Who Holds The Record?
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alan: For some, that is all they have.
Zen is not dropping out or making the best of. It's about enlightenment. Thinking intuitively. Zen takes a lot of mental effort and time. Meditating on why people vote, get involved, would be Zen. Simply not understanding is not Zen. Finding the answer is Zen. You're more suggesting you are a pragmatist.
Zen is not dropping out or making the best of. It's about enlightenment. Thinking intuitively. Zen takes a lot of mental effort and time. Meditating on why people vote, get involved, would be Zen. Simply not understanding is not Zen. Finding the answer is Zen. You're more suggesting you are a pragmatist.
Enlightenment is not about understanding why things are. It is about compassion and accepting things as they are. There are many ways one can go about this, and if Alan truly feels peace, then his approach is suitable for him.
As for finding the answer being Zen, i would say it is rather about being still so that the answers find you. And only if the answers are meant to appear.
As for finding the answer being Zen, i would say it is rather about being still so that the answers find you. And only if the answers are meant to appear.
Makes more sense to move forward and search for those answers, in my opinion. Most things aren't going to find you for you. You have to seek them out for yourself. Being still is when most things just pass you by. If that's Zen, it sure is illogical. :?
I was replying Warren with regards to his point about enlightenment. What you are speaking of is something different, and that is totally fine. Being still is not about being still physically. And for sure, anything related to enlightenment seems illogical until you experience it for yourself.
To put it in a pipe and tobacco perspective... Those who have never explored natural tobacco and only have experienced cigarettes, or have only read research related to popular tobacco (which for decades was cigarettes) will never believe that unadulterated tobacco is actually good for your nasal passages and lungs. Seems illogical indeed from their standpoint. They would never believe that tobacco could be medicine for your sinuses.
To put it in a pipe and tobacco perspective... Those who have never explored natural tobacco and only have experienced cigarettes, or have only read research related to popular tobacco (which for decades was cigarettes) will never believe that unadulterated tobacco is actually good for your nasal passages and lungs. Seems illogical indeed from their standpoint. They would never believe that tobacco could be medicine for your sinuses.
I realize religion is an iffy subject for this forum. So, I'll make a last observation and hope we don't go off the tracks completely.
I guess and will concede that, in this day and age, there is Zen and then, there is "pop zen." My, admittedly l9mited, contact with Buddhism taught me that an always active mind intuitively sought answers, one didn't simply await enlightenment ... one went after it with a calm body and an active intuition. Buddhism has three sects, if you will, and Zen has been somewhat co-opted and massaged by the West, for the westerner, to a certain degree.
So, perhaps I misinterpreted alan73's position when he stated "I am zen that way." It was a lowercase "zed" and I may have reacted too quickly in reading into it a religious position. The difference between Catholic and catholic. Mea culpa if that was the case.
I guess and will concede that, in this day and age, there is Zen and then, there is "pop zen." My, admittedly l9mited, contact with Buddhism taught me that an always active mind intuitively sought answers, one didn't simply await enlightenment ... one went after it with a calm body and an active intuition. Buddhism has three sects, if you will, and Zen has been somewhat co-opted and massaged by the West, for the westerner, to a certain degree.
So, perhaps I misinterpreted alan73's position when he stated "I am zen that way." It was a lowercase "zed" and I may have reacted too quickly in reading into it a religious position. The difference between Catholic and catholic. Mea culpa if that was the case.
I may have used the term wrong. it may have been more the slang definition of at peace, content, happy, etc.
Why not allow political conversation in the general section? As long as human decency and civility reign, I think it would be great for those that like to do that thing . Then I can join in and tell you all why you wrong. Ha ha.
Why not allow political conversation in the general section? As long as human decency and civility reign, I think it would be great for those that like to do that thing . Then I can join in and tell you all why you wrong. Ha ha.
alan73, voting is good. Discussing politics on pipesmagazine Forums is bad. I cast my first ballot, absentee, in Navy boot camp in 1968. I've voted ever since. Even when the polling place volunteers and I are the only people there, and I'm voting in a school board run-off. In boot camp, it was like, vote like your life depends on it, because it did, it does.
It they allowed political discussions in any way shape or form, I would be off this site very quickly. I have seen first hand how that will ruin a site. I was a moderator at the busiest cigar site in the world. Guys would try having political discussions and it turned ugly. People who were friends became enemies. Religion and political discussions have no place on a pipe site, trust me on that.
I pretty much agree with you, Harris. Half the problem is people discussing politics on a pipe forum. The other half is that any offhand comment one makes, even on the general human condition, is immediately construed to be "political". The word "politics" has become just like the word "racism" anymore; it can mean anything, anywhere, anytime, to anyone who chooses to use it.
There are many places on the web for such discussions. We here have proven time and again that any civil discourse will soon draw in those illogical, vitriol filled individuals who have not arrived at their belief through thought and internal debate. It'll quickly turn hideously personal, often racist, etc.
Kevin has it right in his rules, stifling as some may think them. Sometimes members even cross the line with PMs. Mods would be gargling their guns if they had to continually referee such debate.
Kevin has it right in his rules, stifling as some may think them. Sometimes members even cross the line with PMs. Mods would be gargling their guns if they had to continually referee such debate.
Human decency, civility and political discussion? On an Internet site? Are you kidding?? 8O
It's been tried, repeatedly, and it ALWAYS kills forums. Maybe it's something endemic to the pipe smoking community. Maybe all that nicotine causes hardening of the neurons, I don't know. But political discussion is more deadly than the Spanish Flu, Typhoid, Smallpox, and Bubonic Plague all rolled into one.
We're on the internet, where civility gets flushed down the crapper in a nanosecond. You can say anything you want with little to no practical consequence. It's not like anyone can reach through your computer and bludgeon you to death with a baseball bat, no matter how much you deserve it.
Since any discussion, not just political or religious, that bears heat is monitored, and then usually shut down, the price paid for the forum continuing is in substance. Ideally what should be a free exchange of ideas becomes as useful as gruel. And this is of course because of the lawlessness of the internet, with the freedom to be insulting and rude and then run away. If you can't make it personal where's the fun?
The fun is being able to enjoy conversation or share ideas on something that unites us regardless of political or religious belief, other than on something that often divides us. The pipe and tobacco is something that we all use for relaxation. Why dirty it up with something that will raise our blood pressure?
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