Zen is Good for Nothing
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- Опубліковано 15 жов 2024
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Zen is fun and games until someone loses an “I”.
Oh my!
Thank you kindly! :D
Losing an "I" is nothing serious, since we have a bunch of "I"s more. :)
Indeed, we are lining our brain with Is.
A thumbs up for the musical intro...
Very good video, Brad! It reminded me of something a friend told me that his Buddhist teacher told him in response to the same question you posed about zazen. The teacher replied tersely "Highly recommended. Can't say why."
Good answer!
i'm really enjoying these daily videos, keep it up!
“Zazen doesn’t give you something-it’s the complete opposite!”
― Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time
I’m still fucking myself up in my head about this when I sit lol!
That's Just like saying each moment is an immortal unicorns fart. Drivel.
Simply one of the clearest explanations out there - I return to this over and over again.
Note the irony: Nothing is the Good of Zen:
"Shariputra, all dharmas are marked by emptiness; they neither arise nor cease, are neither defiled nor pure, neither increase nor decrease. Therefore, given emptiness, there is no form, no sensation, no perception, no formation, no consciousness; no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind; no sight, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no object of mind; no realm of sight . . . no realm of mind consciousness." - Heart of Great Perfect Wisdom Sutra
I love this. It should be said again and again and again....always!
I am glad this came up on my feed. I had the first part stuck in
My head. “Good for nothing” is not the full teaching
On my "up next" is a video called "zazen is good for nothing" Shohaku Okumura speaking. Nice!
I'll have to look for that one.
“Everything is for something else”
Brilliant, thank you
"that sounds like Dogen got something out of zazen, doesn't it" lol ha ha, I started a daily meditation practice over zoom with a small cohort, every day, 7-7:20 am, sit together, it's been a game changer, highly recommend everyone create their own cohort to support in a daily practice. It's like being on the swim team and showing up for morning warm-up, every day. The co-commitment helps cut through confusion which is why sangha is always impressed, It makes it choicelss, communal, intimate
It's a great thing to do!
Amazing. Respect.
Your videos are helpful and interesting. Good clear delivery. Take good care of yourself you are doing good work
Thank you!
Thank you for this Brad. Particularly the story about Okumura Roshi's translation.
This is awesome...there is no observer who sees the truth...reality itself is awakening and nothing is excluded ( the observer). As long as we observe we are outside reality. Thank you very much
Really enjoyed this video. The musical beginning was so funny, and then the part where you stopped and talked about the ghost was so funny I watched it five times. Very insightful talk. I think "zen is good for nothing" doesn't mean zen isn't good for anything, it means it's good for taking a break from everything, i.e., nothing as a positive thing rather than a negative thing, even though "nothing" can be defined as the absence of anything and everything. And what happens during zazen isn't necessarily, or even usually, nothing, i.e., there are frequently lots of thoughts, sensations, and emotions happening. Also, "nothing" can be used to describe the feeling of minimizing the value of something, i.e., for making molehills out of what used to be felt as mountains. "Oh, it was nothing." It's good for de-stressing, even though what happens during zazen can be stressful. I especially liked the quote at the end, that it's reality itself that's awakening, etc. Zen is everything, everything is included, there is nothing outside zen, zen includes nothing. The word "nothing" is used in different ways. Difficult to explain using words, but you generally do a pretty darn good job. Thanks, Brad.
There are many ways to interpret that phrase. I wonder what Kodo Sawaki actually said in Japanese. Because there's no phrase in Japanese that would directly translate as "good for nothing."
Holy shit at 6:30 you can see the ghost gliding back and forth
6:27 the disturbed ghost of kodo sawaki after hearing you say zazen is good for something
How did Brad know right away, that that was a ghost? Did he meet it already?
@@wladddkn1517 zazen is also good for seeing ghosts and entities
This video goes well with your "just sit" video 'bout shikantaza ;)
Wonderfull lesson
It does seem to be good for something as long as you are not expecting too much.
It’s weird to want to “get” something from the act of dropping everything and sitting facing a wall. I say this with the authority of someone who did this for years before I realized (or was hit in the head with) how dumb that was. It’s similar to Trungpa’s admonitions against spiritual materialism (despite his issues, but hey, he was human).
Great video, Brad!
Thank you!
Hey brad can you compare and contrast the flaws and benefits of Advaita Vedanta with zen?
I watch a lot of Rupert Spira, an Advaita master, and he uses a lot of zen terminology, emptiness, nothingness, limits of language etc.
Just wondering if they are in anyway technically different from one another if if one simply practices much more over theory (zen)
I could try. The problem is that I've never actually practiced Advaita Vedanta. I've only read about it and watched some videos of teachers.
What I can say about Advaita teachers, they love to talk a lot. Take Osho as an exaple.
very good. I wish i could donate.
Last time I wrote you, you were in Japan. Nice to find you again, Brad.
I moved in 2004.
Brad, this time enough is enough! I will be perfectly honest. In my mind zazen leads to something extraordinary and I want to grasp it as soon as possible. 10 years or more?! Too much! I can't wait 10 years to educate my brain for ultimate Enlightenment! I want it NOW! Now, do you understand? N. O. W. So my practice is goal oriented! Also... I want to become lucid dreamer through zazen. Yes, your big cosmic, galactic, dreams about the mystery of creation of everything. I want them too! Tomorrow! Oh, one more thing, I almost forget it. I expect from zazen to make me something close to superhuman. Yes, not like! You are so ordinary, so normal. You are like everybody else. No! I will be special, uber, super, ultra, mega... Non-ordinary! Non-dual!!!! All wisdom! All the knowledge will be in me and will be me! I am knowledge! ... Just so you know what I'm expecting from my zazen every single time when I'm sitting on the ground doing nothing. :) ( this post was poor try to show sense of humor... I promise that's all about it. Pure fiction! )
Satisfaction guaranteed!
+1 on "What the Zen"
When I was scrolling by and saw the thumbnail of Brad bopping around, I knew I had to click. 👽
Story of my life!
man one of the things i wanna do is
-get rich, grind capitalism
-buy land , build self sufficient village*
-invite people like this* lol
-chop wood, carry water
also you dont have a child, your not old too, u r cool. cool vid again, thanks man
Buddhism is about removing suffering. That's not nothing! A lot of people don't have enough experience with suffering yet, and I think that's why they tend to be attracted to foo-foo philosophy ideas about "it's all empty," "it's all nothing," "don't strive for something," "don't desire anything," etc. instead of the actual path and practice of removing suffering.
Any updates on the ghost?
Who are you? Who am I? ..during the practise of zazen ..we are the same...by..from italy...
nice theme song!
The ghost bit was hilarious 😂 get on snl
Nice intro...
Good video. I have the impression that this "good for nothing" quote was once useful but has lost it's usefulness a long time ago. I don't know how often I've heard it already but it must have been a lot. Like yea just as while doing other things, usually it's a bad idea to get too caught up in thinking about the goal or what one wants out of it. So with zazen or meditation in general.
But I think that's about it. Now in soto-zen circles it has turned into an almost religious ideal and I wonder if it doesn't do more harm than good. How many people might be sitting in front of a wall thinking about that they shouldn't want to get anything out of zazen while catching themselves wanting something out of it? I think a lot, I've been one of them myself having turned that useful idea into a new ideal/goal. Which is when you're doing exactly what that quote was trying to save you from.
So if you find yourself wanting something out of whatever you're doing, that's fine. It's just what it is and in that moment you can't not be that. Just don't put a head on top of your head and move on.
It's true that anything can become a goal. But in practice, the goal of having no goal is very different from other kinds of goals.
@@HardcoreZen If understood correctly yes. But I think "zen is good for nothing" is a bad version of "you can get the most out of zen if you stay open and don't have specific goals in mind".
What do you mean by getting something myistical from zen?
Sometimes funny things happen.
Zazen is good for nothing
Zazen is good for
Zazen is good
Zazen is
Zazen
Za
Z
[also]
Zen is good for nothing
is good for nothing
good for nothing
for nothing
nothing
thing
ing
"You are a fiction that you have created."
Did you just make that up? Feels like something I've heard a hundred times before, but I can't remember a single instance. Then I googled it, and all I got was creative writing classes. :)
Instant classic I think. You must be a writer or something...
I've written some stuff.
The science fiction of me - pretty good title! ;) well, by the way, it is an obvious thing for a Buddhist practicioner.
I think I skipped over the second part before, but it stuck in the back of my mind, and hung out all night last night.
"You're never going to get enlightened, 'cuz there is no you."
I thought of it as a joke when I first heard it, but it's actually a fact isn't it? :) Something I can rely on, something that makes things simpler (can help me relax about some things).
Not to say enlightenment can't happen, just that I can't get enlightened. Awesome.
@@benhorner8430 You got it!
Well, yeah, nobody gets enlightened, enlightenment is all there is, already here, now... Realizing... All, all is no-thing :)
Imagining Brad as a car sales man. -*customer--"hey id like to buy one of these new Ford's. What do ya recommend pardner?" * Brad -"These are good for nothing. I don't care if you buy it or not. . The car and you are illusions that don't exist.Your desire for a new car is just false attachment." Customer "Huh?" 😂😂
This is why I'll never get rich!
@@HardcoreZen lol. Much love & respect namaste🙏
Zen is good for my health. So, the statement saying that is good for nothing doesn’t always applies .
Hahaha Rapping zen
Zen is good for nothing, and nothing is good for you. 😆
I agree it's a useless philosophy used as a spiritual bypassing method to runaway from your problems by saying you don't exist and nothing exists and is an illusion instead of making actual changes to the world and your self and relying on your "karma" . This is the case with most Eastern philosophy. Daoism and stoicism and going with the flow is a much more simple and elegant philosophy from my perspective. Instead focusing on wooo like karma, past lives and other unproven metaphysical nonsense that Buddhism and Hinduism and other eastern philosophy force upon you.
there's a whole new "genre" of "zen" grown up on the net which is anti-meditation or contemplation and is basically text based with an underlying "i'm enlightened, you're not" theme
people over-attach to "meaning". not understanding its fluid nature and as stalin said as he signed the order for execution of the polish officers at katyn. "paper can bear the weight of anything put upon it"
if you post anything of "contemplative insight", they then proceed to bother you endlessly because it conflicts with their preconceived notions of being "enlightened"
being unable to "talk the talk" they then try to beat you into silence
I love this.
Thank you!