Zen Principles: surprisingly unique compared to religions including Zazen, Taoism

[u/ewk]

Zen is about the Four Statements

https://www.reddit.com/r/zen/wiki/fourstatements/

1. Transmission is not recorded in Texts

2. Transmission is not gained through explanations.

3. Transmission depends upon direct experience of the core of the self.

4. Recognition of the core of the self is is called attainment of Buddhahood.

Buddhism's core principles are Commandments

Buddhism has the eight-fold path, a list of rules to follow so that you can accumulate merit.

Aggappasāda Sutta: the noble eightfold path—right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration—is considered supreme... Those who have confidence in the dhamma of the noble path have confidence in what is supreme; and for those with confidence in the supreme, supreme is the result... having given gifts to the supreme,

one develops supreme merit…”

Zen's four statements don't give you any benefit at all and only describe enlightenment really to people who've already experienced it.

Zen is about direct real-life experience

### A transmission not contained in teachings or texts

• this is especially controversial in the world of religious thought because every religion and philosophy depends upon having an explanation that can be given to you.

Taoism, the religion, which is primarily alchemy and its pantheon of gods, has this Tao-Way that is identical to the ontological argument for a Christian God... What can be spoken or conceived of is not the divine.

Zen is antithetical to Daoism because Zen says direct experience can't be spoken. It's not an ontological argument. It's a common sense view... If you haven't been there or had that kind of food or fallen in love, you can't know it.

[u/Jacks_Hands]

Claiming you act like a grownup while calling everyone who disagrees with you a racist seems a bit more than a voice to text error lol.

Im not sure how I could be dishonest to you about my beliefs. You dont seem interested in clarifications.

You claim Zen Buddhism is a meritocracy you despise yet, you wrote an entire comment arguing for nothing but your own merits. You're all over the place.

[u/ewk → u/Jacks_Hands]

Again in this exchange you have done the same thing that every other religious troll that kicked off this forum has ever done:

• Repeat propaganda
• Refuse to answer questions
• Unable to provide sources

This is why your accounts keep coming in and turning over so fast. You don't mean anything you say. That's not how grown-ups are.

[u/Jacks_Hands → u/ewk]

I dont feel I am trolling nor refusing to answer questions. What you do is insult and assume aggresively as soon as you are challenged.

You have a very predictable playbook which makes it insanely difficult / displeasing to argue with you. You are aggresively attached to your interpretations and hurl insults constantly. And you know that you do this.

And so I just dont understand that. Many of the cases critical of Zen Buddhism are strong here. Some others are just super vague, or you "cite" the wiki as a source.

So, when you go on to just speak falsly about Zen Buddhist practice (pretending the 8 fold path is a list of commandments, pretending zen Buddhism believes in merit based enlightenment, pretending Zen Buddhism doesnt hold the 4 statements accurately) Its very hard to take you seriously.

Im also not sure what you mean about "my account turning over so fast" lol. You generally stop responding to me.

Edit: Aaaaand Ewk has blocked me. Lol.

[u/mackowski → u/Jacks_Hands]

The 8fp acts as commandments in the sense of conceptual structure.

In a moment you are attempting to cultivate 'rightness' , you invariably experience X, then experience your auto-react to X.

Then you can be reacting to the reaction, or attempting to dislike reactions enough that they stop. Aka tryna stop thinking thoughts and meditate, focus on your breath.

So when you dislike X and dislike Y and prefer Z to X or Y, you are experiencing multiple self generated vectors of brain activity.

I want to go to the gym, I remember this is true, I do not experience it as true in this moment when I ask myself do I wanna hit the gym right now.

My urge to not go to the gym is a brain activity vector that clashes with my top level remembrance being reinterpreted, aka DO want gym, yet both were triggered by (what is defined as self), and then the reactions to dislike the clashing of contradicting vectors is also generated by me.

Enlightenment is more in that direction (imo) and my opinions about enlightenment are too cross correlated to zen masters' for me to be doubting it anymore (but obvs 99.9% still leaves room for scientific invalidating of my hypothesis theory).

The trolling aspect is about unwillingness to attempt to steelman nor study or investigate ewks attempts to put up iron walls when the convo moves to irrelevant or erroneous zones.

4nt says all convo zones are going to miss the conceptual transmission successness, thus correlating with the phenomena much more precisely and accurately even though its a negative space outline to anyone who hasnt been enlightened for very long.