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You're drawing false conclusions, and there's way too many questions to answer here. Besides, the answers are readily available if you're inclined to look them up, including what the definition of Zen is (assuming there is one).
My post is simply that one can drop into a bottomless well trying to figure out all these Buddhist lineages, and no one of them owns the truth. Truth is in probably all the authentic spiritual paths. As for Jesus, all I know comes from reading a bible and going to church once in a blue moon something like 40 years ago. So I am hardly an authority, LOL. He seemt to have been a rebel who apparently had a different vision, but it's just words in a book. No one really knows what he was about. The history on his life, and Buddhas for that matter, are very suspect.
According to legend, the person we acknowledge as the Buddha sat down and meditated until he was enlightened. It's something any of us can do, but its difficult and requires self discipline so many people don't want to do it. Meditation is usually seen as the basic path to enlightenment and calming the mind, but a lot of the Buddhist lineages are more about beliefs. And that's fine, I don't have to agree or disagree w/ them, they're just not my particular path. We all need to find our own truth. Here's a little hint though: Letting go of what we "know" is very beneficial because it isn't knowledge unless it comes from our own, lived life. The magic is always right in front of us every second, but if we aren't present we miss it. It isn't in a book, scroll or teacher. If we hold onto beliefs that are based on other people's understandings we can never wake up to reality.
Thank you for your response. I like the bolded, a good basic line to live by. Is there a contradiction in letting go of what we “know” if “knowledge” can only come from own lived life? What is the difference? How would we recognize the “magic” if we cannot distinguish it from the ordinary? What if own lived life is limited and cannot teach us how to recognize the magic?
Apology for more questions, but i will share my own answers. We don’t always know what we don’t know and some of it needs to come from books. I agree that we cannot believe in something that we dont understand. We can make it our own understanding only by clearing our doubts, trusting our own self, and that might require reading more books! We wake up to reality only by knowing what is reality.
This 7 Dec. is Je Tsongkhapa day. To honor this great bodhisattva, here he teaches the need to revere and ponder the written Dharma:
Quote:
THE GREATNESS OF SEEING ALL OF THE BUDDHA’S TEACHINGS AS INSTRUCTIONS
Anyone who considers the great scriptures to be expository teachings that do not contain practical instructions, who thinks that guidance on the meaning of the essential points of practice exists separately from them, and who holds that even in the holy Dharma the expository and applied teachings are found in different places will create an obstacle for the arising of deep respect for the immaculate sūtras and tantras as well as the treatises clarifying their intentions.
Be aware that the karmic obstruction of abandoning the Dharma is accumulated by despising them, saying that they only outline external knowledge without presenting the inner meaning. For those who want liberation, the infallible supreme instructions are indeed the great scriptures.
It is nonetheless possible that, due to poor intelligence and the like, you cannot reach certainty through relying on these scriptures alone as supreme advice. In such a case you should seek certainty with respect to them, thinking, “I will seek certainty with respect to them by relying on excellent oral instructions.”
But you should never think that the great scriptures do not contain the heart of the matter, thinking they only outline external knowledge while the personal instructions are supreme because they present the inner meaning.
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