Knowledge does not exist. Understanding is an illusion.

[Nahm]

@ivankiss Wonderful ♥️

[ivankiss]

@Joseph Maynor Fo real, Broseph.

I could not lie if I wanted to 

[ivankiss]

@Joseph Maynor That's all you got? Two dance moves? 

Let's dance for real. 

Show me how deeply you know I do not know shit.

[ivankiss]

@Joseph Maynor What led to this conclusion? 

What is the mind and where is it right now? 

Is "me being stuck" an idea; a concept, as well? Or the rules do not apply in that case?

[Aeris]

knowledge is real

[cetus]

The mind is like a fish and knowlage it's ocean.

[Jack River]

19 minutes ago, cetus56 said:

The mind is like a fish and knowlage it's ocean.

?

[RichardY]

This is why Buddhism is ultimately wrong. Yes there is a transcendent aspect to reality, but that is not all there is. The Pali canon tries to approach an aspect of perfection when it notes the aeons of reincarnations needed for the Buddha to attain Enlightenment. You can not approach perfection with numbers; like the kids game of saying infinity plus 1! The spirit of the message makes sense, it's logic does not.

Equally being is wrong; unfortunately judgements mean perhaps little, or nothing next to God.

[Jack River]

What knows that knowledge does or does not exist and that understanding is or is not an illusion? 

[ivankiss]

@Jack River No one knows anything.

Awareness is aware. 

Thoughts can only see thoughts in the mirror.

[Aeris]

8 hours ago, Joseph Maynor said:

"This is why Buddhism is ultimately wrong" -- what a big claim!  What is Buddhism?  Let's start there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen

wikipedia is wrong, as long as I didn't read it, it doesn't exist

[Aeris]

6 minutes ago, Joseph Maynor said:

Wikipedia doesn't even scratch the surface of the amazingness and vastness of Buddhism.

sure, because it is infinite if you really dig   

joseph write a book and call it, "how I like to spin around"

[ivankiss]

Been living among Buddhists for the past ten months. 

Honestly, do not get the hype. 

It's just as lame as any other religion. Monks here are asleep AF. As well as all other Buddhist fanatics I have encountered.

No sign of enlightenment. Barely any awareness. Much ego and fear. Also greed and general unconscious nastiness.

Westerners got way too excited about the whole charade. It's really just a trend spiritual egos like jumping on.

Call me judgmental as much as you want. 

Edited March 14, 2019 by ivankiss

[Jack River]

On 3/13/2019 at 9:16 PM, ivankiss said:

@Jack River No one knows anything.

Awareness is aware. 

Thoughts can only see thoughts in the mirror.

Indeed....KNOWING IS ALL THERE IS?

[Shadowraix]

Correct, but don't be quick to use knowledge is an illusion to toss it aside. An illusion does wonders for navigating this illusion. We memorize and visualize then build abstract layers so you can give it to others. It's like sending an encrypted packet that people decode. Beautiful! 

 

Buddhism provides amazing tools, but only a handful will really get the full use out of the tools. 

[luckieluuke]

@ivankiss Beautifully written, thanks for sharing!
Not to criticize but am curious: are you writing this from your own experience or from knowledge?
(if you get what i mean...do you truly experience what you wrote, as in is that your reality without doubt OR is it an assumption, an idea that rings true based on your experience and thoughts about it)

[ValiantSalvatore]

@ivankiss The last retreat I went to was at a Zen temple. I did not read the whole post. There was one guy whom I meet during August while I did a 14-day retreat there, he stayed there and was a traveler went to a Swedish yoga ashram before he came to the Zen monastery, also for one year. While traveling, I also meet one person who stayed in an ashram for one year which was about transcendental meditation. 

The guy at the zen retreat whom I meet the last week seemed to have grown quite a lot. He was from America, so it was beautiful to see the differences in green mindsets and hang-ups. As usual. Especially, since I represent the American culture from my outer appearance. It is amazing how fanatic new green is in comparison to people who grew up from the sixties, seventies and this guy was very green and relative, but when someone is better or seems better he used basically, what I assume Americans have done to cause segregation. Using psychological and social instruments to undermine the new apparent equality in rights or a chance to quote the word chance for the same opportunity. Everyone can take part in the Olympics for e.g... Not sure, but this is what "business" seems to be about.

This guy had a lot of hang-ups and seemed to have taken quite a few psychedelics without training meditation or using awareness or practicing or what not. Unearned consciousness is valueless. The monks told me more and were more welcoming towards me for instance and others and kept an eye on him since he felt superior or righteous to cause havoc and be crazy since he was an American. Anyway, I meet him 6 months after that he changed a lot, it was amazing he seemed to grow out of green. What I am saying with this is most likely you have done more change and can't see it because there is no contrast with the outer world. Yet, I won't deny that the ashram is somehow cult-like and that people have hang-ups and are a bit crazy.

The guy who stayed in the ashram for one year left because they were kissing the gurus butt. No one had their own opinion was his critique. 

 

[Nahm]

@ivankiss Spiritual ego stage. Nice! Love those idiots! They’re you!♥️♥️♥️ 

Or make serious faces ????                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

                                                         ?

                                                          ?

                                                           ?

[FoxFoxFox]

@Nahm Haha

@ivankiss The issue i have with Buddhism (particularly of the Zen variety) is that it is so concerned with developing a certain character in people. Other than that, i find Zen to be unnecessarily obtuse. I get the impression that what Zen teachings and Koans want to portray can be shown much more directly and effectively. I also don't like the excessive importance it puts on sitting mediations.

[FoxFoxFox]

2 hours ago, Joseph Maynor said:

I think Zen is like the final teaching.  But I'm not so sure learning Zen at the outset is best.  Probably it's best to let the Mind run wild with all the Advaita metaphysics until it cracks under its own weight.  Then, a teaching like Zen becomes just what the doctor ordered.  That's why there's really no "one right teaching" on the Path for everybody.  I don't think I would have resonated with Zen until I got sick of all the mental masturbation and philosophy stuff after years of imbibing all that stuff.  Just like you need a big Ego to transcend, you also need a big Mind to transcend.  You can't purge until after you eat.

What if you directly experience advaita metaphysics? What if at the core of my being there really is a "blue being" that I can go and see? How then should you interpret it? Literally, as entities inhabiting the spirit world as their scripture suggests, or as mental constructs from the depths of the psyche? As alien worlds? As dimensions of God overlapping each other? 

My point is what if there is an actual difference between metaphysics and philosophy? In other words, what if the metaphysical explanations which one might take for allegorical end up as literal representations in the physical world? 

What is then the higher truth? The stillness of the Zen/Ramana lineages, or the alien worlds of the Shivaists?