Zen chat rooms and seated meditation, a waste of time?

Discussing Zen on chat room forums, generally speaking, is a waste of time.  Joining a Zen center is a little better but if the main part of the teaching is centered on seated meditation it has to be kept in mind that sitting will not improve intuition which is what Zen is all about, especially, when it comes to koans.

What both chat room discussions and the practice of seated meditation seem to have in common is that both ignore the role of intuition.  Furthermore, not all people who are interested in Buddhism or Zen have the capacity for intuition.

The English word “intuition” comes from Latin word, intueri which means to look at, gaze, pay attention to, consider, contemplate.  According to Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, intuition is described as “the act or process of coming to direct knowledge or certainty without reasoning or inferring; immediate cognizance or conviction without rational thought.”  This is nothing less than direct knowledge.  Intuition, you could say, leaps over reasoning and inferring.  Almost instantly the adept sees what the Buddha saw. 

Historically, the Buddha’s practice of dhyāna came from the ancient Indian tradition of contemplation.  This tradition can be thought of as a process of introspection whereby one abandons mental scattering and turbulence leading to direct intuition of the absolute.

Dhyāna for Buddhism and Zen, if it is successful, is the sudden removal of what has always hindered the adept’s ability to see, face-to-face, pure Mind or Buddha-nature before mentation is aroused.  This is intuition at its best.

This kind of intuition comes after many years of getting one’s spiritual ducks in a row which means that the adept has been studying for many years, with an open mind, hoping to have direct intuition of the absolute.  When it finally comes after much struggle, it is totally unexpected and brief.  It is almost like it found the adept when the adept was in the right frame of mind for it to enter, as weird as that explanation sounds.  It is the Buddha’s kill shot that brings the adept back to life!

Comments

[n. yeti]

Smith: you were precisely speaking of karma when you brought up predestination. Although you are right of course that there are doctrinal considerations about karma, the word merely means "action" and is a spiritual law like the law of gravity, belonging to no doctrine. For what its worth, I am perfectly happy for you to be a Christian. It brings me only joy! From my perspective, if you do manage to be reborn in the Heavenly King realm (by the vows of Avalokitesvara), after a long and happy life in that heaven you may have obtained enough spiritual knowledge to begin following a path that will lead to liberation.

[smith]

yeti; lol. was i speaking about karma? you must be confusing me with someone else. Christianity doesn't include karma. That's a hindu doctrine.

[n. yeti]

Smith and Dave B.: As regards your speculation on "free will" and predestination, neither of you have the slightest understanding of karma.

"You have lost track of your fundamental treasure: the perfect, wondrous bright mind. And in the midst of your clear and enlightened nature, you mistake the false for the real because of ignorance and delusion."

"Your true nature is occluded by the misperception of false appearances based on external objects, and so from beginningless time until the present you have taken a thief for your son. You have thus lost your source eternal and instead turn on the wheel of birth and death."

(Surangama Sutra)

[smith]

dave b: following link is rc sproul giving a full Christian discourse specifically on 'free will';

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcyttnC6cjg

[smith]

dave b: did you view the referenced videos before your last reply? Id like to reply but what you last said seems too nebulous and disconnected from what the bible clearly has to say about GOD, predestination, and 'free-will'. RC Sproul is the most comprehensive and deep theologian/teacher/Christian- apologist, and has fully covered this subject.

Non-Christians may very well disagree and reject it, but its best to first understand it-which for most is difficult- before responding to it by referencing Greek philosophy such as stoicism; which is not Christianity.