Originally Posted by
disastermouse
If you sit for a reason, you're deluded. There is no reason to sit. Really. Not to 'clear your mind' or improve your tennis or make your karate especially kick-ass.
'But it makes my life easier/better/more 'flowing'. Great. But that's not why we sit.
Just sit. Your ego will try to make a tool of it, but don't buy into that.
IMHO.
Chet
I see what you're saying, Chet, and I agree with you. As Padre's last comment hinted, this is kinda one of the fundamental principles, here, so it's hard to dispute.
Yet, at the same time, this whole question smells faintly of bullshit. Follow me here:
1. Jundo talks of the two "channels" a lot: Channel 1 is the dualistic channel and Channel 2 is the non-dualistic channel
2. On Channel 1, Zen seems useless, because we're just sitting around, yet it yields useful results, in that it helps our tennis, our karate, clears our minds, etc.
3. On Channel 2, Zen is useless, because, whatever we do, we simply are where we are. The goals, the "results", the sitting, the not sitting, all are simply what they are, effortless, ineffable, true.
4. If, on Channel 1, we use Zen to achieve some goal, this is a waste of time, for those results are just dualistic constructions, fictions, from the perspective of Channel 2.
5. If, on Channel 2, we sit, it's kinda useless, too, for sitting is the same as not-sitting: "things-as-it-is"
We kinda act like Channel 1 is false and Channel 2 is real, but isn't it true that both channels are real? Watching a movie, the people on the screen aren't really there, but the light is there, and the representations are real representations, and the emotions we feel are real emotions, and so on. Yes, it's a fiction, but it's a fiction that has real impact. It's a real fiction. Channel 1 is dualistic, and dualism is a delusion, but it's a real delusion. It exists within the realm of Channel 2. As a matter of fact, Channel 2 wouldn't exist without Channel 1. "Channel 2" is a construction on Channel 1. We're all tuned into the Zen show on Channel 1.
Clinging to emptiness is just as delusional as clinging to form. Demanding that Channel 1 results are useless denies the reality of that fiction. Insisting that goallessness is the only acceptable goal is the fish denying the water. We can recognize that it's just a pond and there's lots of other stuff out there, but we still gotta swim in it.
Gassho,
Kevin