An Enlightened Being Drinking Beer???

[Toby]

14 hours ago, AleksM said:

Leo mentioned somewhere on the forum about a zen monk that started meditating at 12 years and after his 100 birthday he was sexually mollesting children for a few years until his disciples came to him and asked him to stop or something like that.

Sounds like the teacher of Shinzen Young but I guess he was "just" "abusing" adults. But here in Germany there is a Zen-priest that started his practise in 1977 and just got convicted for sexual abusing children and teenagers.

[Loreena]

Aye ye ye ye....so not much difference between them and us then. 

[Guest username]

@nahtanoj The picture was Peter Ralston.

[Lord Bwyra]

There comes a point where all words, symbols, music, paintings, gestures or other attempts at communicating that which can only be experienced, bleed into one another and explode out of each others asses as a great ocean of cosmic laughter. For this reason, these things can never be taken too seriously on a conversational level.

Yet we all still continue our lives in the land of mere mortals (as long as these bodies will allow) where such things as kindness, compassion, forgiveness, beauty and truth rule the day. At least if our brains/bodies are working optimally and we have cultivated enough wisdom to grasp how things work (cause, effect, right, wrong, etc). That's why Jesus, Buddha and self-help books are still selling well even after all these years of stupidity and fallen empires. People clearly need some kind of instructional manuals for how to live. Some more than others perhaps.

There is however incredible cruelty in this world where certain minorities and species are brutally oppressed and victimized. Every day. Every moment. It can be very challenging to comprehend the degree to which some will go to, for their own twisted sense of pleasure or disregard for the sanctity of life.

At this point we can also say that there are no rules and it's all just a palace of illusion (maya) which we create in our own minds. So it doesn't matter what we do. Eat animals. Torture them. Fondle children. Rape. Kill. Murder. Hunt. Fish. Lie. Steal. Cheat. Nothing matters because none of it is real. You create all this and all reactions and interpretations are just manifestations of your own ego. The sun shines equally on the psychopath and the saint. Blablablaaa.

Both perspectives are true of course (rules vs no rules) and possible. What's doable is natural. Just be careful not to fall into the fallacy of appeal to nature. There are still rules in operation here on THIS plane, whether we like them or not.

The following statement may be worth analyzing:
Those who violate the golden rule, are not entitled to its benefits.

I personally think the problems we have in this world are systemic in nature. We cannot blame anyone or even society because we are society. Gandhi talked about becoming the change we wish to see in the world. I would take that even further to say that you are the truth for which you seek. 

You either merge with the wholeness/oneness of life or you keep looking for ways to avoid the inevitable.

Meanwhile, the gods are laughing.