Section from "Thought is Your Enemy" that ya'll might get a kick out of.
"Everything that is born out of thought is destructive. Anything that we discover, the laws of nature or whatever you call it, are used by us only for destructive purposes. And it is true that we have discovered quite a few of nature's laws, and the theories are constantly changing....
Q: Can we not at least attempt to refine this thought process to make it constructive and positive?
A: Thought is not the instrument for achieving anything other than the goals set before us by our culture or society, or whatever you want to call it. The basic problem we have to face today is this: the cultural input, or what society has placed before us as the goal for all of us to reach and attain, is the enemy of this living organism. Thought can only create problems; it cannot help us to solve any.
Q: Then is it desirable to be thoughtless?
A: What I am talking about is not a thoughtless state. Even the invention of what is called a thoughtless state, placed before us by many spiritual teachers as a goal to be reached, is created by thought so that it can, by pursuing what it calls a thoughtless state, maintain its own continuity. So whatever we experience in this process of achieving the goal of a thoughtless state strengthens and fortifies the very thing that we are trying to be free from. "
Posted Apr 25, 2017, 3:37 PM UTC
It takes about two seconds of "thought" to find a scenario in which this entire idea is destroyed.
OMG! He was right!
This dude sounds like a new age blogger.
"Thinking creates something, not thinking creates something else." - Abraham Lincoln
New age blogger? No. This was U.G. Krishnamurti. Check him out. One of the most interesting and entertaining people to ever live.
I have, we had another user here who was super into him and posted here for a while.
Have you read any Joshu? Take a look at Greens translation and then compare what they believe/say.
I'll be interested to see what your conclusions are and if they contrast my own.
Im still here, no-mans-land rereg..unless theres someone else. Anyway hes right up this subs alley and if anyone prefers the dead for thousands of years guys over the recently living i'd question their real interests. But dont need to fawn over anyone, just let the words percolate if anything id say. Not like they would have given the keys to the kingdom if anyone here met them either. Reading about them is just as useless as meeting them, unless youre looking for magical auras in which case you might find one through sheer imagination and force of will.
Not interested in Joshu, not interested in reaching conclusions, not interested in compare/contrast. I just post this because it cracked me up. If it cracks you up, cool, if it doesn't crack you up, that's cool too.
That's pretty much why I'm here on this subreddit in the first place. The people here crack me up like no other.
You can take that attitude right over there to r/crackmeup
Okay, I was circling the point that UG isn't really on topic.
Being off topic is a common thing here so I was suggesting that if you were confused as to what on topic is, one way might be to compare and contrast UG to Joshu.
It reads like you're not really interested in this sub though.
It's weird to hang out here if you're not interested in Joshu
Lots of people laugh at the Holocaust museum. If Michael Valentine is an authority on the matter, then it would be due to the reliving of pain the brain didn't want to process
Anyways, how are you? I'm super stressed from an issue with a computer project last night, and I would love to have a fun conversation with a friend :)
Actually he was just full of shit...
That was his whole point. That was like the purpose of his existence. He was full of shit just like everyone else. By being so full of shit he was undermining those who spoke like they weren't so full of shit. It's fucking hilarious.
He wasn't undermining anything. Just another sack of fertilizer.
What's with your tone?
And what exactly are you saying or critiquing about the above quote? You're not being very clear.
Jokesy tone.
I'm critiquing the quote. Especially the first part. All thought is destructive? Really? It sounds like a new age blogger.
Then to sum it up i quote a Zen master to contradict Mr. UG.
UG would probably respond by saying that nobody has created anything, all we ever do is destroy and recombine, like a reactor.
Ah, okay.
Who's the quote from, btw? I thought it was Huangbo but I can't find it anywhere.
And I don't see how that quote contradicts UG at all; if anything it is in complete agreement with him. After all, he is saying that even the thoughtless states most people talk about are really just "created by thought".
Idk if addressing tone is a good thing to start doing. Text based communication is notorious for terribly communicating tone
Unless we are all poets.
...
Or Mathpoets
Fair point. It's not even just the tone tho, it's also the selective reading of quotes from non-preferred traditions. It's like people are constantly ready to fight something here, instead of trying to understand what it's getting at and then critiquing it from a calmer place of understanding (if there's even still anything to critique at that point).
I'm getting kind of tired of it, honestly. I'm probably going to move on soon.
I sort of got that you were trying to jump on me for what I said.
As if something is brewing in you and you were looking for an example to lash out at.
Not good dude.
This needs continuous re-emphasis
That sounds like it would get really stressful. Especially as a mod who people put pressure on to make decisions that are on really really nuanced situations
I think it is a common thing to get into battle mode here, but I also have some sympathy for it. I understand if you move on, but regardless, I've really enjoyed your presence and contributions here. Both as a mod and as a member :)
Can you cite the source of that Honest Abe quote? I was looking for that specific reference and text today.
I think it's somewhere in here.
No but really..
Huang Po
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