Dear cambria129, you are in the wrong mind set.

At the first part with the stories the book is testing you how much you love zen.If it is ok, it will let you pass to other stages.Calmly read the whole.I believe you will find yourself somewhere in the book.And then ask yourself 'Where can I start?'

Only then we can help you.

Dont forget the persons written in the book are real zen masters.

Quote: "The idea is that Zen or Buddhism is a higher calling.
But none of that is important.
Like I said, you need to learn about Buddha's life story.
About his struggle to find the answer to the suffering he saw.
About his enlightenment that he found.
And, learn about the four noble truths.
The eightfold path to follow

Then forget about all you have learned.
Go practice meditation
Practice practice practice
Practice like your life depends on it
when  you see your true nature, you have all the answers to your questions

If you need to learn more then do so
If you need a teacher then find one
Then you will have the essence of Buddhism
"
.........

Buddhism may be a higher calling, but Zen isnt.  Zen is the concept of nothingness.

Not all Buddhists are Zen Buddhists, and Zen is not limited to Buddhism, at least not once you understand it.  It can be applied to anything, even Satanism if that is your choice.  In that vein, I tend to think of myself as a Zen Christian, or maybe a Zen Transcendentalist.

Buddhism may be a higher calling, but Zen isnt.  Zen is the concept of nothingness.

Not all Buddhists are Zen Buddhists, and Zen is not limited to Buddhism, at least not once you understand it.  It can be applied to anything, even Satanism if that is your choice.  In that vein, I tend to think of myself as a Zen Christian, or maybe a Zen Transcendentalist.

Quote: "Most of the time being too smart is not Zen. You need to be stupid most of the time. "
.........

Being Zen is just being.

Or as is said in Zen, *The way to do is to be*.

Quote: "Quote: "Quote: "Quote: "Quote: "Quote: "Zen is a practice to get rid of all concepts, ideas and thoughts. "
.........
No it is not.
Zazen is a practice to increase your awareness
The clarity one finds in Zazen is cultivated in daily life.
Not to get rid of ideas, concepts and thoughts.
Zen should compliment your life not destroy it.
"
.........

You cannot never destroy something real.
You can only destroy your illusions.
"
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Illusions are not destroyed.
Merely shown for what they are.
"
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If you realize that they are only illusions the they evaporate like a ghost .. and in that sense evaporation is being destroyed...LOL
"
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The truth comes out and the illusion loses it power
But, it isn't destroyed. You still live in this world.
"
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Even the lack of illusion is an illusion.

Nothing really is or isnt.

Delusion on the other hand is self-deception.

Its all illusion, except that which you believe in, which is delusion.

Quote: "Zen and the art of ignorance."
.........

Exactly !!

Quote: "Education and learning is not equal to intelligence.

"
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I have a high IQ (135), and about 20 yrs of education (but never finished the MBA),

and yet I miss the simplist things.

All last week on vacation I was trying to call an old friend for dinner and kept getting a message that the number was not accepting calls.  Then after I got home I looked at the text she had sent the number in and noticed that a zero with a slash through it had looked like an 8 and I had been calling the wrong number.

Was it really an accident, or were we just not supposed to go out to dinner ?  I dont know.  Just have to take things as they come, and go.

Quote: "Compassion acts through intelligence.  Compassion does not act through the intellect.  "
.........

Is there a difference between intelligence used in not doing and intellect used in doing?

Is it the same thing used in a different way, or are intelligence (right brain activity) and intellect (left brain activity) separate and mutually exclusive?

I really dont know.

Quote: "Intelligence has nothing to do with head knowledge and information. Real intelligence is awareness. Real intelligence is innocent spontaneity. "
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Okay thanks.

Sometimes when I am unsure, I say to myself *proceed with the innocence of a child*.

I ask myself what a small child would do in my circumstances,

and usually that is what I do, because it makes the most sense.

Quote: "Quote: "Quote: "Quote: "Quote: "Quote: "If it Is an afront or insult to zen by suggesting it is stupidity, who is insulted? Where does the affront come from and reside ?
It certainly does not reside in zen, zen couldn't give a rats what anyone says bout it. "
.........
A reputation doesn't reside with the thing or person but reflects that thing or person.
Whether the reflection is true or not depends on where you are when you see the view point.
Even though phrases like "kill the Buddha" or "Zen is becoming stupid" may be correct, I don't believe it should be thrown out to novices who don't know what it means.
Cause do you really want someone to go kill another person or bang ones head until stupid??
Only suggesting that there is a right time to reveal such things along the path.

Well, I know that no one could gives a rats a..s what anyone says.
And, my two cents was worth even less. Thanks for the lending the ear.
"
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I pointing out Zen is not a thijnking thing, so it canot be affended, so the offense lays with the offended.
"
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There is no person or no thing to be offended.
My point was that to say "Zen is becoming stupid" (however right that statement may be) is not something that I would present to others who might wish to learn about Zen. My compassion says that there is so much more to Zen and others can benefit from it. Where is the wisdom in discouraging others from it?
"
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we can leave the advertising and the prettying up of things to car sales yards. This is is truth. what better time to start learning truth then now?
"
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Zen is nothing it is just this (even this description falls short by a million miles), since the begining there has never been anything. Any idea you may have comes from your head, it is you trying to create sometyhing to give stability in this life. there is no stability there is no guarentees (apart from this body falling apart). Drop yourself intyo the abis and see.
"
.........

What is Zen but the realization and understanding of *Impermanence* ?

That applies to any religion, and even science.  As Einstein said, nothing really exists except the energy that everything is made of.

Depending on your own predilections, you may or may not believe that *Energy* to be conscious or aware on its own.  It doesnt matter.  The end result is the same, but there are no atheists in foxholes, to be sure.  With nothing to lose, and everything to gain, most people opt for God.

Im a Zen Christian, I suppose, because thats the way my astral travels have gone.  But to each their own.

Quote: "Quote: "Thankyou for everything, Joe Chip.

Namaste.


"
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It's nothing.
Namaste."
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Thats true

Namaste too

Quote: "I'm not sure Zen speeks to these massive concepts - to the nature of reality, particularly its origins or destiny. Zen only focuses on the moment. That does not necessarily mean that time does not exist, only that it isn't terribly important. There may be an origin and there may be a destiny but here and now there is the moment and the moment stands.

Leave it to religion and to science (although honestly I don't think there is a difference between the two) to figure out -why-. For me, what Zen does best is to figure out -what-."
.........

We collect as many facts as we can in order to formulate our one opinion.

After nirvana, experiencing myself as one consciousness in the Void, and then experiencing myself (as myself) being in the Vold with that One being,

and then deciding on my own to accept as fact that One being, true or not,

I have found that that one *fact*, that It is being what It is being, and It will be what It will be, is the only fact I need.

It explains everything.

I didnt say there was no God, or no Soul. 

I believe they are one in the same.

I believe there is only One, and the rest just Its creation,

of Itself, by Itself, for Itself.

Quote: "I'm not sure Zen speeks to these massive concepts - to the nature of reality, particularly its origins or destiny. Zen only focuses on the moment. That does not necessarily mean that time does not exist, only that it isn't terribly important. There may be an origin and there may be a destiny but here and now there is the moment and the moment stands.

Leave it to religion and to science (although honestly I don't think there is a difference between the two) to figure out -why-. For me, what Zen does best is to figure out -what-."
.........

I wasnt interested in awakening either.  I had bigger fish to fry.

Until one day it came to me anyway, and I found there are no other fish to fry.

There is nothing else.  My stupidity.  I just didnt know nothing yet.

Everything I valued vanished before the very eyes that I no longer had.

We collect as many facts as we can in order to formulate our one opinion.

After nirvana, experiencing myself as one consciousness in the Void, and then experiencing myself (as myself) being in the Vold with that One being,

and then deciding on my own to accept as fact that One being, true or not,

I have found that that one *fact*, that It is being what It is being, and It will be what It will be, is the only fact I need.

It explains everything.

The Buddha's teaching contains three major points:

1. wisdom

2. meditation

3.  discipline

Wisdom is the goal.

Deep meditation is the process toward achieving wisdom.

Discipline is the method that helps one to achieve deep meditation

Buddha's entire teachings as conveyed in the sutras never really depart from these three points.