Steve,are you Anti-Enlightment?

[desertrat]

Originally Posted by Mounds

I think I know who you're talking about... His enlightenment eventually transcended his need to be on this forum

The one guy that comes to mind is some one using the nic the master . We haft to guess at what got him banned . After looking around Salt Lake City Steve has become englightned on the finer places of that city . I am not Mormon , but if I went to Salt Lake City I would see the Tabernacle them maby a museum , the zoo , the great salt lake its self , the Wasach mountains , ect. desert rat

[Andreas]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

Bye!

...and therein lies my answer.

"A decidedly logical response, Captain.", as Spock might say.



There is no "enlightened". That is just a word, and words obscure meaning.

To help illustrate, I offer a short poem and a story that I found on this wide wide web.



First, the poem:

No tranquilization, No disturbance,
No sitting, No meditation ...
This is the Tathagata's Dhyana.
The five Skandhas are not realities;
The six object of sense are by nature empty.
It is neither quiet nor illuminating;
It is neither real nor empty;
It does not abide in the Middle Way;
It is not-doing,
It is no-effect-producing;
Yet, functioning with the utmost freedom:
the Buddha-nature is all inclusive.

- Yung, a student of Hui-neng (Ts'ao-ch'i), the Sixth Patriarch of Zen Zen Buddhism: Selected Writings of D. T. Suzuki, p. 169.



And consider this story:

Toju Zenchu brandished his staff before Daoist Shifu Miao Zhang and challenged him:

"Miao Zhang, speak and you get whacked with Nanten's staff. Do not speak and you still get whacked with Nanten's staff."

Shifu Zhang stood up quickly, lifted his cane strongly in defense, and quietly said:

"Yunmen's crap-stick stinks and Nanten's staff is cracked!
I am leaving now to take my evening walk. Goodbye."

- Michael P. Garofalo, Way of the Short Staff

[Elrond]

Originally Posted by Andreas

There is no "enlightened". That is just a word, and words obscure meaning.

To help illustrate, I offer a short poem and a story that I found on this wide wide web.

Funny that you say that words obscure meaning, and then you go on to explain a word with words.

[Andreas]

Originally Posted by Elrond

Funny that you say that words obscure meaning, and then you go on to explain a word with words.

I do what I can.