“Zenfully Quool Quotes”
By Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh
In our Buddhist Peace Delegation office in Paris in the 1970s
there was an English woman who volunteered
to help us in our work.
Although she was over seventy years old,
she was in very good health,
and every morning
she would climb up the five flights of stairs to our office.
She was Anglican and had a very strong faith.
She firmly believed that after she died she would go to heaven,
where she would be reunited with her very kind and handsome husband,
who had died when he was thirty-three.
One day I asked her,
“After you die and go to heaven and meet your husband again,
will he be thirty-three or seventy or eighty?
And how old will you be?
It would be strange for you, over seventy,
to meet him at thirty-three.”
Sometimes our faith is very simple.
She was confused,
because she had never asked herself that question.
She had just assumed that they would meet again.
With the insight of interbeing
the insight that we ‘inter-are’ with one another
and with all life …
we don’t need to wait
to meet our beloved ones again in heaven.
They are still right here with us.
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rog note:
It’s interesting the various projections organized religions
will offer out to their devotees
to give them hope and strengthen their ‘faith’…
I suppose most folks are quite content with
finding solace in things that are literally made up
from the imaginations of those with otherwise
good hearted intentions…
Those in the ‘flock’ dish this stuff out,
also believe these story tails are true,
similar to how a pathological liar firmly believes their own lies…
But ask yourself, if you dare…
Do you really want you Bliss to come from ignorance?
It becomes a ‘faith’, based on the ‘blind leading the blind’.
Like the well-meaning statement:
“There there…
Don’t worry your pretty little head, everything will be alright.”
As the Jewish child boards a one-way train to Auschwitz.
No,
things are really not going to be alright in many situations in life.
There will be challenges to face and maybe, at best one can
‘come to terms’ with these profoundly challenging issues before they die…
But to a child…
The challenges will need a lot more help than sugar coated ‘good intentions’.
Ok, that’s perhaps a bit extreme example,
but,
It is really a good idea to have folks believing in things
that are totally made up… to give them hope?
That’s a bit cruel if you ask one for a reasonable answer.
Most organized religions promise you that you will get
a ‘heavenly body’ when you die and go to ‘heaven’…
But what they don’t tell you is:
Will this ‘heavenly body’ look just like you did when you died
of really old age or grossly grewsome death?…
Or
Will it look like you did in your prime …
if you had taken really good care of yourself and
had a personal trainer your whole life?…
Or
Will it look like your favorite movies star? …
It’s amazing how these naively childish projections
are so unquestionably accepted by the masses that go to ‘mass’.
I’m told that:
To believe in the otherwise unbelievable
is a sign of how strong your faith is.
But,
Everything else in life tells us…
Don’t be a fool.
Don’t allow yourself to be taken advantage of.
Don’t be dupped.
As a young child going to Catechism…
It was all together too confusing…
To have one set of standard for church and
a completely opposite perspective for the rest of life.
At church,
with the endless stream of myths, magic, and miracles
that are all literally made up,
they demanded that they are to be taken as the literal “truth”.
I was “cast out” of Sunday school
:-O
And I’m sure someone told me:
There there… Don’t worry your little head…
Everything will be alright” ….
And it was!
I developed a strong urge to pursue philosophy.
I was drawn towards a
common sense non-theological Spirituality
and developed a knack for ‘critical thinking’.
Those that become willfully ignorant ‘anti-intellectualist’,
without any trace of critical thinking
tend to support odd ball things that are
a huge challenge to the improvement of humanity.
Those that embrace such nonsense whole heartedly
vote against their very own interests and
their very own children ‘s future…
Without any clue of what they really support.
They become mentally vulnerable to demagogue politicians
and organized religions.
It is said that:
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions”.
Those so called ‘good intentions’ also make it hell on Earth as well.
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“Zenfully Quool Quotes”…
Currently featuring “The Art of Living”
By Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh
My aim is to present
a deeper, higher, wider, non-theological perspective
into common sense Spirituality
that most of us folks raised in the ‘west’ never get introduced to,
to fulfill life’s most intriguing questions…
All people from every spiritual, religious, and even
non-theological perspectives will find these Wisdoms
helpful in their day-to-day life…
and ease their minds on whatever comes after.
Use you Divine Freedom of choice…
Pursue the Inner Calling towards:
Non-Theological Common-Sense Spirituality
