To: alt.magick.tyagi
From: tyagI@houseofkaos.Abyss.coM (Hsi Wang Mu)
Subject: Re: An intellectual Approach to Zen (LONG Discussion) (Was etc....)
Date: 49941207
Quoting: |hamm@uhcl4.cl.uh.edu (Jacob H. Hamm) 
         |>Mu
         |>|Jacob
             ... etc.

|>|>that zen is an absorptive state, traditionally linked to the mechanisms
|>|>(practices, schools, lineages) that are associated with inspiring it.
 
|>|Hmm, Sounds like the lesser samahdi, or kensho? ...Being in an 
|>|"absorptive" state is nice, but it is still just another state.
|> 
|>Being absorbed in the present is what I think 'nirvana' or 'enlightenment'
|>is.  That is, 'zen' is not just 'any absorption', though it may be associated
|>with various absorptive states.  Zen, for me, is about making space and time
|>for the absolute presence which constitutes awakening.
| 
|Perhaps you could define what you mean by "Being absorbed in the present"?

Gee, I thought this was rather plain.  Ok.  Absorption is 'occupying the full
attention, interest or time of; engrossing' (Am. Her. Dict.).  The present is
what's happening right now; the continual 'event-horizon'; essentially the
entirety of consciousness (the rest being but reflections and refractions of
that being-becomingness).  The past is only memory, the future imagination.

The present is all of various psychosomaticspiritual components and their
possible objective relations which are contained within any one moment.
Being attentive to this present is the discipline of zen.  Remaining in
the present consistently is the nonaction of the zen master.  Learning how
to return to the present over and over again is the focus of the student.
Having access to direct instruction or guidance in perfecting that presence 
is the benefit of engaging a relation with the competent sensei.

Mu
tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com