Tag: zen buddhism

good and evil – lessons from zen and nietzsche

The image is of young “mud-addict” enjoying himself at Reading Rock Festival, taking place on 26-28 August in Leeds (UK).

Is he good/evil/crazy/stupid?

Bodhidharma, founder of Zen Buddhism, is credited saying:

Buddhas don’t keep precepts. And buddhas don’t break precepts. Buddhas don’t keep or break anything. Buddhas don’t do good or evil. To find a buddha, you have to see your nature.

Nietzsche despised classic philosophers; he identified qualities of “new philosophers”: imagination, self-assertion, danger, originality, and “creation of values.” He thought will to power (realization of human potential) is what matters and is beyond good and evil.

mind and learning – from trenches of science and buddhism

How does our mind/brains recognize objects?

Neuroscientists retrained monkey brains to blur the distinction between two objects — a Dalmatian dog image and a rhinoceros image – via the learning process temporal contiguity. The mind usually assumes that images appearing rapidly one after another belong to the same source/group/entity.

Science loves/attracts those with attachment to/obsessions for objects; Buddhism despises attachment/obsession.

As Saint Manora, 22nd patriarch of Zen Buddhism, said:

Mind turns along with myriad situations,
Its turning point is truly recondite,
When you recognize nature and accord with its flow,
There is no more elation,
And no more sorrow.