Someone in a class once asked Shunryu Suzuki why he never talked about his awakening experiece, and his wife who was there answered, "Because he's never had one!"
Doug Smith of Doug's Dhamma, is the "Mr. Rogers" of Buddhist education, while on the other hand, Brad Warner, is the "Weird Al Yankovic" of Zen education. 😄🙏🌞
Haha! Zen dudes sure love their koans references! That aside, I really appreciate you trying to tackle these difficult subjects on your channel. It seems like a lot of dharma guys would try to maneuver around the more mind-bending mystical-sounding elements of Buddhism, but it's a whole lot more fun to dig in deep with some great literary references, even if it's a bit confounding sometimes. I remember reading a quote from the Tiantai patriarch Zhanran a while back that said: “A plant, a tree, a pebble, a speck of dust - each has the Buddha nature, and each is endowed with cause and effect and with the function to manifest and the wisdom to realize its Buddha nature." The idea that everything, even little rocks and grass and stuff, is constantly working towards enlightenment sounded crazy to me, and it still kinda does. However, I feel like I'm starting to "get it" at least a little.
I have about 20 views on my UA-cam channel per video and those views last about 2 % of the video duration. Of those 20 views most come from myself, my spouse and closest friends. Today I made a video which I liked. I also received a short comment: "Have you remembered to take your medication? Your eyes keep twitching in that way, and it seems hard for you to express yourself." Thank you ChatGPT for the translation. It was the first time that happened for me in the 11 months of UA-cam video making. It felt like shit. Especially because it is the weakest point in me where it pointed at. But the odd thing about zazen practice is, that the shit this life digs up turns unnaturally quickly into something positive. This time it produced this immense feeling of gratitude for you Brad, for doing what you do in this crazy and hostile environment where nothing is sacred. It made me respect my American zen uncle even more than before, if possible, thinking what you must have gone through, and your stance on trying to save all living beings is so unwavering despite of it all. Our local group is ten years old today. And as it is Thursday, we have our weekly meeting too. You know the place and the people. It began when you made your way here and it got two more regulars from your visit this autumn. You will be in our minds and words today when we gather together with Marko and others for a zazen, a few korvapuustis and a cup of coffee. God bless you, my dear friend and thank you for what you do!
Happy Halloween 🎃 I really gotta kick out of the Halloween themed shows you've done before when you look into the void the void looks back into you it's everything everywhere all at once thank you
After watching your videos and having read your zen books, I catch myself, in a good way, referencing your materials when I talk with people. I've been around so many varying zen practices now that I realize how many shut themselves off from reading texts from other authors. One of the reasons is that some places say that these certain references are the best references that are the ones we prefer, blah blah blah. Many experienced practitioners miss out the richness that is out there. It's disappointing. Viva Ziggy!
I'll never put in years of meditation and never have one of the experiences you discuss. In my dabblings in meditation I have had some strange, interesting, dissociative feelings. I believe they are some kind of delusion. And I'm okay with that. It's still an interesing way to feel. 🙂
Enlightenment is like jumping out of an airplane without a parachute. So the bad news is that you don't have parachute, but the good news is that you discover there is no ground. And then you're just endlessly falling and you never reach the ground. So in a sense, what i'm asking you to do is to jump. And you don't want to jump. You're saying, I'm scared. I'm too scared to jump. And I'm saying, jump. God is telling you, jump, jump into infinite love and it's going to be great. But you're like, what if I kill myself and what if something else happens? I don't know. You just jump into infinite love. Take the leap of faith and you'll discover infinite love. And you're too scared to do it. But then eventually when you do it, then you're just going to discover that there's no ground. You're endlessly falling forever and it's great. But yeah, taking that leap is really difficult. It requires you to face your death. So of course, everybody is too afraid to do it. People are just to scared.
When i was on the way i experienced and rationalized that experience. The rationalization of experience itself then became a habit. That habit began to tangle and bunch upon itself. As i untangled this habit of rationalization and the answers that tied them i began to experience without the need for rationalization or the need for answers to tie up rationalizations. Before when i met someone there was a name and information behind that name and i thought these things into existence. Afterwards there was just the experience of being with people i knew without a need to rationalize or tie up their being in answers. Being with thwmem without rationalization or answers i could no longer differentiate one from the other irregardless of their given name or past deeds or information. This is to say without rationalization or answers to tie up states of being i saw both sinners and saints as being born from the same womb where i now dwelled. I saw how both images were the results of rationalizations and the need for answers. It is not that when i attain others attain. But that when i attain i can no longer see a difference between one that has and one that has not without first seeing them be born from the womb into the causes and effects that they now embody. I am the result of what i have done before. This effort is what allowed me to attain the ability to see the benefits of effort and its pitfalls. But when i meet a homeless man on the street it is different then when others meet them and i can see it and see why. They see a homeless man that failed at life. I see a man made homeless by cause and effect and thus we failed him. And when we meet i see myself when others meet they see another. To do this one must believe they have free will. That somwhow they are in complete control. This is reality. It was here long before i was born. And they started from ignorance and confusion. We are working towards an age of enlightenment. This will be a way off due to how cause and effect pass generational trauma through the ages as they evolve. Insights come when one is not looking to change what is and merely accepts it as it presents itself. That is history.
P.S.: Meditations on “immeasurables“, “totality“, and the like are by no means exclusively “exotic oriental business“, but also known in Western tradition, only to mention a few: Pythagoras, Meister Eckhart, R. Descartes, I. Kant, and F. Nietzsche. Just sayin...
I understand what the text is trying to say about all beings reaching enlightenment at the same time. But I will give my version, based on my direct experience: the universe/presence/god is everything that exists within us and around us. I was aware of this, but also that I was a point (among the infinite points of the universe) from which it observed, with a happiness that I had never experienced, the vision of everything else. I did not realize that this "occurred" for all beings. I perceived it as the reality of everything, but that most of the time this goes unnoticed. Nevertheless, all the time the universe is and observes itself through everything it contains. This is the best I can describe in words.
My thoughts ... The I that looked through the Buddha's eyes is the same I that looks through ours. That I in the form of Buddha realised that there is only I, i.e. that subject and object, self and non-self, and all other dualities, are illusory. Therefore the I realises that there are in fact no beings, so all beings become enlightened at the same time. I also wonder if you think there is a salvific element to the notion of the Buddha node of the net raising all beings up?
Ideally we should all be enlightened together but that's not realistic considering the fact that we enlighten only because we weren't before. If we all enlighten then there'll be no need for enlightenment. A more practical and actually very powerful phenomenon is a few of us get truthfully enlightened and the Light of those few will encourage others to follow suit. Then again, a truly enlightened individual never considers his/herself enlightened, so it may be practical after all.:)
I'm not really sure. Dogen also uses this same language about "examining (it) vertically and examining (it) horizontally." My guess is it means what my teacher would have called "concrete investigation." You don't just look into these things as concepts but as material facts in the material world too. I will see if I can find somewhere that Nishijima Roshi explains it and try to get back to you (if I can find this comment thread again).
I agree with what HardcoreZen said in his comment and will add: 未證據者の看看なり。See to, see to being an empirical person. In a similar sense kinda, “Not yet an empirical person? Look, look!” From Dogen's Yuji or Timebeing and a reference to Linji Yixuan.
"Everyone gets enlightened together" because once you have an "awakening" experience (and continue to deepen that perception through ongoing practice) you see that everything (and everyone) IS enlightenment. This is why Dogen could say that "just sitting" is enlightenment... because he had already HAD that perception shift called "Kensho." The modern Soto notion that anyone off the street "is enlightened" the minute they sit Zazen the first time, is a post-Meiji fabrication of the late 19th Century Soto School trying to conform itself to government imposed "westernization" requirements. Prior to the 1870's / 80's, the "Just sitting" without Kensho cult was not a thing in Japan and Soto was not that different from Rinzai....
It's funny to me that we will build crude instruments and believe the readings they tell us to be more real than the perceptions the incredible instrument that is our body tells us.
Don’t we all reach enlightenment simultaneously because it’s inherent to all sentient beings but only through practice is it realized? I know for the questioner who’s skeptical that probably sounds like circular reasoning, but isn’t it the pretty straightforward zen answer?
According to modern cosmology, on 4% of the entire universe is observable to us. The rest is dark energy and dark matter. So there is a LOT out there we just dont have the ability to see or interact with it.
I'd say you should impersonate a different UA-cam personality for the first thirty seconds of every one of your videos, but that was a little scary. I much, much, MUCH prefer the musical intros.
The person who wrote you is assuming that enlightenment is mystical. I think you can make a good argument that it's extremely ordinary, a very direct experience of their senses and an understanding that there was never a stable self that was separate from what is observed. Second the person who wrote you assumes that the hallucination/psychosis is feeling like you aren't your self when Buddhism would say that's an assumption that turns out to be the real hallucination.
We know that information can't propagate faster than the speed of light. Maybe this would be a more accurate statement. "I became enlightened together with all beings within my light cone subject to the appropriate propagation delay."
A Tibetan monk/physicist told me he thought this was like quantum entanglement. A physical effect transmits faster than light but no information can be sent. Spooky action at a distance!
There is no final state of Enlightenment. There is a state of no self that can be renewed in every moment---simply being in the gap between thoughts. I finally had the Great Awakening after 23 years. I can feel the Universe as my skin as the wldly entangled, energetic moment. No words will make sense until you live as pure experiencing! I still have friction and resistance, but I can stay in the no self 85 percent of the time. I am moving into the home stretch of receiving dharma transmission.
those first 30 seconds almost made me call the police for potential kidnapping and identity theft
30 seconds? Good sir or ma'am or whatever at this point, I barely made it to 13 I was in 13 seconds of samsara Lol
Let's just appreciate his trolling skills!
Indeed
Someone in a class once asked Shunryu Suzuki why he never talked about his awakening experiece, and his wife who was there answered, "Because he's never had one!"
Doug Smith of Doug's Dhamma, is the "Mr. Rogers" of Buddhist education, while on the other hand, Brad Warner, is the "Weird Al Yankovic" of Zen education. 😄🙏🌞
Doug needs to do a parody of you now complete with psychedelic music video at the start .
Ding!
Yeah!
@@HardcoreZendo one of Jason Quinn. You could spend the first 15 minutes just wandering around.
Haha! Zen dudes sure love their koans references! That aside, I really appreciate you trying to tackle these difficult subjects on your channel. It seems like a lot of dharma guys would try to maneuver around the more mind-bending mystical-sounding elements of Buddhism, but it's a whole lot more fun to dig in deep with some great literary references, even if it's a bit confounding sometimes.
I remember reading a quote from the Tiantai patriarch Zhanran a while back that said: “A plant, a tree, a pebble, a speck of dust - each has the Buddha nature, and each is endowed with cause and effect and with the function to manifest and the wisdom to realize its Buddha nature."
The idea that everything, even little rocks and grass and stuff, is constantly working towards enlightenment sounded crazy to me, and it still kinda does. However, I feel like I'm starting to "get it" at least a little.
I'm a zen dude who uses literary references with koans. It's very useful
@@joeg3950 From an outsider's perspective, it's very charming. Really leans into the poetic quality of Zen.
Throughly
zentertaining
I have about 20 views on my UA-cam channel per video and those views last about 2 % of the video duration. Of those 20 views most come from myself, my spouse and closest friends.
Today I made a video which I liked. I also received a short comment: "Have you remembered to take your medication? Your eyes keep twitching in that way, and it seems hard for you to express yourself." Thank you ChatGPT for the translation.
It was the first time that happened for me in the 11 months of UA-cam video making. It felt like shit. Especially because it is the weakest point in me where it pointed at.
But the odd thing about zazen practice is, that the shit this life digs up turns unnaturally quickly into something positive. This time it produced this immense feeling of gratitude for you Brad, for doing what you do in this crazy and hostile environment where nothing is sacred. It made me respect my American zen uncle even more than before, if possible, thinking what you must have gone through, and your stance on trying to save all living beings is so unwavering despite of it all.
Our local group is ten years old today. And as it is Thursday, we have our weekly meeting too. You know the place and the people. It began when you made your way here and it got two more regulars from your visit this autumn. You will be in our minds and words today when we gather together with Marko and others for a zazen, a few korvapuustis and a cup of coffee.
God bless you, my dear friend and thank you for what you do!
Love the goofy, “Doug’s Dharma” intro.
Ziggy's so wonderfully awkward
Happy Halloween 🎃 I really gotta kick out of the Halloween themed shows you've done before when you look into the void the void looks back into you it's everything everywhere all at once thank you
this was hilarious 😂
After watching your videos and having read your zen books, I catch myself, in a good way, referencing your materials when I talk with people. I've been around so many varying zen practices now that I realize how many shut themselves off from reading texts from other authors. One of the reasons is that some places say that these certain references are the best references that are the ones we prefer, blah blah blah. Many experienced practitioners miss out the richness that is out there. It's disappointing. Viva Ziggy!
Sometimes a whammy bar is worth so much more than a PhD
I'll never put in years of meditation and never have one of the experiences you discuss. In my dabblings in meditation I have had some strange, interesting, dissociative feelings. I believe they are some kind of delusion. And I'm okay with that. It's still an interesing way to feel. 🙂
Enlightenment is like jumping out of an airplane without a parachute.
So the bad news is that you don't have parachute, but the good news is that you discover there is no ground. And then you're just endlessly falling and you never reach the ground.
So in a sense, what i'm asking you to do is to jump. And you don't want to jump. You're saying, I'm scared. I'm too scared to jump. And I'm saying, jump. God is telling you, jump, jump into infinite love and it's going to be great. But you're like, what if I kill myself and what if something else happens? I don't know. You just jump into infinite love. Take the leap of faith and you'll discover infinite love. And you're too scared to do it. But then eventually when you do it, then you're just going to discover that there's no ground. You're endlessly falling forever and it's great. But yeah, taking that leap is really difficult. It requires you to face your death. So of course, everybody is too afraid to do it. People are just to scared.
When i was on the way i experienced and rationalized that experience. The rationalization of experience itself then became a habit. That habit began to tangle and bunch upon itself. As i untangled this habit of rationalization and the answers that tied them i began to experience without the need for rationalization or the need for answers to tie up rationalizations. Before when i met someone there was a name and information behind that name and i thought these things into existence. Afterwards there was just the experience of being with people i knew without a need to rationalize or tie up their being in answers. Being with thwmem without rationalization or answers i could no longer differentiate one from the other irregardless of their given name or past deeds or information. This is to say without rationalization or answers to tie up states of being i saw both sinners and saints as being born from the same womb where i now dwelled. I saw how both images were the results of rationalizations and the need for answers. It is not that when i attain others attain. But that when i attain i can no longer see a difference between one that has and one that has not without first seeing them be born from the womb into the causes and effects that they now embody. I am the result of what i have done before. This effort is what allowed me to attain the ability to see the benefits of effort and its pitfalls. But when i meet a homeless man on the street it is different then when others meet them and i can see it and see why. They see a homeless man that failed at life. I see a man made homeless by cause and effect and thus we failed him. And when we meet i see myself when others meet they see another. To do this one must believe they have free will. That somwhow they are in complete control. This is reality. It was here long before i was born. And they started from ignorance and confusion. We are working towards an age of enlightenment. This will be a way off due to how cause and effect pass generational trauma through the ages as they evolve. Insights come when one is not looking to change what is and merely accepts it as it presents itself. That is history.
The holistic paradigm (Lord Indra's net, Fazang's “room full of mirrors“, “subjective objectivism“, and so on and so forth) strikes again...
P.S.: Meditations on “immeasurables“, “totality“, and the like are by no means exclusively “exotic oriental business“, but also known in Western tradition, only to mention a few: Pythagoras, Meister Eckhart, R. Descartes, I. Kant, and F. Nietzsche. Just sayin...
Ooooh This is gonna be the best youtuber boxing mach ever😂
Yay back to the music, I'm glad. Edit: Doug Smith maybe? I like him too
Not a lot of people noticed when Newton "discovered" gravity.
Love the song ❤
Perfectly clear
"Let's get into it" 🙂
I understand what the text is trying to say about all beings reaching enlightenment at the same time. But I will give my version, based on my direct experience: the universe/presence/god is everything that exists within us and around us. I was aware of this, but also that I was a point (among the infinite points of the universe) from which it observed, with a happiness that I had never experienced, the vision of everything else. I did not realize that this "occurred" for all beings. I perceived it as the reality of everything, but that most of the time this goes unnoticed. Nevertheless, all the time the universe is and observes itself through everything it contains. This is the best I can describe in words.
My thoughts ... The I that looked through the Buddha's eyes is the same I that looks through ours. That I in the form of Buddha realised that there is only I, i.e. that subject and object, self and non-self, and all other dualities, are illusory. Therefore the I realises that there are in fact no beings, so all beings become enlightened at the same time.
I also wonder if you think there is a salvific element to the notion of the Buddha node of the net raising all beings up?
Ideally we should all be enlightened together but that's not realistic considering the fact that we enlighten only because we weren't before. If we all enlighten then there'll be no need for enlightenment. A more practical and actually very powerful phenomenon is a few of us get truthfully enlightened and the Light of those few will encourage others to follow suit.
Then again, a truly enlightened individual never considers his/herself enlightened, so it may be practical after all.:)
I follow Doug´s Dharma, but you´re content is wilder (especially the Japanese godzilla stuff)...
Ziggy is giving you the side eye
0:11 😂
All enlightened as one makes sense nondualistically
Can you expand on terms vertical in context of this eye ?
I'm not really sure. Dogen also uses this same language about "examining (it) vertically and examining (it) horizontally." My guess is it means what my teacher would have called "concrete investigation." You don't just look into these things as concepts but as material facts in the material world too. I will see if I can find somewhere that Nishijima Roshi explains it and try to get back to you (if I can find this comment thread again).
I agree with what HardcoreZen said in his comment and will add: 未證據者の看看なり。See to, see to being an empirical person. In a similar sense kinda, “Not yet an empirical person? Look, look!” From Dogen's Yuji or Timebeing and a reference to Linji Yixuan.
Hello, hello, thrill-seekers.
"Everyone gets enlightened together" because once you have an "awakening" experience (and continue to deepen that perception through ongoing practice) you see that everything (and everyone) IS enlightenment. This is why Dogen could say that "just sitting" is enlightenment... because he had already HAD that perception shift called "Kensho." The modern Soto notion that anyone off the street "is enlightened" the minute they sit Zazen the first time, is a post-Meiji fabrication of the late 19th Century Soto School trying to conform itself to government imposed "westernization" requirements. Prior to the 1870's / 80's, the "Just sitting" without Kensho cult was not a thing in Japan and Soto was not that different from Rinzai....
Naughty boy. 😉
It's funny to me that we will build crude instruments and believe the readings they tell us to be more real than the perceptions the incredible instrument that is our body tells us.
Don’t we all reach enlightenment simultaneously because it’s inherent to all sentient beings but only through practice is it realized? I know for the questioner who’s skeptical that probably sounds like circular reasoning, but isn’t it the pretty straightforward zen answer?
Also pretty spot on Doug’s Dharma 😂
According to modern cosmology, on 4% of the entire universe is observable to us. The rest is dark energy and dark matter. So there is a LOT out there we just dont have the ability to see or interact with it.
Something absolutely true needs to be there to say that something other than that is delusional.
Attaining the Way is of no doubt a Taoist expression. So, here we see a Chinese, not an Indian legend.
Nice try, I thought you were going to get everyone enlightened together in Doug-Dharma mode.
I'd say you should impersonate a different UA-cam personality for the first thirty seconds of every one of your videos, but that was a little scary. I much, much, MUCH prefer the musical intros.
Rofl😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
The person who wrote you is assuming that enlightenment is mystical. I think you can make a good argument that it's extremely ordinary, a very direct experience of their senses and an understanding that there was never a stable self that was separate from what is observed. Second the person who wrote you assumes that the hallucination/psychosis is feeling like you aren't your self when Buddhism would say that's an assumption that turns out to be the real hallucination.
I imagine enlightenment would be like realizing TV shows are not reality.
Boring for most adults, mind blowing for kids.
listen 2 yr zensei
Welcome back Brad!
We know that information can't propagate faster than the speed of light. Maybe this would be a more accurate statement. "I became enlightened together with all beings within my light cone subject to the appropriate propagation delay."
It's not really "information." Not in the sense that you suddenly know what's going on in the southern hemisphere of Jupiter or something like that.
A Tibetan monk/physicist told me he thought this was like quantum entanglement. A physical effect transmits faster than light but no information can be sent. Spooky action at a distance!
There is no final state of Enlightenment. There is a state of no self that can be renewed in every moment---simply being in the gap between thoughts. I finally had the Great Awakening after 23 years. I can feel the Universe as my skin as the wldly entangled, energetic moment. No words will make sense until you live as pure experiencing! I still have friction and resistance, but I can stay in the no self 85 percent of the time. I am moving into the home stretch of receiving dharma transmission.