I want to learn about Zen Buddhism, which books should I read?

I want to learn about Zen Buddhism, which books should I read?

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=SiBh_JinGbE
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meontology
twitter.com/NSFWRedditImage

Anything that trashes most other books for not "getting it" in the blurb desu

I unironically recommend /r/zen, if only for the fact that they have a list of source canon texts in the sidebar (i.e. the wiki and faq). Don't make the same mistake that thousands of people made: no Alan Watts, no shitty "muh intro to buddhizm 101" or other bullshit. Zen is Zen, not a remedy for middle-class existential crisis.

Thanks this reddit thing doesn't look that bad after all.

Confusing lay-out though.

There are nine levels of meditative concentration. The first four are the Four Dhyanas. These are concentrations on the form realm. The next five levels belong to the formless realm. When practising the first dhyana, you still think. At the other eight levels, thinking gives way to other energies. Formless concentrations are also practised in other traditions, but when they are practised outside of Buddhism, it is generally to escape from suffering rather than to realize the liberation that comes with insight into our suffering. When you use concentration to run away from yourself or your situation, it is wrong concentration. Sometimes we need to escape our problems for relief, but at some time we have to return to face them. Worldly concentration seeks to escape. Supra-mundane concentration aims at complete liberation. To practice samadhi is to live deeply each moment that is given us to live. Samadhi means concentration. In order to be concentrated, we should be mindful, fully present and aware of what is going on. Mindfulness brings about concentration. When you are deeply concentrated, you are absorbed in the moment. You become the moment. That is why samadhi is sometimes translated as "absorption."Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration lift us above the realms of sensual pleasures and craving, and we find ourselves lighter and happier. Our world is no longer gross and heavy, the realm of desires (karma dhatu). It is the realm of fine materiality, the realm of form (rupa dhatu). In the form realm, there are four levels of dhyana. Mindfulness, concentration, joy, happiness, peace, and equanimity continue to grow through these four levels.

After the fourth dhyana, the practitioner enters a deeper experience of concentration — the four formless dhyanas — where he or she can see deeply into reality. Here, sensual desire and materiality reveal their illusory nature and are no longer obstacles. You begin to see the impermanent, nonself, and interbeing nature of the phenomenal world. Earth, water, air, fire, space, time, nothingness, and perceptions inter-are. Nothing can be by itself alone. The object of the fifth level of concentration is limitless space. When we begin to practice this concentration, everything seems to be space. But as we practice more deeply, we see that space is composed of and exists only in "non-space elements,"like earth, water, air, fire, and consciousness. Because space is only one of the six elements that make up all material things, we know space does not have a separate, independent existence. According to the teachings of the Buddha, nothing has a separate self. So space and everything else inter-are. Space inter-is with the other five elements. The object of the sixth level of concentration is limitless consciousness. At first, we see only consciousness, but then we see that consciousness is also earth, water, air, fire, and space. What is true of space is also true of consciousness.

The object of the seventh level of concentration is nothingness. With normal perception, we see flowers, fruit, teapots, and tables, and we think they exist separately of one another. But when we look more deeply, we see that the fruit is in the flower, and that the flower, the cloud, and the earth are in the fruit. We go beyond outward appearances or signs and come to "signlessness."At first, we think that the members of our family are separate from one another, but afterwards we see that they contain each other. You are the way you are because I am the way I am. We see the intimate connection between people, and we go beyond signs. We used to think that the universe contains millions of separate entities. Now we understand "the nonexistence of signs." The eighth level of concentration is that of neither perception nor non-perception. We recognize that everything is produced by our perceptions, which are, at least in part, erroneous. Therefore, we see that we cannot rely on our old way of perceiving, and we want to be in direct touch with reality. We cannot stop perceiving altogether, but at least now we know that perception is perception of a sign. Since we no longer believe in the reality of signs, our perception becomes wisdom. We go beyond signs ("no perception"), but we do not become perceptionless ("no non-perception").

The ninth level of concentration is called cessation. "Cessation"here means the cessation of ignorance in our feelings and perceptions, not the cessation of feelings and perceptions. From this concentration is born insight. The poet Nguyen Du said, "As soon as we see with our eyes and hear with our ears, we open ourselves to suffering."We long to be in a state of concentration where we cannot see or hear anything, in a world where there is no perception. We wish to become a pine tree with the wind singing in our branches, because we believe that a pine tree does not suffer. The search for a place of nonsuffering is natural. In the world of non-perception, the seventh (manas) and the eighth (alaya) consciousnesses continue to function as usual, and our ignorance and internal formations remain intact in our store consciousness, and they manifest in the seventh consciousness. The seventh consciousness is the energy of delusion that creates the belief in a self and distinguishes self from other. Since the non-perception concentration does not transform our habit energies, when people emerge from that concentration, their suffering is intact. But when the meditator reaches the ninth level of concentration, the stage of arhat, manas is transformed and the internal formations in the store consciousness are purified. The greatest internal formation is ignorance of the reality of impermanence and nonself. This ignorance gives rise to greed, hatred, confusion, pride, doubt, and views. Together, these afflictions produce a war of consciousness called manas, which always discriminates self from other.

When someone practices well, the ninth level of concentration shines light on the reality of things and transforms ignorance. The seeds that used to cause you to be caught in self and nonself are transformed, alaya is freed from the grip of manas, and manas no longer has the function of making a self. Manas becomes the Wisdom of Equality that can see the interbeing and interpenetrating nature of things. It can see that others' lives are as precious as our own, because there is no longer discrimination between self and other. When manas loses its grip on store consciousness, store consciousness becomes the Wisdom of the Great Mirror that reflects everything in the universe. When the sixth consciousness (manovijñana) is transformed, it is called the Wisdom of Wonderful Observation. Mind consciousness continues to observe phenomena after it has been transformed into wisdom, but it observes the mind in a different way, because mind consciousness is aware of the interbeing nature of all that it observes — seeing the one in the many, all the manifestations of birth and death, coming and going, and so on — without being caught in ignorance. The first five consciousnesses become the Wisdom of Wonderful Realization. Our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body that previously caused us to suffer become miracles that bring us to the garden of suchness. Thus, the transformation of all levels of consciousness is realized as Four Wisdoms. Our wrong consciousness and wrong perceptions are transformed, thanks to the practice. At the ninth level of concentration, all eight consciousnesses are functioning. Perception and feeling are still there, but they are different from before, because they are free from ignorance.

The Way of Zen by Alan Watts is an excellent primer. Also read the Tao Te Ching, Zen originated in India, then spread to China as cha'an Buddhism, then to Japan as Zen, and in the process became a marriage of the Tao and the Dharma. Zen is just the Japanese word for cha'an. I reccomend also reading the Platform Sutra of the 6th Patriarch of Zen, and the Diamond Sutra.

Finally, the Lotus Sutra, which is much longer than the other texts I mentioned, but serves as a fundamental basis of Mahayana Buddhism, which Zen is a school of.

Has this been achieved?

Yes

Interesting.

It becomes pretty normal after awhile

What, you claim you've achieved it?

It's nothing special

you're spooked by levels of meditation desu. This "9th level" should have shined some light on the nonexistance of the levels, had you actually attained it.

The summit of Zen Buddhism is essentially Max Stirner's philosophy. Read Ego and it's Own and Critics of Stirner, then de-spook yourself and do some koans to confirm.

If you had actually attained it yourself you wouldn't have been so spooked as to suppose I had fallen for the spooks at all, my dear property

Never did I claim to have attained it. Nor is my post spooked.
property/8 made me reply.

Anonymous believes you have no place discussing this topic or making accusations then you spook

Temporarily spooked my property

I'm pretty well read in Zen buddhism although I don't take so much time to meditate anymore. I recommend the gateless gate and Bodhidharma's bloodstream sermon to start with. If you want to dive in deep go for the sutras, Lankavatara, Diamond and Platform sutras.

In cliffnotes, Zen is about breaking away from conceptual thinking and seeing the reality for what it is. Even more mystically, it is about seeing the illusion of reality and how there is no mind but it is only our perceptions and thoughts that cloud our understanding. I get it intuitively, but I'm still so invested in this world to break away from it, but if you are interested, Lankavatara sutra is the motherload. If you want the real deal Zen mindfuck, read the Koans or Gateless gate. They are merely tools to break you out of dualistic thinking.

The mirror has no stand, no place for dust to gather

I think the Platform Sutra is one of the single most important Sutra's for understanding the Zen view of the mind as a mirror, or as simply space

>In cliffnotes, Zen is about breaking away from conceptual thinking and seeing the reality for what it is.
that seems scary to literary minded people

"What is true of space is also true of consciousness."

Elaborate please

Especially since reality can be nearly described by quantum mechanics and involves actual work.

How are the other buddhisms different?

scary for literally any westfag

pleb

They preach karma and escape from the eternal wheel of rebirth. Zen looks beyond that and accepts the utter void of essence. There is nothing and no-nothing. Words can't describe the meaning since they are constructs which aim to make meaning. There is neither meaning nor no-meaning.

>There is neither meaning nor no-meaning.
sophistery of the highest order; this is why *i* read analytic phil

>breaking away from conceptual thinking
>comparison to Stirner
>you call him a pleb
pleb.

Even Wittgenstein turned to the inexpressible in the end.

ok pleb

>In cliffnotes, Zen is about breaking away from conceptual thinking and seeing the reality for what it is. Even more mystically, it is about seeing the illusion of reality and how there is no mind but it is only our perceptions and thoughts that cloud our understanding.
sounds like (kriya) yoga

>The summit of Zen Buddhism is essentially Max Stirner's philosophy.
Not at all, if you are the creative nothing/the unique then you are only at the begin of Zen. With Zen you become the nothing and have no creative and eventually if you do everything well you dont even have nothing anymore but that wich has no concept or name or anti-something to have a nothing.

>the creative nothing is creative or nothing.
Stirner uses the term as a crutch to describe that
>w[h]ich has no concept or name

If you can't get out of your refuge, then you're not in a house--you're in a jail.

Where upon you come into the rhealm of zen and its meontology.

Honestly just have a spliff and listen to this song. It's the tl;dr of Zen:

youtube.com/watch?v=SiBh_JinGbE

nah u need to read the S bomb closer thb senpai

Only according to your subjectivity wich i consume and shit out for what a shitty property it is.

>With Zen you become the nothing and have no creative and eventually if you do everything well you dont even have nothing anymore but that wich has no concept or name or anti-something to have a nothing.
Can you express this in a less... "continental" way?

...

there is no zen buddhism

Not being able to leave is only bad if you want to leave.

Parerga and Paralipomena - Schopenhauer

Got to bed, ewk

Not about Zen particularly or literally, but quite related. If you want to learn meditation, which is the cornerstone of Zen, basically, just read--or I should say work through-- "The Mind Illuminated" by John Yates, aka Culadasa.

He's a former neuroscience professor who has practiced meditation for like, 40 years.

The book draws on Buddhist practice but incorporates brain science and is not at all overtly religious.

Don't like shilling, but this is a truly fantastic book. If you want to learn to meditate for real just read this book.

'God is not Great' by Hichobal Christofferson

You don't have to want to leave, just to be capable of leaving. If you wouldn't leave under any circumstances, you're in deep trouble.

Not being capable of leaving is unproblematic if one doesn't want to.

Is meditation unnecessary for certain individuals? I have emotional problems, have never been angry, never had anxiety, never hated a person, never felt sadness, etc.

We start with Egoism.
Get rid of the Ego (wich is the final spook) we get the creative nothing. (Subjectivity within Nihilism)
Get rid of the creative in the creative nothing and we get nihilism. (No value or existance of the rhealm of ideas)
Now youknow there are no values but now you need to get rid of knowing something is nothing (Existance is still in command by your idealism wich you proclaim to be nothing as you are currently being nihilistic) and accept the nothiness without the need to know.
And now you have fully left the final form of idealism (Wich is Nihilism) and so we get to Zen.

Ego (Idealism)>Creative Nothing(Subjectivism)>Conciousnes nothingness (Nihilism)>Nothingness

I just realized I might have been meditating for most of my life without realizing. Looked it up and it matches with what I do ever day, that is sitting still for a couple hours. The only difference is that I'm not in the recommended position but in a bus, car, or bed. There's also been a few times were I meditated for 24 hours and many several hours, because I don't like doing anything in vehicles, and I sometimes go on long trips as a passenger.

>few times were I
You weren't doing it wright.

I want to achieve peace of mind, not get a PhD.

So you're saying you'd stay in the house if it was on fire?

What was I doing rong? Thanks for pointing out my spelling error, though.

I'd probably simply commit suicide desu

Even if you could built a better house? Even if you could rescue most of the old house?

Sounds like too much work. I'm not attached enough for all that effort.

So
>Before I started studying martial arts, a punch was just a punch; a kick was just a kick.
>After I started practicing martial arts, a punch was more than a punch and a kick was more than a kick.
>After I understood martial arts, a punch was a punch and a kick was a kick.
?

So you don't care about the house, you just don't want to move around?

Your movement has become a movement/push of air/extension/attempt to walk in the air or whatever. Its whatever idea you want to apply to it for what that action is, but thats subjective.

In Nihilism its just nothing or something (if you return to subjectivism or return to what other idealisms define it as)

In Zen its so nothing that langauge cant describe it as nothing. Its just an act, a something moving in nothing and being nothing wich you see for its nothingness without a thought deciding its nothing or knowing its nothing.

But this is just entry tier Zen tho.

The thing is between Conciousness nothingness (Nihilism) and Nothingness (Nothing in Buddhist sense) is that you are doing a switch from ontology to meontology.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meontology

So it's like an immediate apperception of action as just action without anything else to it?

bump

The Khajjanīya Sutta explains life is comprised of five aggregates, namely: (i) body; (ii) feelings; (iii) perceptions; (iv) mental formations; & (v) sense consciousness. Mental stories about so-called or imaginary 'past lives' are 'mental formations', similar to dreams the mind constructs or manufactures in sleep.

The Khajjanīya Sutta states 'mental formations' about the past should be interpreted as follows:

>Any kind of mental formations whatsoever … whether past, future or present, internal or external, gross or subtle, inferior or superior, far or near, all mental formations should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’

As for 'rebirth', the Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta explains 'birth' ('jati') is the mental generation of the mental idea, view or 'assumption' of 'beings' ('satta').

SN 5.10 explains that, apart from 'view' or 'conceptual thought' (which are mental formations), there are no 'beings' to be found. SN 5.10 also states the idea of a 'being' (or 'soul') is a view held by Mara (Satan).

It follows, as explained in SN 22.85, each time the mind gives birth to the 'self' idea & believes it is a 'self', that is 'birth' ('jati'). To quote:
>There is the case where an uninstructed, run-of-the-mill person — who has no regard for noble ones, is not well-versed or disciplined in their Dhamma; who has no regard for men of integrity, is not well-versed or disciplined in their Dhamma — assumes the body, feeling, perception, mental fabrication &/or consciousness to be a 'self'. That assumption (of 'self') is a fabrication. Now what is the cause, what is the origination, what is the birth (jati), what is the coming-into-existence of that fabrication? To an uninstructed, run-of-the-mill person, touched by that which is felt born of contact with ignorance, craving arises. That fabrication (of 'self') is born of that.

If the 'self' fabrication keeps arising in the mind, each new fabrication of the 'self' idea is a new 'becoming', a new birth or 'rebirth'.

Most importantly, regardless of how the words 'birth' ('jati') & the myriad terms translated as 'rebirth' are interpreted, the most salient feature of Buddhist rebirth is it is always connected to the results of kamma (actions), i.e., productive of happiness ('heaven') & unhappiness ('hell'). To quote a stock phrase:

>'These beings — who were endowed with bad conduct of body, speech & mind, who reviled noble ones, held wrong views and undertook actions under the influence of wrong views — with the break-up of the body, after death, have re-appeared in the plane of deprivation, the bad destination, the lower realms, in hell. But these beings — who were endowed with good conduct of body, speech, & mind, who did not revile noble ones, who held right views and undertook actions under the influence of right views — with the break-up of the body, after death, have re-appeared in the good destinations, in the heavenly world.'

Unlike the Hindu reincarnation found in the Bhagavada Gita, which states the soul (atman) will always enter a new physical body at death, the idea of 'rebirth' in Buddhism is always connected to the results of kamma or moral efficiency.

Therefore, in Buddhism, unlike Hinduism & unlike the heretical branches of Judaism, 'rebirth' in Buddhism is not 'meta-physics', instead, 'morality' about results of kamma.

In other words, even Buddhists that do not believe in life after death still must believe in 'results of kamma' or 'moral rebirth' in order to have right view.

The language used in the Pali scriptures accommodates both views about 'rebirth' since terms such as 'beings' ('satta'), 'death' ('marana'), 'body' ('kaya'), etc, have dual meanings.

As previously stated & quoted, in the older Pali suttas, the predominant view about 'rebirth' is good kamma leads to 'heaven' & bad kamma leads to 'hell'. It seems only in later teachings did the idea of returning as a human being start.

n general, Buddhism teaches all things whatsoever are 'not-self' or, if using Hindu terminology, 'not-soul' ('anatta'). Therefore, Buddhism is contrary to Hindu & later-day-Jewish ideas about transmigration of souls. The Jewish Encyclopedia states:
>'Transmigration' of souls (metempsychosis)...This doctrine was foreign to Judaism until about the eighth century, when, under the influence of the Mohammedan mystics, it was adopted by the Karaites and other Jewish dissenters.

As for the pseudo-science of Ian Stevenson and Jim Tucker, since their claims arise from the studies of literally few children from billions, their claims can be debunked with explanations such as: (i) the child was conditioned by is parents; (ii) the child has a mental disposition or psychic power that can absorbs external ideas; and (iii) mystics with psychic powers are controlling the mind of the child.

For example, the failure of many so-called reincarnate Tibetan lamas, such as Tenzin Ösel Hita, shows such ideas about the reincarnation of souls are spurious or tenuous. In the case of Ösel Hita, it seemed to be not 'transmigration' but child abuse. To quote Ösel Hita:
>"At 14 months I was recognized and taken to India. They dressed me in a yellow hat, they sat me on a throne, people worshipped me ... They took me away from my family and put me in a medieval situation in which I suffered a lot. It was like living a lie."

If we all were really reincarnated souls then we would all remember our past lives or we would all be born with knowledge & experience from our past lives. But, unfortunately, we are all born ignorant, like a blank slate with some natural instincts, and we all must learn how to live & survive in life, as though we all started out anew & fresh.

Some translators of old Buddhist scriptures use the word "transmigration" but this is just a mistranslation.

Similar to the Jewish dissenters, later-day Buddhists created many ideas about reincarnation & even ideas about how 'consciousness' (which is mere sense cognition) is reborn, which probably explains why Buddhism become extinct in India, since it became the same as Hinduism.

Even in the Pali suttas, there are maybe a dozen suttas from thousands (such as the Chariot Maker sutta) that state the Buddha had a literal past life. These suttas are questionable as to their authenticity given they contradict the Khajjanīya Sutta.

In summary, original Buddhism taught the idea of 'self' is merely a mental formation/fabrication born from ignorance and that, in ultimate reality, there is no 'self' to be found. Therefore, the idea that 'my soul transmigrated' or the idea that "I" had a past life is contrary to original Buddhism.