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Newsgroups: alt.zen,alt.magick.tyagi,alt.philosophy.zen
Subject: Re: "Letting go" question
Date: 15 Jan 1996 17:30:37 -0800
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|If you are always "letting qo" of thoughts and trying to become
|detached from them, will you began to experience long term memory
|atrophy?  

I imagine so, unless these are replaced with others.  The objective
 (if we still retain one) is not to distance ourselves from all
 conception but merely to preserve such a distance that we are not
 enslaved to think that any particular verbal construct is 'Truth'

|It seems to me that in order to remember and learn certain
|things, we need to consciously try to recite them over and over in our
|minds until they become a part of our long-term memory.  

it seems to me that we retain elements of knowledge based on different
 criteria and with different means of absorption.  for example, I tend
 to remember something best when I am most interested in hearing it
 (thus I am most receptive to it and it sinks into my knowledge-base
 in a manner that is conducive to easy-retrieval).  this is why I have
 forgotten so many things I 'learned' in school while retaining so very
 many things I found fascinating in my personal studies

|What is the Zen veiw on this?  

I have typically heard a few different perspectives argued within zen
 forums:

	* knowledge is a product of a very limited realm and thus
 	  we must see it as restrained to this realm (intellect),
	  that being separate from nirvana

	* lingual constructs are only useful to us inasmuch as they
	  lead us *beyond* them to an experience of awakening.  for
	  this reason certain authors (who appear to inspire their
	  readers toward attachment of particular ideas) may be
	  recommended against

	* dwelling in language is a functional aspect of social
	  communications, which is at the heart of the mechanism
	  which encourages or helps to construct samsara.  it is
	  only through a very peculiar sort of semantic judo that
	  any lingual seed will allow us to move away from the
	  influence and side-effects of those communications

|Do we try too hard to remember things when our "Natural Mind" can do 
|it "naturally" and easily without the endless repetitious "reminding" 
|we usually do throughout the day because we are afraid of forgetting 
|things later?  

most things are not worth remembering.  that we foist more and more data
 upon the conscious mind to remember is indicative of our severence from
 the pure awakening that is nirvana -- the enlightened recall what is
 needed in its due time

|mind to become like a bottomless bucket as taught in Zen, it would
|become harder to remember things since everything is going into one ear
|and out the other!  So my main question is: how can you let go of
|thoughts and at the same time develop and/or keep a keen memory?  

by releasing the function of the conscious mind in this process, allowing
 'intuition' and 'insight' to bring forward the elements which are truly
 necessary.  part of this has to do with one's relationship to the 'past'
 and 'future', and this is one of the reasons it may be difficult to wake
 up while doing an ordinary life (holding down a job, maintaining a
 marriage, etc.; anything which supports the notion of some consistent self