A question for Yaweh

[Some Friggin Guy]

I think I may have figured out why you have a problem with my calling myself a "philosopher" (I may be mistaken in my presumption that you have this difficulty. If I am, please let me know, and I mean no offense in this.)

I believe it comes down to a single question:

Would you define Zen as a philosophy or a religion?

[Yahweh]

Originally posted by Some Friggin Guy
I think I may have figured out why you have a problem with my calling myself a "philosopher" (I may be mistaken in my presumption that you have this difficulty. If I am, please let me know, and I mean no offense in this.)
No, I dont have any problems with it.

I believe it comes down to a single question:

Would you define Zen as a philosophy or a religion?
Well, I dont have very much background on Zen, but I'll give it a shot...

Dictionary.com tells me Zen is:
1: school of Mahayana Buddhism asserting that enlightenment can come through meditation and intuition rather than faith; China and Japan [syn: Zen, Zen Buddhism] 2: doctrine that enlightenment can be attained through direct intuitive insight [syn: Zen, Zen Buddhism]

To me, this sounds a lot Transcendentalism:
1. A literary and philosophical movement, associated with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller, asserting the existence of an ideal spiritual reality that transcends the empirical and scientific and is knowable through intuition.

n : any system of philosophy emphasizing the intuitive and spiritual above the empirical and material

Zen doesnt appear to have any connection to mythology, belief in supreme beings, or based on faith. I would define Zen Buddhism as a Philosophy (where in this case Philosophy is defined as a system of values by which one lives).

Why not turn this into an "Ask Yahweh Anything" thread? Come on kids, Ask Yahweh anything!

[Some Friggin Guy]

Primarily I did not ask this in the ask Yaweh anything thread because I have not slept in three days and was not aware of that thread.

Thank you for your answer. By your definition, then, at least here, when refering to myself as a philosopher, I will preface it with the word "Zen" so as not to confuse anyone with the type of philosophy you teach.

I do have a feeling we could learn quite a bit from each other if we were to ever sit down for a few hours over coffee.

[Yahweh]

Originally posted by Some Friggin Guy
Primarily I did not ask this in the ask Yaweh anything thread because I have not slept in three days and was not aware of that thread.
Sleep is for the weak, thats what I always says.

I dont have an official "Ask Yahweh Anything" thread actually. Sometimes threads have themes to them (picture thread, clip thread, recipe thread, etc.), in this case, the theme could be "Ask Yahweh Anything".

Thank you for your answer. By your definition, then, at least here, when refering to myself as a philosopher, I will preface it with the word "Zen" so as not to confuse anyone with the type of philosophy you teach.

I do have a feeling we could learn quite a bit from each other if we were to ever sit down for a few hours over coffee.
Coffee, now thats good drink to keep you AWAKE! Sleep is for the wea--I'm going off in all direction again, yeah we could definately learn a lot from each other.

[Some Friggin Guy]

Actually, I have an idea for this thread, which you may find interesting.

Perhaps we can use it to define the differences between the philosophy you teach verse the philosophy I teach.

For example (and please correct me if I am wrong) it seems that the philosophy you teach is the ability to search for knowledge: ie. the reasons why things are the way they are and the reasons why people believe what they believe.

This, if I understand corrctly, leads to what I would call wisdom (I have not consulted a dictionary. This is what I would call a "quick and dirty definition"): ie. an understanding of the reasons attained from knowledge.

The philosophy I teach seeks wisdom (essentially as described above) in the individual, rather than the group. Essentially, it is not important to me why a person commits, say, adultery. It would be important for me to know why I would commit it, or IF I would ever commit it.

Now, I could be way off in my understanding of what you teach, which is part of why I am coninuing this line of questioning/definition.

[Yahweh]

The Philosophy I teach is based on a class of about 50 minutes a day, the class takes about 180 non-consecutive days, it spans a total of 9 months to complete, much of it is comes from a syllabus and a book. I've requested that the class be broken in 2 classes (Intro to Philosophy and Philosophy II), I've also suggested dividing my class so that it is not a jumble of Sophomores with Juniors with Seniors, the school has left my wishes unfulfilled... rat bastards.

The Philosophy I teach (when I'm online) is largely if not entirely based on epistemological reasoning combined with various references to science (and vague references to kitties and apples... ???).

[Some Friggin Guy]

Yaweh, are you SURE you have never studied Zen? :D

[fishbait]

Originally posted by Some Friggin Guy
Yaweh, are you SURE you have never studied Zen? :D

How does one 'study' Zen? By reading books and Buddhist texts?

How does one study something that has nothing to teach?