Someone shared this aphorism: "In Zen, we don't find the answers, we lose the questions."
An adult seeks understanding. A child wants to know. Only an infant is free from the desire to know and to understand.
Spirituality can best be understood as a regression to an infantile state. You go to a Guru as an adult, he denigrates your mind and intellect enough that you give up.
"Logic is hardly the means."
"Your mind is the enemy."
"Thought cannot touch That."
"That which is unconditioned cannot be experienced by the conditioned."
"Live from the heart, not from the brain."
The resulting state is not one of understanding, but of stupidity.
One may be a happy idiot, but almost universally, the happy idiots who live in the now are supported by the toiling ones who worry about the future and have to plan for the harvests and oil prices.
I am more proud of a man who has unanswered questions than of one who is content with his ignorance.
An adult seeks understanding. A child wants to know. Only an infant is free from the desire to know and to understand.
Spirituality can best be understood as a regression to an infantile state. You go to a Guru as an adult, he denigrates your mind and intellect enough that you give up.
"Logic is hardly the means."
"Your mind is the enemy."
"Thought cannot touch That."
"That which is unconditioned cannot be experienced by the conditioned."
"Live from the heart, not from the brain."
The resulting state is not one of understanding, but of stupidity.
One may be a happy idiot, but almost universally, the happy idiots who live in the now are supported by the toiling ones who worry about the future and have to plan for the harvests and oil prices.
I am more proud of a man who has unanswered questions than of one who is content with his ignorance.
3 comments:
If the ultimate aim is to have a unstressed and peaceful mind wouldn't ignorance be a better bet. Its far more difficult to understand/know all the dissonance and contradictions in this world and then try to calm the mind.
In my personal life I have seen so many people who are not bothered by this existential and spiritual questions nor do they question their place in this world. They may worry about worldly affairs but otherwise they are quite happy and content.
What's all this contemplation and knowing going to achieve. At the most we succeed in adjusting our reaction to this world even maintaining that is a constant struggle. At least for me it doesn't make sense to make a value judgement based on a person's spiritual knowledge/pursuit.
> If the ultimate aim is to have a unstressed and peaceful mind wouldn't ignorance be a better bet.
Right. Ignorance as an adult requires willful rejection of anything that might make one aware of anything troubling. If one is overly stressed, sure, some calming might help. Consider any scientist or seeker who wants to understand something. Would you admire him more for giving up his quest, or to persevere in it even if no good answers are forthcoming?
Some questions /may/ not have any answers, but the history of human understanding shows that we are constantly blasting new frontiers.
>Someone shared this aphorism: "In Zen, we don't find the answers, we lose the questions."
In Zen, we don't find the answers, we find the seeking itself. The wanting to know itself. Especially for questions which may not have any answer. That doesn't exclude the other aspect of learning which may help to blast new frontiers.
Post a Comment