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Be well,
RS

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Re: Is it possible to be a heartless Buddha?

Thank you, Hexi. I appreciate it. Many of your posts have shown intelligence and an original p.o.v., so I look forward to seeing more.

If you refrain from the flame wars, perhaps Toby will as well (or is that too much to ask?).

I would love to see the level of discourse here rise to the best we all can come up with instead of the low-speed. stupid, pointless insults. There are some good minds here--anything is possible if we want it. Take it from an old guy: Life is short. Make the best of it.

Be well,
RS

Website: www.dr-robert.com

Re: Is it possible to be a heartless Buddha?

If you refrain from the flame wars, perhaps Toby will as well (or is that too much to ask?).


Sure I will!
Now, hopefully Whitewolf will follow suit...

Re: Is it possible to be a heartless Buddha?

Hexigon:

I misunderstood your question. My bad. To answer your fleshed question, of course I don’t have to care. I don’t have to do anything but die one day. I “care” because I am a holistic thinker. Areas of knowledge are not separated by invisible partitions in my mind. A nondual understanding would have several implications for other areas of my psychological understanding of self… Then again, for a guy like me, perhaps not. After all, I remain the same.

For the record, I neither like nor dislike you. I feel for you what I assume you feel for me. Nothing. One barbed comment or sarcastic remark doesn’t mean ongoing animosity. At least not in my lexicon. I also like to play with people’s screen names sometimes when I reply to them (hence the Hexigon thing). I do that a lot. It amuses me. No disrespect intended.

Dr. Robert:

What can I say other than bravo! You apparently are the real deal. No self righteous protestations from you about the importance of compassion or of love being fundamental to… whatever. Just pure, unadulterated awareness, which is amoral.

Love, compassion, kindness, generosity… These are as delusional in their own way as the other side of the “I” coin, indifference, self involvement, disdain and greed. All those enlightenment chasers, pursuing their happily ever after, thinking that awakening is going to get them somewhere special… They are just as lost in non-factual mindstates as the traditional religious folk the enlightenment chasers often deride. All people really want, if they were honest with themselves, is a never ending orgasm. All positive, all the time. The bliss bunnies do not want reality. They want to cop a feel from the universe.

Anyway, congrats to you for telling it like it is Dr. Robert.

As an aside, I don’t know if I feel compassion for myself or not. I do of course have an abiding interest in myself, whatever that self ultimately is. And yes, I am more likely to feel things in relation to my own issues than others. But compassion for myself… meh, not so much.

Re: Is it possible to be a heartless Buddha?

At times i have trouble putting into words what i mean, you misunderstood me again, i think. What i meant was that for someone who doesn't feel compassion the realization that everyone is connected doesn't have to mean anything. It's not so different from knowing what is right or wrong, intellectually, but simply not caring in a sense that it would not affect your actions. I didn't mean to suggest apathy towards the subject but rather it's implications.

Re: Is it possible to be a heartless Buddha?

^^Right.

If I understand you this time, then I agree. That is how it has been for me. I am no more a compassion filled bliss bunny than I was prior to my experience. But I thought it would be. Like I said, I like to examine various implications of whatever idea I am examining at the moment, if there are any. When it came to my "satori" moment, I assumed there would be massive implications, but in my case, there wasn’t.

Re: Is it possible to be a heartless Buddha?

That is what i meant. You asked if there should have been some fundamental change in your outlook and i replied with "why should there be, why would you magically care about others all of the sudden". I'm not verbose in the slightest so i have to elaborate my cryptical ramblings often. :P

Re: Is it possible to be a heartless Buddha?

Daniel Birdick
^^Right.

If I understand you this time, then I agree. That is how it has been for me. I am no more a compassion filled bliss bunny than I was prior to my experience. But I thought it would be. Like I said, I like to examine various implications of whatever idea I am examining at the moment, if there are any. When it came to my "satori" moment, I assumed there would be massive implications, but in my case, there wasn’t.


What is this experience your saying you had? If the experience was the greater enlightenment discussed for example of Dogen Kigen (Zen Master from the 1200's) in the 95 chapter book The Shobogenzo, then it would raise the question of "Who is the I who can be compassion filled?." And are you filled with anything, and if so, what?

Re: Is it possible to be a heartless Buddha?

Enlightenment is a Gamble

Time to cash in your chips
put your ideas and beliefs on the table.
See who has the bigger hand, you
or the Mystery that pervades you.

Time to scrape the mind's shit
off your shoes
undo the laces
that hold your prison together
and dangle your toes into emptiness.

Once you've put everything
on the table
once all of your currency is gone
and your pockets are full of air
all you've got left to gamble with
is yourself.

Go ahead, climb up onto the velvet top
of the highest stakes table.
Place yourself as the bet.
Look God in the eyes
and finally
for once in your life
lose.

-----Adyashanti