Beat Zen, Square Zen And Zen

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Furthermore, when Kerouac gives his philosophical final statement, "I don't know. I don't care. And it doesn't make any difference"— the cat is out of the bag, for there is a hostility in these words which clangs with self-defense. But just because Zen truly surpasses convention and its values, it has no need to say "To hell with it," nor to underline with violence the fact that anything goes. this is too indirect and didactic for Zen, which would rather hand you the thing itself without comment. However, Kerouac was deterred by some of his closest family members who chided him for leaving his traditional faith. In May, 1954, while deeply immersed in Buddhist philosophy, Kerouac’s mother criticized him for undertaking a study-practice of Buddhism and he met resistance when he spoke of the sutras or meditation at home (Charters 217). However much his debaucheries and the criticism from his mother prevented him from engaging his practice whole-heartedly, Kerouac remained forthright in his religious studies. In addition to reading a chapter of The Diamond Sutra every day of the week, he also had a meditation routine where he experienced the bliss conceived of in the sutras. Frontispiece of the Chinese Diamond Sūtra, the oldest known dated printed book in the world / Wikipedia

The stories that Snyder and Whalen shared with Kerouac about their Zen practice and experiences working as fire look-outs inspired Kerouac to apply for a job in the Mount Baker National Forest in 1955 (Suiter 179). His plan was to use the solitude to write and study the dharma, along with meditation. Before he was supplied with a job as a fire look-out, Kerouac wrote the Scripture of the Golden Eternity at the urging of Snyder. The document served as a religious expression of Kerouac’s unique synthesis between Catholicism and Buddhism (Tonkinson 215). He was stationed to serve at Desolation Lookout on February 6, 1955, with only one book to occupy his time—a copy of The Buddhist Bible by Dwight Goddard. The intensity of solitude and boredom that ensued caused the novelty of asceticism to wear off within ten days (Suiter 210). Desolation Peak fire lookout / photo by Pete Hoffman – CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikipedia

Dive Down The Rabbit Hole

In Buddhism there is no place for using effort. Just be ordinary and nothing special. Eat your food, move your bowels, pass water, and when you’re tired go and lie down. The ignorant will laugh at me, but the wise will understand.” Rinzai Zen is the form most widely known in the West. There is also Soto Zen which differs somewhat in technique, but is still closer to Hakuin than to Bankei. However, Bankei should not exactly be identified with beat Zen as I have described it, for he was certainly no advocate of the life of undisciplined whimsy despite all that he said about the importance of the uncalculated life and the folly of seeking satori. Some scholars have criticized Alan Watts for being a universalist — i.e. claiming that there is a discernible “essence” of Zen, or a “true Zen,” or a single universal satori (sudden enlightenment) experience. These critics argue that the nature of Zen will differs across cultures and across history, as the individual will always process the practices, teachings, and even the satori experience through various filters of identity and cultural conditioning.

I severely hope you aren't refering to me and lumping everyone in the same basket as the likely small and horny minority. I don't play games to stare at animated breasts. I just don't see a problem with using OTT breast physics in a game if the artists choose to do so. In fact, I don't even play games like this one. I think the last game I played with majorly over-sexualised characters was Dragon's Crown and that game had a beautiful art style and fantastic character design for male and female characters. Just because I'd not turn my nose up at virtual titty-jiggling does not make me juvenile. If there are people really salivating over these pixel breasts then that's fine too imo. There are plenty of gaming options to satisfy our basal human urges, whatever they may be. I see no real quarrel with either extreme. There was never a spiritual movement without its excesses and distortions. The experience of awakening which truly constitutes Zen is too timeless and universal to be injured. The extremes of beat Zen need alarm no one since, as Blake said, "the fool who persists in his folly will become wise." As for square Zen, "authoritative" spiritual experiences have always had a way of wearing thin, and thus of generating the demand for something genuine and unique which needs no stamp.

Scholar and literary critic Ben Giamo claimed Kerouac’s religious inconsistency can be understood as a “spiritual struggle.” Giamo states that Kerouac, as “A lapsed Catholic pre-Vatican II figure with pagan impulses and a medieval load on his conscience” was liberated under “the secular strife of the modernist era” (Lott 174). In this context, Buddhism can be understood as Kerouac’s device for achieving freedom, creatively and spiritually, both qualities that his traditional Catholic heritage could not support. Buddhism and Taoism provided justification in Kerouac’s lifelong view of himself, confirming a belief that he was unfit or not strong enough to live a conventional life (Charters 197). Circumstantially, the events of his life during this period of uncertainty reflect a different set of concerns governing his principals. In early May, 1954, Kerouac was binging on alcohol and sex, only to renounce his behavior at a later time as irresponsible and return to his study of Buddhism. Several months after this period he decided to commit to an intensive practice to replace his textual study (Charters 197). Contemplating his journey after coming home, Ginsberg reflected on his experiences traveling abroad and his vision quests (Schumacher 394). He arrived at a conclusion of his spiritual inquiries that would sustain him into the second part of his life: Decisively, he thought, it was his heart and the present moment he aspired and yearned for. Zen Unwrap Operator to mark selected edges/faces as Seams and/or Sharp edges and Unwrap by Marked edges after. Buddhism is just words. Also wisdom is heartless. I quit Buddhism because Buddhism, or Mahayana Buddhism, preaches against entanglement with women. To me, the most important thing in life is love” (Tonkinson 83).