I don't really care that you went to a strip club. The half-assed condescension towards the stripper ("I guess you gotta make a buck somehow") and using her to brag about how much tougher your form of practice is than hers or anyone else's is what's a little (read: a lot) annoying.

For a lot of practitioners of Zazen, meditation and looking at the face and mystery of the universe, one of the end results is a tiny bit of humility. Since you haven't even reached that point, perhaps your form of practice isn't as hardcore as you so eagerly want everyone else to believe.

Did someone hack your account? Because this doesn't make any sense. Atheists don't believe in a god. How hard is that to grasp? Maybe you're off your meds? It's actually disappointing as you have written great articles in the past. Maybe you've run out of material? Okay, that must be it.

I don't think anyone has a problem with your views on God. I certainly don't, and I think we'd probably agree on a lot of things. Where I quoted you on the previous page, however, you insist that you're religion, your spiritual path, your method of perceiving the nature of divinity, is the only one worth discussing. In fact, it's the only thing that qualifies one to enter into the discussion at all. That's what I have a problem with. You might as well be saying that unless you believe in Jesus you have no right to talk about God. If you think about it, I think you'll find that the rest of us, though we may not have spent years staring at a wall, do in fact have legitimate opinions about unverifiable metaphysical questions.

When Brad Warner counts his breath, he counts to fucking 11

Fuck yes!

EDIT/ADD/DISCLAIMER: Look, for you religious types...that was meant to be a joke so don't all bent.

Antevasinti Lubhyati would properly describe you.

it's funny how so many people got sad over this. if you weren't just into showing your stripes for whatever bullshit you're into, then you wouldn't care what anyone has to say about anything. get a fucking job, or a life, or read a book, anything that takes up your time so you don't have so much free time that you can get offended by something someone says about religious/lackthereof ideals. everyone has different opinions. WE ALL FUCKING KNOW THAT. so, there's no point at all to arguing it, because there is no answer. because nobody will ever resolve to agreeing on anything. ever. EVER. because we are all absolutely correct, in our own minds. me, i'm drunk and loaded with pills, that's where my free time comes from. but, if you're drunk and loaded on pills, then your opinion doesn't matter, because it's "compromised". so, fuck it anyway. nothing matters, deal with it, we're all meatbags with nowhere to go. tough shit. in case anyone tries to call hypocrite on this, i'm not offended by anything anyone has said, i won't claim to be more correct than they are, this is just my opinion. opinions don't make you right or wrong, they just are. when you voice your opinion as fact, or more brutal, than what's been said... you just have a god complex. holy pretension. enjoy how stupid you made them all feel, baby. roll in it until you get warm and wet. who. fucking. cares. i don't even care about what i've said myself. piss.

iam go spraypaint someone or something now peace

Mr Warner...

I have read your articles with interest for some time... but have avoided comment (until now), for several reasons. While much of what you say is dead on the mark, the spirit behind it seems to be lacking spiritual maturity. So if I may permitted to offer my 2¢ worth...

First a little background.
I come from an old-scchool tradition of Taoism (as opposed to the later orthodox expressions of religion and chinese culture). This tradition is similar in some ways to the LaoChuang School, but has certain unique qualities.

My mentor, Chu Lu-hsing said: "The road to enlightenment is not all sweetness and light! It is filled with bumps and bruises, because life itself is filled with bumps and bruises. Life is filled with pleasure and pain. To prefer one over the other, or to try to escape both... only serves to re-enforce our state of ignorance. The universe is filled with light and it is filled with darkness; it is filled with substance and it is filled with void (space). Sometimes the universe is at peace, sometimes with catastrophic destruction... which leads to new creation. All of this is an expression of The One, the primal source of all existence. The void and the unfolding universe are two sides of the this primal One. Both are real and unreal at the same time. To embrace the mystery of this paradox is to penetrate into the heart of The One, finding of a state that is even more subltle and refined than The One."

There is nothing to escape from, nor anywhere to escape to... it is merely a matter of changing our perspective. The one and the all, are indeed the same... each thing a boundless drop in the boundless ocean of pure existence.

Buddhist's refer to the unfolding universe as Samsara and indeed it is always in a state of becoming that never becomes. So what? This gives us the opprtunity for adventure! The Void is not a place (at least not for us), but a state of being that embraces life with uncontrived innocence... that truly experiences life inherently as an interplay of the soul of the universe.

Yes, the universe will at some time suck itself back into it's source, but we will still exist... just not as who (or what) we think we are now. The great game of "who am I?" will cease... but what that state is, I'll admit as yet, is uncertain to me. And I'm good with that.


Chuang Tse said...
"If you and I argue and I best you in this contest... does this make me right and you wrong? Or does this simply mean I am more clever with words? And what of these distinctions of right and wrong? Do they actually exist... or are they merely the expressions of human caprice? Is it not better to abandon these distinctions and return to primal unity?"

To regard one thing as spiritual and another as not, in my opinion is to miss the point completely! To take on the affectations of spirituality is not to truly understand... but is simply being presumptious. All things are inherently spiritual... meditation, the act of love, brick-laying or simply taking a dump. And even to draw distictions between enlightenment and ignorance tends more often that not, leads to self delusion.


Lao Tse said...
"In the pursuit of knowledge, every day something is aquired. In the pursuit of illumination, every day something is stripped away."

10 lbs of grey-matter is not enough to decipher this grand universe, or the spiritual nature of existence! Yet we are imbued with an intellegence and a curiosity to explore this magnificent creation (for lack of a better word). And this is fine... as long as we keep this in perspective. The spirit of Life cannot be quatified or figured out. But it can be experienced.

What we need to strip away is our preconceived ideas and the tendancy to cling to conceptualities. All knowledge is superfluous. Today's truth is tomorrow's fallacy. There is no ultimate truth (as such), avilable to the human mind. But there is a principle of truth that we can guide ourselves by if, and only if we abandon the conceptualties of truth and the presumption of judging what is truth.

This is accomplished by standing spiritualy naked and uncontrived within the divine... we Taoists call this Mystic Union. This Mystic Union is transformative of it's own accord and does not require the acrutraments of religion, philosophy or spiritual affectation. But it does require quietness of spirit and the taming of the restless mind. In this regard, you and I would agree on the value of meditation. But this meditative state must not be confined to stillness, but also present in our actions. In this state, we are not plagued with notions of right and wrong, good and evil, spiritual or mundane. Through Mystic Union we become inherently friends to all living things. And we may immerse ourselves in life without inhibition, fear or self-recrimination.


But Lao Tse also said...
"Those who know don't talk about it. Those who talk about it do not know."

So I'll shut-up now... before I further demonstrate my own state of limited understanding.

That was really interesting.

This illustrates why for me, 'God' is so vague a word that it's utterly useless. Similar for 'love' - which at times is an abstract, at others it's how instinctive, pre-programmed bevahiour feels when we experience it eg nurturing our kids 'cos they contain our genes.

Up until recently, I considered myself an aetheist. I think I finally put it behind me because I had an epiphany when someone told me they used to be an aetheist but had 'matured a lot since then' - and I knew exactly what they meant. So now I don't believe in God & am not an aetheist either. And yes I was full of shit - wanting to be a part of something, wanting to look through the eyes of an aetheist rather than looking upon this moment as it is now, without any filters. Still am full of shit, just in a different way. Either way, it's still shit.

If you don't agree it's 'cos you don't walk in my shoes or live inside my head. I hope you can accept that. But if you are offended, then I would strongly advise looking deeply inside yourself. Why do you care what I think? Or what Brad says & what he meant? Should you?

Anyway, I like to think that when I sit facing my wall, there is no God, universe or love. Just a square of white paint. And sore knees. And no doubt a whole bunch ofother garbage I'm not even aware of. Oh well, one moment at a time...