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Great OP. Been practicing Zen on and off past few years, and even with my shoddy discipline the rewards have been incredible. 
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May 9, 2013 23:10
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Blue Star posted:Sorry for bumping the thread, but what is the point of ideas such as emptiness, dependent origination, and impermanence? I've been interested in Buddhism for some time, and have read up on these philosophies. They seem to make sense and I know of nothing which contradicts them (I don't know of any object or phenomenon which is permanent and has an independent existence). But the problem I'm having is the usefulness of these ideas. It's like, no poo poo that everything exists because of prior causes, no poo poo that things are always changing from one moment to the next, no poo poo that we're products of the world and aren't separate from it and everything's connected and our ideas of separation are ultimately arbitrary. But what's the point of acknowledging all of that? How does it deal with the problem of suffering? An ego that feeds off of ephemeral and ultimately unsatisfying pleasures (validation from others, material possessions, sex, etc.) is doomed to always desire fulfillment from conditions that are subject to change. The desire for internal fulfillment through external means never really ends; poo poo happens and you can't depend on others or the world around you to always make you feel good about yourself. The awareness of impermanence, emptiness, all that, is the acknowledgement that you are a very small node in an enormous and awesome cycle. Instead of consumption driving more consumption, you become comfortable with your role as a participator in life, and not as an agent that tries to impose its will on those around it. Essentially it helps you go with the flow. This is just my own shallow understanding. I'm sure those with more time to internalize these concepts could explain it better.
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Jun 24, 2013 07:10
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The-Mole posted:Buddhist's can't even agree if birth or death are real, much less what on earth (or off earth) might or might not happen next. Buddhism doesn't concern itself with metaphysical what-ifs. Its only focus is the Present, the Now. If there does happen to be an afterlife determined by your moral character, then it would stand to reason that Now would be the best time to prepare for it. The Buddha did not care to speculate about metaphysics because the point is not be attached to some pie-in-the-sky destination, whether that's Heaven or a Porsche, and to be as fully engaged with your present reality as possible because that's where/when all the cool poo poo happens anyways. Edged Hymn fucked around with this message at 20:13 on Jun 27, 2013 |
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Jun 27, 2013 20:07
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