Alan Watts - Eco Zen

00:54:25
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC06a8tLFBc

Resumen

TLDRLa prelego pri Zen-buddhismo enfokusigas la influon de budhismo al hodiaŭaj vivmanieroj kaj la iluzion de individueco. La preleganto klarigas, ke la nuntempa sinteno al identeco, kie ni pensas, ke ni estas akin al niaj korpoj, estas iluzia, kaj la zen-praktikoj celas transformi tiun sintenon per meditado kaj sincereco. Ĉi tio kondukas al kompreno, ke ni ne estas apartajn individuojn, sed anstataŭe la tutan universon, manifestanta sin en diversaj formoj. La zen-majstro ludas kritikeman rolon en tiu malkovro, kaj la praktiko de meditado estas centra en evoluado de pli profunda konscio pri niaj ŝnuroj kun la universo.

Para llevar

  • 🎶 La Zen-buddhismo emfazas ĝian ne-religian naturon
  • ❓ Ĉiu individuo ofte posedas falsan identecon
  • 👀 Meditado estas la ĉefa instrukcio por malkovri sin
  • 💭 La veran specon de ni ne troviĝas en la korpo sed en la universo
  • 🌍 Nia identeco ligas nin al la tuta universo
  • 🔄 La ideo de 'mi' estas ofte erara
  • ✋ Zen-majstro ne vendas doktrinojn, oni devas mem malkovri
  • 🌿 Respekto al naturo estas esenca en Zen-praktikoj
  • 💫 Tiu, kiu volas ŝanĝi sin, devas unue kompreni sin
  • ⚙️ Teknologio devas esti uzita kun amo kaj respekto al la naturo

Cronología

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    En la komenco, temas pri la koncepto de personaj identeco kaj la sento de izoleco de la universo. La parolanto klarigas, ke li ne estas Zen budhisto, sed simple volas esplori perspektivon por ĝuo kaj neniam celas konverti aŭ vendi ion.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:00

    Zen budhismo devenis el Ĉinio kaj pli poste en Japanio, influinta arto kaj kulturo. La tempoj de Buddha estis inter 600 a.K. kaj 500 a.K., kiam li ekkonsciis pri la naturon de sufero, kaj budhismo devenis metodo por ŝangi konscion.

  • 00:10:00 - 00:15:00

    La parolanto komparas budhismon kun psikoterapio, substrekante, ke budhismo ne estas religio en la tradicia senco, sed pli simila al psikologia sublimado. La celo estas ŝanĝi la ĉiutagan konscion kaj la sencon de identeco.

  • 00:15:00 - 00:20:00

    La diskurso pritraktas la diro de 'mi' kaj kiel ĉi tiu identeco ofte estas perceptata faliga. La plej multaj homoj pensas, ke 'mi' estas centro de konscio ene de ili, kvankam la realeco estas pli kompleksa.

  • 00:20:00 - 00:25:00

    Parolanto klarigas, ke la konvencia percepto de identeco agordas homojn en la koncepto, ke ili 'havas' korpon, sed ne 'estas' korpo, metuĝi en la ideon, ke ili estas aparta, individuigitaj entoj en aparta mondo.

  • 00:25:00 - 00:30:00

    La diskuto pri la miskoncepto de identeco kondukas al la nocio de 'avidya', aŭ ignorado, kiu en Budhismo pretigas la fundamentan iluzion de la aparta identeco.

  • 00:30:00 - 00:35:00

    La parolanto priskribas la rilaton inter individuo kaj medio, substrekinge, ke la individua ago ne povas ekzisti sendepende de la medio, kun kiuj ĝi rilatas.

  • 00:35:00 - 00:40:00

    Li konstatadas, ke scienco ĝenerale agnoskas, ke la behavioro de homoj estas neapartigebla de ilia medio, kiujn etendas en la budhista vidpunkto, kiun oni devas malkovri por renversi la senton de apartigo.

  • 00:40:00 - 00:45:00

    La diskurso daŭras pri la praktiko de meditado en Budhismo, kiu celas atingi konscion kaj veki la individuan konscion, por ke oni komprenu, ke oni estas parto de la universo, ne aparta de ĝi.

  • 00:45:00 - 00:54:25

    La genezo de budhisma praktiko estas priskribita en fizika ekvilibrado inter la individuo kaj la universo, finfine korigi la percepton kaj havas pli profundan komprenon de la individua identeco.

Ver más

Mapa mental

Vídeo de preguntas y respuestas

  • Kio estas Zen-buddhismo?

    Zen-buddhismo estas formo de budhismo, kiu originiĝis en Ĉinio kaj evoluis en Japanio, emfazas mediti kaj pensi pri la naturon de realeco.

  • Kiel Zen-buddhismo diferencas de aliaj religioj?

    Zen-buddhismo ne estas religio en la tradicia senco; ĝi pli similas al psikoterapio ol al dogma kredo.

  • Kio estas la celo de Zen-praktiko?

    La celo de Zen-praktiko estas transformi la konscion kaj kompreni la iluzion de aparta identeco, por konektiĝi kun la universala konscio.

  • Kiel oni trovas sian veran identecon en Zen?

    En Zen, oni malkovras sian veran identecon per meditado kaj sincereco, demetante la sociajn maskojn.

  • Kio estas la rolo de la Zen-majstro?

    La Zen-majstro helpas studentojn malkovri sian veran identecon sen doni lernejan instruadon, sed provokante pensadon.

  • Kiel ni ĝuste interagas kun la naturo segundo al Zen?

    Zen instruas, ke ni ne subjugadu la naturon, sed anstataŭe ludu kun ĝi, kun respekto al ĝia strukturo.

Ver más resúmenes de vídeos

Obtén acceso instantáneo a resúmenes gratuitos de vídeos de YouTube gracias a la IA.
Subtítulos
en
Desplazamiento automático:
  • 00:00:00
    [Music]
  • 00:00:11
    watches on the hill inside a little
  • 00:00:13
    boxes
  • 00:00:21
    why do we have to put ourselves in boxes
  • 00:00:24
    you're it
  • 00:00:26
    huh
  • 00:00:29
    you're everything that's going on in
  • 00:00:32
    other words you are a particular place
  • 00:00:34
    at which the whole universe is focused
  • 00:00:42
    I suppose most of you
  • 00:00:46
    but before going on to explain any
  • 00:00:48
    details about it I want to make one
  • 00:00:50
    thing absolutely clear
  • 00:00:52
    I am not a Zen Buddhist
  • 00:00:55
    I am not advocating Zen Buddhism I'm not
  • 00:00:58
    trying to convert anyone to it
  • 00:01:00
    I have nothing to sell
  • 00:01:03
    I'm an Entertainer
  • 00:01:05
    foreign
  • 00:01:08
    that is to say in the same sense
  • 00:01:11
    that when you go to a concert
  • 00:01:13
    and you listen to someone play Mozart
  • 00:01:16
    he has nothing to sell except the sound
  • 00:01:18
    of the music he doesn't want to convert
  • 00:01:21
    you to anything he doesn't want you to
  • 00:01:23
    join an organization
  • 00:01:25
    in favor of Mozart's music as opposed to
  • 00:01:27
    say Beethoven's
  • 00:01:30
    and I approach you in the same spirit
  • 00:01:33
    as a musician with his piano or
  • 00:01:36
    violinist with his violin
  • 00:01:39
    I just want you to enjoy
  • 00:01:44
    a point of view which I enjoy
  • 00:01:49
    now then having that when that's been
  • 00:01:51
    said and I hope it's put your minds at
  • 00:01:54
    rest
  • 00:01:56
    let me give you first of all some simple
  • 00:01:59
    historical information
  • 00:02:04
    Zen is a form of Buddhism
  • 00:02:07
    it originated in China
  • 00:02:09
    about 500 A.D
  • 00:02:12
    and about 1200 A.D it migrated to Japan
  • 00:02:16
    where it exists today
  • 00:02:20
    and it is a form it's a way of life that
  • 00:02:23
    has had an immense influence on the Arts
  • 00:02:25
    and on the culture the poetry and
  • 00:02:28
    architecture of the Far East
  • 00:02:31
    it is lately become of enormous interest
  • 00:02:35
    to many people in other parts of the
  • 00:02:37
    world
  • 00:02:41
    now normally when one talks about
  • 00:02:43
    Buddhism and Zen is a form of Buddhism
  • 00:02:47
    it is supposed that you're talking about
  • 00:02:50
    a religion
  • 00:02:54
    and people are apt to classify
  • 00:02:56
    themselves as Buddhists
  • 00:02:59
    as they might say I am a Catholic
  • 00:03:03
    or a Methodist or a Baptist or an
  • 00:03:05
    Episcopalian or a Jew
  • 00:03:08
    but that is rather misleading
  • 00:03:11
    Buddhism is not a religion in that sense
  • 00:03:16
    if we want to find an equivalent to
  • 00:03:19
    Buddhism in our society today in the
  • 00:03:22
    west probably the nearest thing to it is
  • 00:03:25
    psychotherapy
  • 00:03:27
    when a person goes to a psychiatrist or
  • 00:03:30
    a psychoanalyst
  • 00:03:32
    to work out a serious personal problem
  • 00:03:35
    not because he's just nutty
  • 00:03:37
    I mean not necessarily because he has
  • 00:03:39
    hallucination or excessive singing in
  • 00:03:41
    the ears with no clear physical origin
  • 00:03:44
    but when a person feels that his whole
  • 00:03:48
    life is somehow disoriented and wrong
  • 00:03:52
    and he doesn't go to the preacher
  • 00:03:54
    because the preacher only moralizes to
  • 00:03:56
    him and says my man you should have more
  • 00:03:59
    faith in God or something so he goes
  • 00:04:01
    instead to a doctor because in our day
  • 00:04:03
    his man with the tag of science on him
  • 00:04:06
    has more Prestige than a man who has the
  • 00:04:09
    tag of religion
  • 00:04:12
    and so when a psychiatrist goes to work
  • 00:04:15
    on you
  • 00:04:16
    his objective is more or less to change
  • 00:04:20
    your state of consciousness
  • 00:04:22
    that is to say
  • 00:04:25
    if your State of Consciousness your
  • 00:04:28
    state of mind is one of being day after
  • 00:04:31
    day constantly depressed
  • 00:04:34
    the objective of going to a psychiatrist
  • 00:04:37
    or a psychotherapist is to have your
  • 00:04:39
    State of Consciousness changed to one of
  • 00:04:42
    happiness
  • 00:04:45
    now in a somewhat similar way
  • 00:04:49
    the objective of Buddhism in all its
  • 00:04:52
    forms
  • 00:04:54
    is to bring about a fundamental change
  • 00:04:58
    in a human beings everyday state of
  • 00:05:01
    consciousness
  • 00:05:03
    if I make it yet more specific
  • 00:05:06
    it's to bring about a change
  • 00:05:09
    in your sense of personal identity that
  • 00:05:12
    is to say in your sensation of who and
  • 00:05:15
    what you are
  • 00:05:20
    and in this way Buddhism which I suppose
  • 00:05:25
    you know is a a method
  • 00:05:28
    of changing consciousness
  • 00:05:32
    discovered or invented by a man called
  • 00:05:35
    gotima who lived in India shortly after
  • 00:05:38
    600 BC
  • 00:05:41
    who was given the title Buddha
  • 00:05:45
    because the word means the awakened one
  • 00:05:49
    the man who woke up
  • 00:05:52
    and therefore that very title suggests
  • 00:05:56
    that Ordinary People are asleep
  • 00:06:01
    I remember a very wise man
  • 00:06:04
    to give lectures like this and when he
  • 00:06:06
    came in
  • 00:06:07
    he used to be silent and he'd look at
  • 00:06:10
    the audience
  • 00:06:11
    and he had gaze at everybody in the
  • 00:06:13
    audience particularly for a long time
  • 00:06:16
    and everybody would begin feeling
  • 00:06:17
    vaguely embarrassed
  • 00:06:19
    and when he had gazed at them for a long
  • 00:06:21
    time he'd say
  • 00:06:23
    wake up
  • 00:06:26
    you're all asleep
  • 00:06:29
    and if you don't wake up I won't give
  • 00:06:30
    any lecture
  • 00:06:35
    now in what sense are we asleep
  • 00:06:41
    the Buddhist would say that almost all
  • 00:06:44
    human beings have a phony sense of
  • 00:06:47
    identity
  • 00:06:49
    a delusion a hallucination as to who
  • 00:06:53
    they are
  • 00:06:55
    I'm terribly interested in this problem
  • 00:06:57
    of identity
  • 00:07:00
    and I try and find out
  • 00:07:03
    what people mean when they say the word
  • 00:07:06
    I
  • 00:07:09
    I think this is one of the most
  • 00:07:10
    fascinating questions who Do You Think
  • 00:07:13
    You Are
  • 00:07:18
    now
  • 00:07:19
    what seems to develop is this most
  • 00:07:21
    people think that I
  • 00:07:25
    is a center
  • 00:07:27
    of sensitivity
  • 00:07:29
    somewhere inside their skin
  • 00:07:34
    and the majority of people feel that
  • 00:07:36
    it's in their heads
  • 00:07:40
    civilizations in different periods of
  • 00:07:43
    history have differed about this
  • 00:07:45
    some people feel that they exist in the
  • 00:07:47
    solar plexus
  • 00:07:49
    other people feel that they exist about
  • 00:07:51
    here
  • 00:07:52
    but in American culture today or in the
  • 00:07:54
    western culture in general most people
  • 00:07:56
    feel that they exist in here
  • 00:08:00
    and there is as it were a little man
  • 00:08:03
    sitting inside the center of the skull
  • 00:08:07
    and he has a television screen in front
  • 00:08:11
    of him
  • 00:08:12
    which gives him all messages from the
  • 00:08:14
    eyeballs
  • 00:08:16
    he has earphones on and that gives him
  • 00:08:18
    all messages from the ears
  • 00:08:20
    and he has in front of him a control
  • 00:08:22
    panel with various dials and buttons and
  • 00:08:25
    things which enable him to influence the
  • 00:08:27
    arms and legs and to get all sorts of
  • 00:08:30
    information from the nerve ends
  • 00:08:32
    and that's you
  • 00:08:36
    so we say in popular speech
  • 00:08:41
    I have a body
  • 00:08:44
    not I am a body
  • 00:08:47
    but I have one because I am the owner of
  • 00:08:50
    the body in the same way as I own an
  • 00:08:52
    automobile
  • 00:08:54
    uh and I can take the automobile to the
  • 00:08:57
    mechanic and occasionally in the same
  • 00:08:58
    way I have to take my body to the
  • 00:09:00
    mechanic the surgeon the dentist the
  • 00:09:01
    doctor and have it repaired
  • 00:09:04
    but it belongs to me it goes along with
  • 00:09:07
    me I'm in it a child for example can ask
  • 00:09:09
    Mother
  • 00:09:11
    mom who would I have been
  • 00:09:15
    if my father had been someone else
  • 00:09:21
    that seems of perfectly simple and
  • 00:09:23
    logical question for a child to ask
  • 00:09:25
    because of the president
  • 00:09:27
    that your parents gave you your body
  • 00:09:32
    and you were popped into it maybe at the
  • 00:09:35
    moment of conception or maybe at the
  • 00:09:36
    moment of birth
  • 00:09:38
    from a repository of souls in heaven and
  • 00:09:41
    your parents simply provided the
  • 00:09:42
    physical vehicle
  • 00:09:45
    so that age-long idea that is indigenous
  • 00:09:50
    especially to the Western world
  • 00:09:53
    is that I am something inside a body
  • 00:09:58
    and I am not quite sure whether I am or
  • 00:10:02
    am not my body
  • 00:10:04
    some doubt about it
  • 00:10:07
    I say
  • 00:10:09
    I think
  • 00:10:11
    I walk I talk
  • 00:10:14
    but I don't say I beat my heart
  • 00:10:17
    I don't say
  • 00:10:20
    I shape my bones
  • 00:10:22
    I don't say I grow my hair
  • 00:10:26
    I feel that my heart beating my hair
  • 00:10:28
    growing my bone shaping is something
  • 00:10:31
    that happens to me
  • 00:10:34
    and I don't know how it's done
  • 00:10:38
    but other things I do
  • 00:10:42
    and next
  • 00:10:45
    I feel quite surely that everything
  • 00:10:47
    outside my body is quite definitely not
  • 00:10:50
    me
  • 00:10:54
    there are two kinds of things outside my
  • 00:10:57
    body
  • 00:10:58
    number one is other people
  • 00:11:01
    and they are the same sort of thing as I
  • 00:11:03
    am
  • 00:11:04
    but also they are all little men locked
  • 00:11:08
    up inside their skins
  • 00:11:10
    and they're intelligent they have
  • 00:11:12
    feelings and values and are capable of
  • 00:11:16
    love
  • 00:11:17
    and virtue
  • 00:11:20
    but the number two is the world that's
  • 00:11:23
    non-human that we call nature
  • 00:11:28
    and that's stupid
  • 00:11:31
    it has no mind
  • 00:11:34
    it has emotions maybe in animals
  • 00:11:37
    but on the whole it's a pretty Grim
  • 00:11:39
    business dog eat dog
  • 00:11:42
    and when it gets to the geological level
  • 00:11:44
    it's as dumb as dumb can be
  • 00:11:46
    it's a mechanism
  • 00:11:48
    and there's an awful lot of it
  • 00:11:51
    and that's what we live in the middle of
  • 00:11:53
    and the purpose of Being Human
  • 00:11:56
    is we feel to subjugate nature
  • 00:12:00
    to make it obey our will and we arrived
  • 00:12:04
    here we don't feel that we belong in
  • 00:12:06
    this world
  • 00:12:08
    it's foreign to us
  • 00:12:10
    in the words of the poet houseman
  • 00:12:14
    I a stranger and Afraid in a world I
  • 00:12:17
    never made
  • 00:12:20
    and so all around us today we see the
  • 00:12:24
    signs of Man's Battle with nature
  • 00:12:27
    I'm living at the moment in a marvelous
  • 00:12:30
    house in the Hollywood Hills
  • 00:12:33
    and we are overlooking a lake
  • 00:12:37
    and on the other side of the lake
  • 00:12:41
    the whole hill has suddenly been
  • 00:12:42
    interrupted with a ghastly gash
  • 00:12:47
    where they have made level lots for
  • 00:12:49
    building tract homes of the kind you
  • 00:12:51
    would build on a flat plane
  • 00:12:55
    this is called the conquest of nature
  • 00:12:58
    these houses will eventually fall down
  • 00:13:00
    the hill
  • 00:13:03
    because they are causing soil erosion
  • 00:13:06
    and they're being
  • 00:13:08
    maximally stupid
  • 00:13:10
    the proper way to build a house on a
  • 00:13:12
    hillside
  • 00:13:13
    is to do it in such a way as to affect
  • 00:13:16
    the minimum interference with the nature
  • 00:13:19
    of the Hill
  • 00:13:21
    after all the whole point of living in
  • 00:13:23
    the Hills is to live in the Hills
  • 00:13:24
    there's no point in converting the hills
  • 00:13:27
    into something flat and then going and
  • 00:13:29
    living there
  • 00:13:30
    you can do that already on the ground
  • 00:13:34
    so people the more people live in the
  • 00:13:37
    Hills the more they spoil the hills and
  • 00:13:39
    they're just the same as people living
  • 00:13:40
    on the flat ground
  • 00:13:42
    I mean how stupid can you get
  • 00:13:45
    well anyway
  • 00:13:47
    that this is one of the symptoms of our
  • 00:13:50
    phony sense of identity
  • 00:13:53
    of our phony feeling
  • 00:13:55
    that we are something lonely locked up
  • 00:13:59
    in a bag of skin
  • 00:14:01
    confronted with a world an external
  • 00:14:04
    alien foreign world that is not me
  • 00:14:09
    now according to certain of these great
  • 00:14:12
    ancient philosophies like Buddhism
  • 00:14:16
    this sensation of being a separate
  • 00:14:20
    lonely individual
  • 00:14:22
    is a hallucination
  • 00:14:25
    it's a hallucination brought about by
  • 00:14:28
    various causes the way we are brought up
  • 00:14:31
    uh being the chief of them of course
  • 00:14:35
    I remember as a child and you probably
  • 00:14:37
    have very similar memories to mine that
  • 00:14:40
    are all our parents
  • 00:14:42
    were desperately interested
  • 00:14:45
    in identifying us
  • 00:14:48
    don't you remember that sometimes you
  • 00:14:50
    went out and played with other children
  • 00:14:53
    and there was someone in the group of
  • 00:14:55
    other children you admired and look up
  • 00:14:57
    to and you came home imitating the
  • 00:14:59
    mannerisms of that other child
  • 00:15:02
    and your mother said to you Johnny
  • 00:15:04
    Johnny that's not you that's Peter
  • 00:15:08
    and you felt a little bit ashamed
  • 00:15:11
    because somehow
  • 00:15:13
    you would let her down
  • 00:15:15
    she wanted you to be you her child and
  • 00:15:19
    not Mrs Jones's child Peter
  • 00:15:23
    and so in many ways we are all taught
  • 00:15:26
    this
  • 00:15:28
    for example
  • 00:15:35
    the main thing that we're all taught in
  • 00:15:37
    childhood
  • 00:15:40
    is that you must do
  • 00:15:42
    that which will only be appreciated if
  • 00:15:45
    you do it voluntarily
  • 00:15:52
    now darling
  • 00:15:55
    I
  • 00:15:56
    a dutiful child must love its mother
  • 00:16:01
    but now I don't want you to do it
  • 00:16:02
    because I say so but because you really
  • 00:16:04
    want to
  • 00:16:09
    oh
  • 00:16:12
    you must be free
  • 00:16:14
    see this comes into politics
  • 00:16:16
    Everybody Must vote
  • 00:16:21
    you see imagine
  • 00:16:23
    your members of a democracy
  • 00:16:26
    and you must be members of a democracy
  • 00:16:28
    see you're ordered to
  • 00:16:32
    crazy
  • 00:16:35
    also Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
  • 00:16:40
    is that a commandment or a joke
  • 00:16:48
    do you know if you suggest that the Lord
  • 00:16:50
    is joking
  • 00:16:52
    most people in our culture are offended
  • 00:16:54
    because they have a very moronic
  • 00:16:57
    conception of God
  • 00:16:59
    as a person totally devoid of humor
  • 00:17:04
    but the Lord is highly capable of joking
  • 00:17:08
    because joking is one of the most
  • 00:17:10
    constructive things you can do
  • 00:17:14
    so
  • 00:17:16
    so when you are told Who You Are
  • 00:17:20
    and that you must be free furthermore
  • 00:17:22
    that you must survive you must go on
  • 00:17:24
    living
  • 00:17:26
    and that becomes a kind of compulsion
  • 00:17:30
    you get mixed up
  • 00:17:32
    it's very simple of course you get mixed
  • 00:17:34
    up
  • 00:17:35
    if you think you must do something
  • 00:17:39
    which will only be the thing required of
  • 00:17:41
    you if you do it freely
  • 00:17:45
    mm-hmm
  • 00:17:48
    these are the sort of influences then
  • 00:17:51
    that cause human beings all over the
  • 00:17:53
    world
  • 00:17:55
    to feel isolated
  • 00:17:59
    to feel that they are centers of
  • 00:18:02
    awareness
  • 00:18:03
    locked up in bags of skin
  • 00:18:08
    now this sensation of our identity
  • 00:18:13
    can be
  • 00:18:16
    shown and demonstrated to be false
  • 00:18:20
    by some of the disciplines of our own
  • 00:18:23
    science
  • 00:18:28
    when we describe
  • 00:18:30
    a human being or any other living
  • 00:18:33
    organism from a scientific point of view
  • 00:18:37
    all that means is that we're describing
  • 00:18:39
    it carefully
  • 00:18:42
    we're going to describe very carefully
  • 00:18:45
    what a human being is and what a human
  • 00:18:48
    being does all right
  • 00:18:52
    and we find that as we go on with that
  • 00:18:54
    description
  • 00:18:57
    we can't describe the human being
  • 00:19:00
    without describing
  • 00:19:01
    [Music]
  • 00:19:03
    the environment
  • 00:19:08
    we can't say what a human being is doing
  • 00:19:12
    without also saying what the world
  • 00:19:15
    around him is doing
  • 00:19:18
    just imagine for a moment
  • 00:19:21
    that you couldn't see anything up here
  • 00:19:25
    except me
  • 00:19:29
    you couldn't see the curtains behind me
  • 00:19:31
    you couldn't see the stage you couldn't
  • 00:19:33
    see the microphone You Could Only See Me
  • 00:19:37
    that was all you could see
  • 00:19:40
    what would you be looking at
  • 00:19:44
    you wouldn't see me at all
  • 00:19:46
    because you wouldn't see my edges
  • 00:19:49
    and my edges are rather important for
  • 00:19:51
    seeing me
  • 00:19:53
    my edges would be
  • 00:19:56
    identical with the edge of your eyesight
  • 00:20:00
    with that vague oval curve
  • 00:20:03
    which is the field of vision and what
  • 00:20:06
    you would be looking at would be my
  • 00:20:07
    necktie
  • 00:20:09
    my nose my eyes and so on but you
  • 00:20:12
    wouldn't see my edges
  • 00:20:15
    so you'd be confronted with a very
  • 00:20:16
    strange monster
  • 00:20:19
    and you wouldn't know it was a human
  • 00:20:21
    being
  • 00:20:22
    because to see me you need to see my
  • 00:20:25
    background
  • 00:20:28
    and therein lies a clue of which we are
  • 00:20:32
    mostly ignorant
  • 00:20:34
    in Buddhist Theory
  • 00:20:37
    the cause of our phony sense of identity
  • 00:20:39
    is called avidya
  • 00:20:42
    and that means ignorance although it's
  • 00:20:44
    better to pronounce it ignorance
  • 00:20:50
    the having a a deluded sense of identity
  • 00:20:54
    is the result of ignoring certain things
  • 00:20:58
    so when you look at me and I manage by
  • 00:21:02
    behaving up here in a kind of a more or
  • 00:21:05
    less interesting way I cause you to
  • 00:21:08
    ignore my background
  • 00:21:10
    because I concentrate attention on me
  • 00:21:14
    just like a conjurer stage magician
  • 00:21:17
    in order to perform his tricks
  • 00:21:19
    misdirects your attention
  • 00:21:21
    he talks to you about something he's
  • 00:21:23
    doing here and he talks to you about his
  • 00:21:25
    fingers and how empty they are and he
  • 00:21:27
    can pull something out of his pocket in
  • 00:21:28
    plain sight and you don't notice it
  • 00:21:31
    and so a magic happens
  • 00:21:35
    that's ignorance
  • 00:21:38
    selective attention focusing your
  • 00:21:40
    Consciousness on one thing to the
  • 00:21:42
    exclusion of many other things
  • 00:21:45
    so in this way we concentrate on the
  • 00:21:49
    things the figures
  • 00:21:51
    and we ignore we don't concentrate on
  • 00:21:54
    the background
  • 00:21:56
    and so we come to think that the figure
  • 00:21:58
    exists independently of the background
  • 00:22:02
    but actually
  • 00:22:04
    they go together
  • 00:22:07
    and they go together
  • 00:22:10
    just as inseparably
  • 00:22:13
    as backs go with fronts
  • 00:22:17
    as positives go with negatives as UPS go
  • 00:22:20
    with Downs
  • 00:22:23
    and as
  • 00:22:25
    life goes with death
  • 00:22:28
    you can't separate it
  • 00:22:31
    so there's a sort of secret conspiracy
  • 00:22:34
    between the figure and the background
  • 00:22:36
    they are really one
  • 00:22:38
    but they look different
  • 00:22:42
    they need each other
  • 00:22:45
    just as male needs female
  • 00:22:48
    and vice versa
  • 00:22:51
    but we are ordinarily completely unaware
  • 00:22:54
    of this
  • 00:22:55
    so then when the scientist starts paying
  • 00:22:59
    attention to behavior of people and
  • 00:23:01
    things carefully
  • 00:23:04
    he discovers that they go together
  • 00:23:08
    that the behavior of the organism
  • 00:23:11
    is inseparable from the behavior of its
  • 00:23:14
    environment
  • 00:23:17
    so you see if I'm to describe what I am
  • 00:23:20
    doing what am I doing
  • 00:23:30
    am I just waving my legs back and forth
  • 00:23:35
    no I'm walking
  • 00:23:37
    and in order to speak about walking you
  • 00:23:40
    have to speak about the space in which I
  • 00:23:42
    am walking about the floor
  • 00:23:45
    about the direction left or right in
  • 00:23:47
    relation to what kind of room what kind
  • 00:23:49
    of stage what kind of situation
  • 00:23:52
    because if obviously if there isn't a
  • 00:23:54
    ground underneath me I can't very well
  • 00:23:56
    walk
  • 00:23:59
    so the description
  • 00:24:02
    of what I am doing involves the
  • 00:24:05
    description of the world
  • 00:24:07
    so the the biologist
  • 00:24:11
    comes to say
  • 00:24:13
    that what he is describing is no longer
  • 00:24:16
    merely the organism and its Behavior he
  • 00:24:20
    is describing a field
  • 00:24:23
    which he now calls the organism hyphen
  • 00:24:25
    environment
  • 00:24:28
    and that field
  • 00:24:31
    is what
  • 00:24:32
    the individual actually is
  • 00:24:38
    now this is very clearly recognized in
  • 00:24:41
    all sorts of Sciences but the average
  • 00:24:43
    individual and indeed the average
  • 00:24:45
    scientist
  • 00:24:47
    does not feel in a way that corresponds
  • 00:24:51
    to his theory
  • 00:24:53
    he still feels as if he were a center of
  • 00:24:57
    sensitivity locked up inside a bag of
  • 00:25:00
    skin
  • 00:25:04
    the object of Buddhist
  • 00:25:07
    discipline or
  • 00:25:10
    methods of
  • 00:25:12
    psychological training
  • 00:25:15
    is as it were to turn that feeling
  • 00:25:18
    inside out
  • 00:25:21
    to bring about a state of affairs
  • 00:25:24
    in which the individual feels himself
  • 00:25:29
    to be
  • 00:25:32
    everything that there is
  • 00:25:35
    the whole Cosmos
  • 00:25:38
    focused expressing itself here
  • 00:25:43
    and you as the whole Cosmos expressing
  • 00:25:46
    itself there and there and there and
  • 00:25:48
    there and there and so on
  • 00:25:52
    that what in other words the reality of
  • 00:25:55
    myself
  • 00:25:56
    fundamentally is not something inside my
  • 00:25:59
    skin
  • 00:26:02
    but everything and I mean everything
  • 00:26:04
    outside my skin
  • 00:26:08
    but doing what is my skin and inside it
  • 00:26:13
    I mean imagine that every one of us look
  • 00:26:15
    in the same way that the sea when the
  • 00:26:17
    ocean has a wave on it
  • 00:26:20
    the wave is not separate from the ocean
  • 00:26:22
    is it
  • 00:26:23
    every wave on the ocean is the whole
  • 00:26:25
    ocean waving
  • 00:26:27
    the ocean waves and it says I'm here see
  • 00:26:31
    but I do I can wave all over the place I
  • 00:26:34
    can wave in many different ways I can
  • 00:26:36
    wave this way go and wait wait wave that
  • 00:26:37
    way
  • 00:26:39
    so the ocean of being
  • 00:26:42
    waves every one of us
  • 00:26:44
    and we are its waves
  • 00:26:46
    but the the wave is fundamentally the
  • 00:26:49
    ocean
  • 00:26:52
    now
  • 00:26:56
    in that way your sense of identity would
  • 00:27:00
    be turned inside out
  • 00:27:03
    you wouldn't forget who you were you
  • 00:27:05
    wouldn't forget your name and address
  • 00:27:07
    your telephone number your social
  • 00:27:08
    security number and what sort of role
  • 00:27:11
    you're supposed to occupy in society
  • 00:27:14
    but you would know
  • 00:27:16
    that this particular role that you play
  • 00:27:20
    this particular personality that you are
  • 00:27:23
    is superficial
  • 00:27:25
    and the real you
  • 00:27:27
    is all that there is
  • 00:27:34
    the object of Buddhist
  • 00:27:37
    discipline or
  • 00:27:40
    methods of
  • 00:27:41
    psychological training
  • 00:27:44
    is as it were to bring about a state of
  • 00:27:47
    affairs
  • 00:27:49
    in which the individual feels himself
  • 00:27:53
    to be
  • 00:27:56
    everything that there is
  • 00:27:59
    the whole Cosmos
  • 00:28:02
    focused expressing itself here
  • 00:28:08
    now
  • 00:28:12
    in that way your sense of identity would
  • 00:28:16
    be turned inside out
  • 00:28:19
    you wouldn't forget who you were you
  • 00:28:21
    wouldn't forget your name and address
  • 00:28:23
    your telephone number your social
  • 00:28:24
    security number and what sort of role
  • 00:28:27
    you're supposed to occupy in society
  • 00:28:30
    but you would know
  • 00:28:32
    that this particular role that you play
  • 00:28:36
    this particular personality that you are
  • 00:28:39
    is superficial
  • 00:28:41
    and the real you
  • 00:28:43
    is all that there is
  • 00:28:46
    and that inversion
  • 00:28:48
    turning upside down of the sense of
  • 00:28:52
    identity of the State of Consciousness
  • 00:28:54
    which the average person has is the
  • 00:28:57
    objective of
  • 00:28:59
    buddhistic disciplines
  • 00:29:04
    the method of teaching something in
  • 00:29:08
    Buddhism
  • 00:29:09
    is rather different from methods of
  • 00:29:11
    teaching which we use in the Western
  • 00:29:13
    World in the Western World a good
  • 00:29:16
    teacher is regarded as someone who makes
  • 00:29:20
    the subject matter easy for the student
  • 00:29:24
    a person who explains things cleverly
  • 00:29:26
    and clearly
  • 00:29:28
    so you can take a course in mathematics
  • 00:29:32
    without tears
  • 00:29:36
    in the Oriental world
  • 00:29:39
    they have an almost exactly opposite
  • 00:29:42
    conception and that is that a good
  • 00:29:45
    teacher is a person who makes you find
  • 00:29:47
    out something for yourself
  • 00:29:50
    in other words learn to swim by throwing
  • 00:29:53
    the baby into the water
  • 00:29:56
    there's a story used in Zen about how a
  • 00:30:00
    burglar taught his child to burgle
  • 00:30:04
    ah he
  • 00:30:06
    took him one night on a burgling
  • 00:30:09
    Expedition
  • 00:30:10
    and locked him up in a chest in the
  • 00:30:14
    house
  • 00:30:15
    that he was burgling and left him
  • 00:30:18
    and the poor little boy was all alone
  • 00:30:20
    locked up in the chest
  • 00:30:22
    and he began to think how on Earth am I
  • 00:30:23
    going to get out
  • 00:30:26
    so he suddenly called out fire fire
  • 00:30:29
    and everybody began running all over the
  • 00:30:31
    place and they heard this shriek coming
  • 00:30:33
    in from inside the chest and they
  • 00:30:35
    unlocked it and he rushed out and shut
  • 00:30:38
    out into the garden
  • 00:30:40
    and just that he everybody was in Hot
  • 00:30:42
    Pursuit calling out thief thief and he
  • 00:30:45
    went by a well and he picked up a rock
  • 00:30:47
    and dropped it in the well
  • 00:30:49
    and everybody thought
  • 00:30:51
    the poor fellow has jumped into the well
  • 00:30:53
    and committed suicide
  • 00:30:55
    and he got away
  • 00:30:58
    and got home and your father his father
  • 00:31:00
    said congratulations you have learned
  • 00:31:02
    the art
  • 00:31:05
    so do you see William Blake once said a
  • 00:31:08
    fool who persists in his folly will
  • 00:31:10
    become wise
  • 00:31:13
    and so the method of teaching used by
  • 00:31:16
    these Great Eastern teachers is to make
  • 00:31:18
    fools persist in their folly
  • 00:31:21
    but very rigorously and very
  • 00:31:23
    consistently and very hard
  • 00:31:27
    so then if I may now having given you
  • 00:31:29
    the analogy the image let's go to the
  • 00:31:31
    specific situation
  • 00:31:33
    supposing you want to study Buddhism
  • 00:31:36
    under his end Master what will happen to
  • 00:31:39
    you
  • 00:31:41
    well first of all let's ask the question
  • 00:31:43
    why would you want to do this anyway
  • 00:31:46
    it I mean I can make the situation
  • 00:31:48
    fairly Universal it might not be a zen
  • 00:31:51
    master that you go to it might be a
  • 00:31:52
    Methodist minister
  • 00:31:54
    it might be a Catholic priest it might
  • 00:31:57
    be a psychoanalyst
  • 00:31:59
    but what's the matter with you
  • 00:32:01
    why do you go
  • 00:32:05
    and surely the reason that we all would
  • 00:32:08
    be Seekers
  • 00:32:10
    is that we feel some disquiet about
  • 00:32:12
    ourselves
  • 00:32:15
    many of us want to get rid of ourselves
  • 00:32:18
    we can't stand ourselves
  • 00:32:21
    and so we watch television and go to the
  • 00:32:24
    movies and read mystery stories and join
  • 00:32:27
    churches in order to forget ourselves
  • 00:32:30
    in order to merge with something greater
  • 00:32:33
    than ourselves we want to get away from
  • 00:32:35
    this ridiculous thing locked up in a bag
  • 00:32:37
    of skin
  • 00:32:40
    so I have a problem I hurt I suffer I'm
  • 00:32:44
    neurotic or whatever it is and one goes
  • 00:32:46
    to the teacher and say my problem's me
  • 00:32:49
    change me
  • 00:32:53
    now if you go to a zen teacher
  • 00:32:57
    he'll say
  • 00:32:59
    well I have nothing to teach
  • 00:33:03
    there is no problem everything's
  • 00:33:04
    perfectly clear
  • 00:33:09
    and you think that one over
  • 00:33:12
    and you say he's probably being cagey
  • 00:33:22
    he's testing me out
  • 00:33:26
    to see if I really want to be his
  • 00:33:28
    student
  • 00:33:30
    so I know according to everybody else
  • 00:33:32
    who's been through this that in order to
  • 00:33:34
    get this man to take me on I must
  • 00:33:36
    persist
  • 00:33:39
    do you know our saying anybody who goes
  • 00:33:41
    to a psychiatrist ought to have his head
  • 00:33:43
    examined
  • 00:33:48
    that's a very there's a double take in
  • 00:33:51
    that saying you see
  • 00:33:53
    so in the same way anybody who goes
  • 00:33:56
    with a spiritual problem to a zen master
  • 00:34:00
    defines himself as a nut
  • 00:34:04
    and the teacher does everything possible
  • 00:34:08
    to make him as nutty as possible
  • 00:34:16
    But the teacher says quite honestly
  • 00:34:18
    I haven't anything to tell you
  • 00:34:21
    I don't teach anything
  • 00:34:24
    I have no Doctrine as I said to you in
  • 00:34:26
    the beginning of this talk I have
  • 00:34:28
    nothing whatsoever to sell you
  • 00:34:31
    so the student thinks
  • 00:34:33
    my
  • 00:34:34
    this is very deep because this nothing
  • 00:34:38
    that he's talking about there's nothing
  • 00:34:40
    that he teaches
  • 00:34:42
    is what they call in Buddhism
  • 00:34:45
    is the Sanskrit for nothingness
  • 00:34:49
    but and it's supposed to be the Ultimate
  • 00:34:51
    Reality but as you know if you know
  • 00:34:53
    anything about these doctrines this
  • 00:34:55
    doesn't mean real nothingness not kind
  • 00:34:57
    of just nothing there at all not just
  • 00:34:58
    blank but it means no thingness
  • 00:35:01
    it's the transcendental reality behind
  • 00:35:05
    all separate and individual things and
  • 00:35:07
    that's something very deep and profound
  • 00:35:09
    so he knows that when the teacher said I
  • 00:35:11
    have nothing to teach he meant this very
  • 00:35:13
    esoteric no thing
  • 00:35:17
    well he might also say then if you have
  • 00:35:19
    nothing to teach what are all these
  • 00:35:21
    students doing around here
  • 00:35:26
    it says they are not doing anything they
  • 00:35:28
    are just uh
  • 00:35:30
    they're they're just a lot of stupid
  • 00:35:31
    people who live here
  • 00:35:34
    and he knows again you see this stupid
  • 00:35:37
    doesn't mean just straight stupid
  • 00:35:39
    but the higher stupidity of being
  • 00:35:43
    people who are humble and don't have
  • 00:35:44
    intellectual Pride
  • 00:35:47
    so
  • 00:35:50
    finally the student having gone out of
  • 00:35:54
    his way to define himself as a damn fool
  • 00:35:57
    in need of help he's absolutely
  • 00:36:01
    worked himself into this situation he's
  • 00:36:03
    defined himself as a nut and then the
  • 00:36:06
    teacher accepts him and the teacher says
  • 00:36:08
    now
  • 00:36:10
    I'm going to ask you a question
  • 00:36:15
    I want to know who you are
  • 00:36:19
    before your father and mother conceived
  • 00:36:21
    you
  • 00:36:24
    that is to say you've come to me with a
  • 00:36:27
    problem and you've said I have a problem
  • 00:36:29
    I want to get one up on this universe
  • 00:36:32
    now who is it that wants to get one up
  • 00:36:35
    I mean who are you who is this thing
  • 00:36:38
    called your ego your soul your eye your
  • 00:36:41
    identity
  • 00:36:42
    for whom your parents provided a body
  • 00:36:46
    show me that and he says father I'm from
  • 00:36:48
    Missouri and I don't want any words I
  • 00:36:50
    want to be
  • 00:36:55
    so the student may open his mouth to
  • 00:36:58
    make an answer but the teacher says Ah
  • 00:37:00
    not yet you're not ready
  • 00:37:04
    and he takes him back and introduces him
  • 00:37:06
    to the chief student all those so-called
  • 00:37:09
    Zen monks who live together
  • 00:37:12
    and the chief student says now what we
  • 00:37:15
    do here is so and so we have this
  • 00:37:17
    discipline but the main part of the
  • 00:37:19
    discipline is meditation
  • 00:37:22
    and we all sit cross-legged in a row
  • 00:37:26
    and uh that we we do that
  • 00:37:29
    and you sit cross-legged and you learn
  • 00:37:31
    how to breathe and uh
  • 00:37:34
    be still
  • 00:37:36
    in other words to do nothing
  • 00:37:39
    not but you mustn't go to sleep
  • 00:37:42
    and you mustn't get into a trance
  • 00:37:44
    who have to stay Wide Awake
  • 00:37:47
    not thinking anything
  • 00:37:49
    but perfectly doing nothing
  • 00:37:52
    and there's a monk walking down all the
  • 00:37:54
    time with a flat stick rather long about
  • 00:37:57
    so long and if you go to sleep or if you
  • 00:37:59
    get into a trance or if you get dreamy
  • 00:38:02
    he hits you on the back
  • 00:38:04
    so that you'll stay quite clear and wide
  • 00:38:07
    awake but still doing nothing
  • 00:38:09
    and the idea is that out of this state
  • 00:38:11
    of profoundly doing nothing you will be
  • 00:38:14
    able to tell the teacher who you really
  • 00:38:16
    are
  • 00:38:17
    in other words the question who are you
  • 00:38:20
    before your father and mother conceived
  • 00:38:22
    you is a request
  • 00:38:24
    for an act
  • 00:38:26
    of perfect sincerity and spontaneity
  • 00:38:31
    as if I were to say to you
  • 00:38:35
    look will you be absolutely genuine with
  • 00:38:38
    me
  • 00:38:39
    no deception please
  • 00:38:41
    I want you to do something that
  • 00:38:43
    expresses you without the slightest
  • 00:38:46
    deception no more role acting no more
  • 00:38:49
    playing games with me I want to see you
  • 00:38:55
    now imagine
  • 00:38:58
    could you really be that honest with
  • 00:39:01
    somebody else
  • 00:39:03
    especially a spiritual teacher
  • 00:39:07
    and you know he looks right through you
  • 00:39:10
    he sees all your secret thoughts
  • 00:39:14
    and he knows the very second
  • 00:39:17
    when you've been a little bit phony
  • 00:39:20
    and that bugs you
  • 00:39:23
    just like a psychiatrist
  • 00:39:25
    you're sitting in there discussing your
  • 00:39:27
    problems with him and you start picking
  • 00:39:28
    your nose
  • 00:39:30
    and the psychiatrist suddenly says to
  • 00:39:32
    you is your finger comfortable there you
  • 00:39:34
    like that
  • 00:39:41
    and you know you know your Freudian slip
  • 00:39:43
    is showing
  • 00:39:47
    what do fingers symbolize what do
  • 00:39:49
    nostrils symbolize
  • 00:39:52
    [Music]
  • 00:39:54
    and then you quickly put your hand down
  • 00:39:56
    and sort of
  • 00:39:59
    [Applause]
  • 00:40:04
    and you say oh no it's nothing it's
  • 00:40:06
    nothing I was just picking my nose and
  • 00:40:09
    uh the analyst says oh really
  • 00:40:14
    ah then why why are you justifying it
  • 00:40:20
    why are you trying to explain it away
  • 00:40:23
    he has you everywhere you turn you see
  • 00:40:25
    well that's the whole art of
  • 00:40:27
    psychoanalysis
  • 00:40:29
    and it's Zen it's the same thing
  • 00:40:32
    uh in other words
  • 00:40:34
    when you're challenged to be perfectly
  • 00:40:37
    genuine
  • 00:40:38
    it's like saying to a child now darling
  • 00:40:41
    come out here and play and don't be
  • 00:40:43
    self-conscious
  • 00:40:44
    or it's like I would say to you now look
  • 00:40:46
    if you come here tonight at exactly
  • 00:40:48
    midnight and put your hands on this
  • 00:40:50
    stage you can wish and have granted any
  • 00:40:53
    wish you want provided you don't think
  • 00:40:56
    of a green elephant
  • 00:41:01
    and so everybody will come they'll put
  • 00:41:04
    their hands here and they will be very
  • 00:41:06
    careful not to think about a green
  • 00:41:07
    elephant
  • 00:41:09
    thank you
  • 00:41:12
    well now do you see the point that
  • 00:41:15
    everybody if we transfer this to the
  • 00:41:18
    dimension of spirituality where the
  • 00:41:21
    highest ideal is to be unselfish to let
  • 00:41:25
    go of oneself
  • 00:41:29
    when you are trying to be unselfish
  • 00:41:31
    you're doing it for a selfish reason
  • 00:41:35
    you can't be unselfish by a decision of
  • 00:41:39
    the will any more then you can decide
  • 00:41:42
    not to think of a green elephant
  • 00:41:45
    there is a story about Confucius
  • 00:41:49
    who one day met lautzer who was a great
  • 00:41:51
    Chinese philosopher
  • 00:41:54
    and laozer said sir what is your system
  • 00:41:57
    and Confucius said it is charity and
  • 00:42:01
    love of one's neighbor and elimination
  • 00:42:02
    of self-interest
  • 00:42:05
    laoza said stuff and nonsense
  • 00:42:09
    your elimination of self
  • 00:42:12
    is a positive manifestation of self
  • 00:42:16
    look at the universe
  • 00:42:18
    the Stars keep their order
  • 00:42:20
    the trees and plants grow upwards
  • 00:42:22
    without exception
  • 00:42:24
    the waters flow
  • 00:42:26
    be like this
  • 00:42:28
    all your nonsense about elimination of
  • 00:42:30
    self is like beating a drum in search of
  • 00:42:33
    a fugitive
  • 00:42:36
    so in this way
  • 00:42:37
    these are all examples of the thing that
  • 00:42:40
    trickery the master is playing on you
  • 00:42:45
    you came to him with the idea in your
  • 00:42:47
    mind that you are a separate independent
  • 00:42:52
    isolated individual and what he is
  • 00:42:55
    simply saying to you is show me this
  • 00:42:58
    individual
  • 00:43:00
    I had a friend who was studying Zen in
  • 00:43:02
    Japan and he got pretty desperate to
  • 00:43:05
    produce the answer of who he really is
  • 00:43:08
    and on his way to an interview with the
  • 00:43:10
    master to give an answer to the problem
  • 00:43:13
    he noticed a very common sight in Japan
  • 00:43:15
    a big bullfrog sitting around in the
  • 00:43:18
    garden
  • 00:43:19
    and he swooped this bullfrog up in his
  • 00:43:21
    hand and dropped it in the sleeve of his
  • 00:43:22
    kimono
  • 00:43:24
    and then he went into the master
  • 00:43:27
    to give the answer of who he was he
  • 00:43:29
    suddenly produced the bullfrog
  • 00:43:31
    and the master said um
  • 00:43:33
    too intellectual
  • 00:43:35
    [Laughter]
  • 00:43:40
    in other words this answer is too
  • 00:43:44
    contrived
  • 00:43:46
    it's too much like Zen
  • 00:43:49
    you've been reading too many books it's
  • 00:43:52
    not the genuine thing
  • 00:43:55
    so after a while you see what happens is
  • 00:43:58
    this
  • 00:43:59
    when the student finds that there is
  • 00:44:03
    absolutely no way
  • 00:44:05
    of being
  • 00:44:07
    his true self
  • 00:44:11
    not only is there no way of doing it
  • 00:44:15
    there is also no way of doing it by not
  • 00:44:18
    doing it you can't do it by doing
  • 00:44:20
    something you can't do it by not doing
  • 00:44:22
    something
  • 00:44:24
    let me to make this clearer put it into
  • 00:44:26
    Christian terms Thou shalt love the Lord
  • 00:44:29
    thy God
  • 00:44:31
    now what are you going to do about that
  • 00:44:36
    if you try very hard to love God and you
  • 00:44:39
    ask yourself why am I doing this
  • 00:44:42
    you find out you're doing it because you
  • 00:44:43
    want to be on the side of the big
  • 00:44:44
    battalions
  • 00:44:46
    you want to be right
  • 00:44:49
    after all the Lord is the master of the
  • 00:44:51
    universe isn't he
  • 00:44:53
    and if you don't love him you're going
  • 00:44:54
    to be in a pretty sad state
  • 00:44:57
    so you realize I'm loving him just
  • 00:44:59
    because I'm afraid
  • 00:45:01
    of what will happen to me if I don't
  • 00:45:04
    and then you think that's pretty lousy
  • 00:45:05
    love isn't it
  • 00:45:07
    and you think I I that's a bad
  • 00:45:09
    motivation
  • 00:45:11
    I wish I could change that I wish I
  • 00:45:13
    could love the Lord
  • 00:45:15
    out of a genuine heart
  • 00:45:17
    but why do you want to change
  • 00:45:22
    see I realize that the reason I want to
  • 00:45:26
    have a different kind of motive is that
  • 00:45:28
    I've got the same motive
  • 00:45:32
    so I say oh heaven's sakes God I'm a
  • 00:45:36
    mess and uh will you help me out
  • 00:45:41
    then he reminds you
  • 00:45:44
    why you why are you doing that
  • 00:45:47
    now you're you're just you're just
  • 00:45:49
    giving up aren't you you're asking
  • 00:45:50
    someone else to take over your problem
  • 00:45:54
    so you suddenly find you see you're
  • 00:45:56
    stuck
  • 00:45:57
    so in this way what is called the Zen
  • 00:46:00
    problem or koang
  • 00:46:02
    is uh likened to a person who swallowed
  • 00:46:06
    a ball of red hot iron
  • 00:46:08
    he can't gulp it down and he can't spit
  • 00:46:10
    it out
  • 00:46:12
    or it's like a mosquito biting an iron
  • 00:46:14
    bull
  • 00:46:15
    it's the nature of a mosquito to bite
  • 00:46:17
    and it's the nature of an iron bull to
  • 00:46:20
    be unbitable
  • 00:46:21
    and both go on doing their thing that is
  • 00:46:23
    their nature
  • 00:46:25
    and so nothing can happen
  • 00:46:27
    you realize absolutely you're up against
  • 00:46:29
    it
  • 00:46:31
    absolutely no answer to this problem
  • 00:46:36
    No Way Out
  • 00:46:39
    now what does that mean
  • 00:46:42
    if I can't do the right thing by doing
  • 00:46:46
    and if I can't do the right thing by not
  • 00:46:48
    doing what does it mean it means of
  • 00:46:51
    course
  • 00:46:55
    that I who is saved to do all this
  • 00:46:59
    um a hallucination
  • 00:47:04
    there is no independent self to be
  • 00:47:08
    produced
  • 00:47:11
    there is no way at all of showing it it
  • 00:47:14
    because it isn't there
  • 00:47:17
    so you recover from the illusion and you
  • 00:47:20
    suddenly wake up and think
  • 00:47:25
    what a relief
  • 00:47:27
    and they call that Satori that's
  • 00:47:30
    Awakening the first step in Awakening
  • 00:47:36
    let me try and translate this
  • 00:47:40
    when this kind of experience happens
  • 00:47:43
    you discover
  • 00:47:45
    that what you are
  • 00:47:48
    is no longer
  • 00:47:51
    this sort of
  • 00:47:52
    isolated Center of action and experience
  • 00:47:57
    locked up in your skin
  • 00:48:01
    that by being the teacher has asked you
  • 00:48:04
    to produce that thing
  • 00:48:06
    show it to him genuine and naked and you
  • 00:48:09
    couldn't find it
  • 00:48:11
    so it isn't there
  • 00:48:16
    and when you see clearly that it isn't
  • 00:48:18
    there
  • 00:48:19
    you have a new sense of identity
  • 00:48:23
    and you realize that what you are
  • 00:48:27
    is as I said
  • 00:48:30
    the whole world of nature
  • 00:48:34
    doing this
  • 00:48:39
    now that's a difficult thing for many
  • 00:48:41
    Western people because it suggests to
  • 00:48:44
    them a kind of fatalism it suggests that
  • 00:48:48
    the individual is nothing more than the
  • 00:48:50
    puppet of cosmic forces
  • 00:48:54
    so in the same way when your own inner
  • 00:48:57
    sense of identity changes
  • 00:49:00
    from being the separate individual
  • 00:49:03
    two being what the entire Cosmos is
  • 00:49:07
    doing at this place
  • 00:49:09
    you become not a puppet
  • 00:49:14
    but more truly and more expressively an
  • 00:49:18
    individual than ever
  • 00:49:21
    this is the same Paradox which the
  • 00:49:24
    Christian knows in the form whosoever
  • 00:49:27
    would save his soul shall lose it
  • 00:49:33
    now I think that this
  • 00:49:36
    is something of very great importance
  • 00:49:40
    to the Western world today because
  • 00:49:44
    we have developed
  • 00:49:47
    an immensely powerful technology
  • 00:49:52
    we have
  • 00:49:54
    stronger means of changing the physical
  • 00:49:57
    universe
  • 00:49:58
    than has ever existed before
  • 00:50:03
    how are we going to use it
  • 00:50:05
    there is a Chinese proverb that if the
  • 00:50:08
    wrong man uses the right means the right
  • 00:50:11
    means work in the wrong way
  • 00:50:14
    let us assume that our technological
  • 00:50:16
    knowledge
  • 00:50:18
    is the right means
  • 00:50:20
    what kind of people are going to use
  • 00:50:22
    this knowledge are they going to be
  • 00:50:24
    people who hate nature
  • 00:50:26
    and feel alienated from it or people who
  • 00:50:29
    love the physical world and feel that
  • 00:50:31
    the physical world is their own personal
  • 00:50:34
    body
  • 00:50:37
    an extension the whole physical Universe
  • 00:50:41
    right out to the galaxies is simply once
  • 00:50:44
    extended body
  • 00:50:48
    now at the moment the general attitude
  • 00:50:51
    of our technology technologists who are
  • 00:50:55
    exploring space
  • 00:50:58
    is represented in the term the conquest
  • 00:51:00
    of space
  • 00:51:02
    and they are building enormous
  • 00:51:05
    shell-like phallic
  • 00:51:07
    objects to go into the sky
  • 00:51:13
    and this is downright ridiculous
  • 00:51:16
    because
  • 00:51:17
    who is going to get anywhere in a rocket
  • 00:51:22
    you know it takes a terrible long time
  • 00:51:25
    even to get to the moon
  • 00:51:27
    and it's going to take longer than
  • 00:51:29
    anybody can live to get outside the
  • 00:51:31
    solar system just to begin with
  • 00:51:33
    the proper way to study space is not
  • 00:51:35
    with rockets
  • 00:51:37
    but with radio astronomy
  • 00:51:40
    instead of going bang you know with a
  • 00:51:43
    tough Fist of the sky
  • 00:51:46
    become more sensitive
  • 00:51:49
    develop subtler senses that's radio
  • 00:51:52
    astronomy and everything will come to
  • 00:51:55
    you be more open be more receptive
  • 00:51:58
    and eventually you will develop an
  • 00:52:00
    instrument that will examine a piece of
  • 00:52:02
    rock on Mars with greater care than you
  • 00:52:05
    could if you were holding it in your own
  • 00:52:07
    hand
  • 00:52:11
    let it come to you
  • 00:52:15
    but you see this whole attitude of using
  • 00:52:18
    technology as a method of fighting the
  • 00:52:21
    world
  • 00:52:23
    will succeed only in destroying the
  • 00:52:26
    world
  • 00:52:29
    as we are doing with
  • 00:52:33
    absurd and uninformed and short-sighted
  • 00:52:36
    methods of getting rid of insect pests
  • 00:52:40
    are forcing our fruit and tomatoes to
  • 00:52:42
    grow of stripping our Hills of trees and
  • 00:52:47
    so on and so on thinking that all this
  • 00:52:50
    is some kind of progress when actually
  • 00:52:52
    it is turning everything into a junk
  • 00:52:54
    Heap
  • 00:52:57
    it is said you know that Americans
  • 00:52:59
    who are in the Forefront of
  • 00:53:01
    technological progress are materialists
  • 00:53:05
    nothing is further from the truth
  • 00:53:08
    American culture is dedicated to the
  • 00:53:11
    hatred of material
  • 00:53:13
    and to its transformation into junk
  • 00:53:17
    look at Los Angeles
  • 00:53:21
    does it look as if it was made by people
  • 00:53:23
    who loved material it's all made out of
  • 00:53:26
    ticky tacky which is a combination of
  • 00:53:30
    plaster of Paris paper mache and plastic
  • 00:53:32
    glue and comes in any flavor
  • 00:53:38
    the the important lesson in other words
  • 00:53:41
    is technology and its powers
  • 00:53:45
    must be handled by true materialists and
  • 00:53:49
    true materialists are people who love
  • 00:53:51
    material
  • 00:53:53
    who cherish word and stone and wheat and
  • 00:53:58
    eggs and animals
  • 00:54:01
    and above all the Earth
  • 00:54:04
    and treat it with the reverence that is
  • 00:54:07
    due to one's own body
  • 00:54:11
    and you say who's in charge around here
  • 00:54:16
    well nobody's in charge there never was
  • 00:54:18
    anybody in charge
Etiquetas
  • Zen-buddhismo
  • identeco
  • meditado
  • filozofio
  • konscio
  • individuismo
  • natura interagado
  • sincereco
  • universo
  • kultura influo