I thought the universe was expanding and getting cold with the potential to rip everything in it apart. Not unlike my ex-girlfriends.
Honestly, I'm out of my wheelhouse, but that doesn't preclude the heat death of the universe, in fact I believe that an open or flat universe guarantee it. Heat death just says that all free energy is converted to heat, not any absolute temperature of the universe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_death_of_the_universe
Is there a difference on meditating on a koan and thinking about it ? The result is the same I would think. I think it's more contemplation, but sure one could make it a focus to meditate on. But I don't see much difference here, it depends on the specific meditation method I suppose. Do you know it, or heard about it ? Does one needs koans to learn zazen ?
Simply put...no. It's an added extra. Koans can give you or your teacher insight into how your practice is developing but they are not necessary...but that will depend on who you talk to of course.
"added extra" I was thinking supplementary and or complimentary, so it seems we agree, that's good. I did found the commentary from AikiMac a little confusing, hence the questions.. probably more rhetorical in some cases.. but cool. My teacher/school didn't really do Koans, and I had never heard of a method that incorporated koan into zazen or some specific meditation method. But it would be cool to hear about any of that; the practical/practice details. If you contemplated a koan then did zazen, I don't think that counts as "maybe one meditates on the koans to learn to meditate". I would have thought that meditating on a koan is no longer specifically zazen. And how would it teach zazen, when surely learning zazen would be the way to learn to meditate (typically) in a zen school. But ok, whatever.. I'm probably pushing this too far now. I did come to quite like most things to do with zen, whether stories (eg. we did have some of these), answers to questions.. or direct koans, saying etc.. Their formal use in various schools is not something that has concerned me or have felt the need to investigate. Granted my answer re. koans was based on just my own experience and understanding of things. Of course the people from other Zen schools that use them can give their own more precise answers and understanding. Regardless there's lots of goodness to be found in Zen Buddhism for anyone interested in that path. Fetch wood, carry water. Good day
Or why not religion (shall we say theology instead?). If course that's something you arrive at yourself or not, as the case may be. But if you want to talk about ancient Greeks then Aristotle might be considered the father of Scientific enquiry I'd suggest. What you have to realise is this "disconnect" or either or attitude between science and religion is a pretty modern phenomenon relatively speaking. Philosophy included up until fairly recently in it branches both Science and Religion (Theology). So you see Stoicism most certainly included it's Theological aspect (Pantheism) as part of the philosophy. There is no separation of theology to them, as we see today - it is a branch of philosophy, just like ethics would have been and whatever else really. They had to cover all branches of the day and age to be complete. The particular theology and or metaphysics would serve as the foundation and underpinning of the complete/ wider philosophy. "practice" was also typically a part of a Greek philosophers life back then, not just the Stoic school.
I agree with ya. Koans don't teach you meditation as such. Ultimately koans are used to help you achieve satori. And as I said earlier, see how you are progressing or what stage you are at in your practice. I guess if you didn't work with koans or hear about them, you were doing Soto Zen. But sometimes koans are given "behind closed doors" and in one-to-one sessions with your teacher. There's a lot of good stuff in Zen, just a shame that the whole thing can be like trying to answer a koan at times.
One of my favourite stories was the one about the kid mimicking the old monk who would point his finger towards the sky when asked a question. And when the monk catches him doing it he cuts the kids finger off. Ouch.
To solve a koan, one thinks about it hard. For a long time. Focusing the mind on it. Deep concentration. There is only the koan. Everything else fades into background noise, still there of course but being ignored. There is just the koan. But that level of focus is akin to focusing on a flickering candle flame, or counting the in & out of the breath in the lungs. After some experience one doesn't need the candle and one doesn't need to count breaths in order to properly meditate -- and one doesn't need the koan riddle, either, in order to properly meditate. My preference is Theravada, but I agree that there's good stuff in Zen. I see it as a distillation of the most important elements of Theravada, so, obviously it must be okay.
Because after thousands of years of looking we have found exactly zero amounts of evidence for the existance of gods. It's also not especially practically relevent in peoples lifes, especially when it adds little to nothing to them Science has replaced religion in many peoples lives, and that is a good thing.
Any claim without evidence tends to be questioned, thats different then being ridiculed. There's still places in the world where being an atheist is against the law, theres even the death penalty in a few. So really complaining about just being questioned in kinda silly.
What Kwajman means is that we've had a lot of really really really ugly threads about religion here. But this one is going well, so don't worry.
Asking questions respectfully is one thing but being called names or being sent horrible PM's because of your religious beliefs is quite another. This website is usually pretty good at keeping the name calling to a minimum but if you a pro-religion here you're usually cutting off the branch your sitting on.
Some religious beliefs are out and out horrible. I'm not surprised that people are called out on them. Others are innocuous. Hopefully religion becomes a strange hobby like tarot card reading or holding seances.
Eh, that's kinda of what Kwajman is referring to, I think. There is a point at which comments are more than "Cauliflower is gross! How can you eat it?" and are instead outright rude.
