can be compared, for example, with life. :))) Or with ass. :)) Or with… with which letter shall I give you 100 examples? All the more – if you are Eurpoean. :))))))) Or Chinese. :))))))))))

 There are no methods

- Still, by “studies” I mean mastering some methods and following them. In other words, the “Path” in the narrow sence of the word.

- There are no “methods”. :))) There is no “following the methods”. There is no Path in the “narrow” :)))))))))))))))) sence. There is only The Teaching, or, to be more exact - Dharma. :))) There is the Path. There are the “so-coming“. :))) And that is allllllllllllllllllllllllllll…… :))))

Normal level

- If somebody writes in a forum message “you are all assholes because of this and that...” – these are arguments which can be answered; and if one writes “you are all assholes and that’s all” – there is nothing to answer here, it's a hopeless case, an extreme one. This is my opinion.

- This is not “extreme”. This is in fact the normal (I mean – it's a norm, it's common) level of attitude to the questions of sprirt in our society. And the quality of the answer – taking into account the importance of the problem “level of attitude to the questions of spirit in our society”, as well the firmness of position of the questioning ones – should be not just high, but very high. It requires mastery. And this is “upaya” itself.

Luck

- Good luck! (By the way, what is it?)

- Luck is controllable.

Fate

- What about fate?

- The same. There is such a topic (course): “Quasirational control of irrational phenomena”. There is also a course of “Second Logic”. Also - “World view models”. Also – “Collective energetics”. Also – “Generator of meaning”. Also – “Leadership interseption”. Also – “G-manager”. Also – “Creating self-developing systems”. And much more. :))))

 

Long conversation

 

Something is going on

1. Look around from the hill

- Something strange is going on, Klein. I do not know – maybe it’s banal autosuggestion? Or a result of something else?

- Asking yourself questions like “is it autosuggestion?” or “is it fortuity?” or “is it luck?” – asking yourself these questions now is unconstructive. :))) (By the way, “constructive – unconstructive” is one of the aspects of “right – wrong”) :)))) “Constructive” means: This thing, :)) these situations-facts-INFORMATION is accumulated without analysis. And then – after some time – when a hill of information is mounded :))) – from that hill :))) – you look around. :))))

2. Regulating the external by the internal

- Today I was seriously offended by one man who is not worth taking offence at, and if some time ago I would simply have given him a bloody nose, today I just have not taken offence. And I just simply got very much amused. The poor guy got lost and went away.

- Cool! Great! :))) Regulating the external by the internal! Without magic! Without methods! :)))) (This is one of aspects of “right – wrong”) :))))

3. Do not think about unnecessary things

- It just makes me laugh and I do not want to think about a lot of things I used to think about before.

- Cool! :)))) You are going the r-i-g-h-t way. :)))))

4. Love for all living beings and pity

- And one more thing… may be it's stupid… no, I do not think it is a stupidity, I started to pity everything and everyone. Absolutely everything. I can find no reasons and do not look for them – but I feel pity.

- No. This is not stupid. :)))) The love for all living creatures does not differ from “to pity everything and everyone”. :)))

5. Pity for yourself

- But what makes me glad – I could not see the pity for myself.

- Oh! Oh!!! – You seem to be developing too fast… hmm…:))))))))))))))

 

A koan from Lotos

The right Ch'an follower 

Mathematics, physics, medicine, literary criticism, culinary receipts – all the stuff known to the western mind can exist by itself – outside the mind! :))) – but Ch'an and Zen – can not! The western mind CAN NOT COMPREHEND it! :)))))) The ancient Chinese saying “a sincere man can make a false teaching true and an insincere can make a true teaching false” – is viewed by the western mind merely as Chinese exotics. :))))))

Western civilization (education) grows “functions”: a baker, an accountant, a programmer and even an actor, an artist, a Doctor of Philosophy. The oriental (“oriental” is a relative notion:)))) civilization grows human beings, conscious minds.

It's a million times easier to grow a “function” than a human being. :))) Easier and more effective!:))))))) More effective – to gain money, the riches… - to fight for the sources of energy, briefly speaking… :))) Actually, this way for a civilization as well as for a single individual guarantees death in the form of complete insensitivity during all time of its(his) functioning and in the form of self-destruction in the end… The universe is organized extremely fairly! :))) – one has to pay for everything :))) And as Remark has rightly said “at a double or triple cost”. :)))

The western civilization and western method of thinking has no way to get the understanding that without the “right Ch'an follower” and without the “right Zen follower” Ch'an and Zen cannot exist. This method of thinking differs from the real method of thinking approximately like stamping differs from a work of art. It is a flat projection of the real mind. In fact, an effective concrete instrument for obtaining a concrete purpose (goods) – it is always a flat projection, it is an endless element of the endless world, sharpened and narrowed in the limits of “maximum possible realization of a single function”. The western type of mind – it is just an instrument for fighting with those who are like you for the control over the resources. An effective instrument :)))) The mechanistic nature of this instrument appears, in particular, in the ability of all elements of western civilization to function without participation of mind (by the principle “this or that mind, “right” or “wrong” – it does not matter!”) (“estrangement” according to Marx) :))) (“We have no irreplaceable ones” (c) Stalin). The opposite – that “without the right Ch'an follower” and “without the right Zen follower” Ch'an and Zen cannot exist – is absurd from this point of view :)))

“The right Ch'an follower – what is it? It is absurd!” :))))))

Klein klein@zen.ru

  

Scary Stories

 

Get free from emotions

- Your magazine is not bad. Especially about the recommendations on how to perceive good and evil indifferently. :)

- Where did you see that?!? :)) Thanks for the compliment... :)))

- Well, well – this is where how to get free from emotions. It's said, cut off your right cerebral hemisphere and use the left one leisurely :))

It is possible to get free from emotions using different methods. Let’s list some of them:

1.

With an axe

Applied to the right of left hemisphere. This method is available and eligible for everyone.

2.

With an atomic bomb

Applied in the global scale. This method is available for high state officials.

3.

With vodka

Applied until passing out completely. This method is accessible for anyone having a mouth.

4.

By repeating the mantra: “For the fools no law is written, if it's written they don't read it, if they read it they don't get it, if they get it they get it wrong.”

Applied on one's own. This method, unfortunately, is not accessible for anyone.

5.

By the right understanding what “emotions” are, what is “free” and how to work with all that in the right direction.

Applied under the management of a Ch'an Teacher. The method is accessible for those who could find the Teacher. The method, the Teacher and those who have found him are not known to the science.

  

Homework


Exercise #3 "The cat"

I hope that you feed your cat for free…

Ask him WHAT he thinks:

YOU are god because you feed him?

or

HE is god because you feed him?

Correct answer

* * *

To the exercise #1 "Watch “The Matrix” movie" (ZenHelp #4)

Hi Alexander :)))) I had provided the inquiry among my friends and acquaintances. There were about 8 people (It is not necessary to wait for ten because the result is obvious). :) EVERYONE prefers illusion world instead of real. Only one person started to specify the conditions and did not give the clear answer. I was very surprised by such results.

 

To the reader

You are good. But this is not enough. :)) Kl. :))


Translated by Stas, VT, and Anya Zykova.

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