Daily Zen Hip-hop Jamboree

[Zoom Rabbit]

Time to get some zen action going.

 

I've been doing some deeper study of the zen tradition, and can now describe pretty much what it is and what it does. It goes back to the original Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, who experienced profound enlightenment in his lifetime and taught others so they might follow in his foot steps.

 

The only problem was that the experience, which can be roughly paraphrased as becoming one with the universe, is an expansive one which could not be boiled down enough to fit into words. Any word one chose would attempt to pin it down as something, whereas it was really everything. His solution was to proscribe a way of living that would guide one into a lifetime of having some of the same insights that got him to that point, with some of those realizations captured in words as 'signposts' along the way.

 

Later in life, Buddha taught some of his followers that there was another way to enlightenment. Essentially, he taught that the enlightened state is ALREADY present in the average mind--in fact, that that mind had been enlightened in the womb, but had obscured its ability to realize it by a lifetime of learning about the world and building assumptions about phenomenal reality. Instead of clearing away any obstructions by following his path and breaking them down philosophically, the mind could be made to recognize its original state of enlightenment, whereupon those obstructions would be instantly understood as 'unreal.'

 

The trick was to startle the mind out of its normal way of thinking--then it would recognize its primordial nature, and the rest would (theoretically) fall into place. When the monk Bodhidarma took buddhism from India to China, he developed a system based on Buddha's later teachings that was called 'chaan.' When the tradition passed to Japan, it became 'zen,' which we know best here in the western world.

 

Zen uses words to tie up the thought process so it can experience enlightenment, not describe the experience itself. In the form of open-ended riddles which point to infinity called koans, words are used in addition to meditation, odd behavior and stick-hitting from masters.

 

Sounds kinda like XWA.

 

I did a zen thread at RS.Net that went over pretty well, so it's time to do another one. I'll post original koans on a regular basis (others are invited to try) and we can discuss them. Of course, we can also just post off-the-wall horsecrap...

 

Wally the space dolphin says that's what he does most of the time anyway. He also came up with tonight's koan.

 

 

'How is a fish like water?'

[Commander 598]

...Space Tuna...

From Wally's dorsal fin.

[Keyan Farlander]

'How is a fish like water?' you ask?

 

Simple - Wally desires them both!

 

I guess I'm all enlightened now...............feels about the same.

[Zoom Rabbit]

Sorry, but wally is a space dolphin, and as such is interested in SPACE fish... *(Hits Keyan with a stick.)* Now you're enlightened, you scoundrel. What was the question?

 

Now for some of the off-the-wall horsecrap I promised. Kylilin should recognize this style of prose...

 

'Okay, now fire that second grappling line around the asteroid's backside and secure it. Mister Fagan, have you finished resetting my phaserbanks for carving that thing or not? Well, get it done. Now bring in the giant mylar bra and panties from cargo bay three with the shuttle pod--careful not to hit that thing! Good job, Fagan. Now start working the asteroid to the specifications I downloaded from last months issue of Cyberplayboy 2200. Slow down that shuttle pod! The computer needs time to finish carving the boobies before you can go EVA and fix the bra anyway. Good--now beam over the autonomous subspace transmitter with the sonic logs from the science officer's cabin last night. The phaser is done--you may begin installing the mylar underwear. Now this will really give the Vulcan High Command something to think about.'

 

[Pink Monkey]

Ha ha. Yes. Very amusing.

 

My people should just conquer yours now, while you're still weak.

[Cmdr. Cracken]

In the scientific sense, a fish is like water since, one, thier bodies are around 70% water, like any other animal oin the planet. second they ingest water. Thier digestive tracs are completely filled, it is my understanding with water, and thier gills make up the rest, since it's thier method of respiration.

 

Fish are also one with the water, they move, swim, live, and even... relieeve themsevles in the water. It's the one class of animal that, imho, is completly at ease with it's own living enviroment. it know it's ebb and flow, and it's current.

 

It's like being one with the universe.

[Kylilin]

A fish is like water cause I said so!!!

 

ahhh...Zoomie, nice blurb from way back, got any more?

[K_Kinnison]

a fish is like water, as sand is like the sun

[Keyan Farlander]

And my left index finger is like a strawberry pop-tart.

[Zoom Rabbit]

I liked KK's zen the best. If we combine Wally's koan with your response, we would have an effective 'hossen,' to use the technical term. It's the sort of thing whack-o monks say to each other in passing on the road.

 

Keyan: don't put that in your mouth! You don't know where it's been...!

 

Kylilin: it's your turn to do one.

 

Next koan. It's entirely modern, and pitched for this crowd.

 

'If holding a black hole in the palm of your hand, could you prove it existed?'

[Keyan Farlander]

I think there's only one thing that can be said at this point in the discussion:

 

I ATE A BABY! OH, AYE! BABY - THE OTHER OTHER WHITE MEAT! BABY - IT'S WHAT'S FOR DINNER!

[Kylilin]

here's a little bit of lyrical nonsense for ya Zoomie...

 

Freedom or jail, clips inserted, a baby's bein born

Same time a man is murdered, the beginning and end

As far as rap goes, it's only natural, I explain

My plateau, and also, what defines my name

First it was Nasty, but times have changed

Ask me now, I'm the artist, but hardcore, my sign is for pain

I spent time in the game, kept my mind on fame

Saw fiends shoot up, and do lines of cocaine

Saw my close friends shot, flatline am I sane?

That depends, carry Mac-10's to practice my aim

On rooftops, tape cd covers to trees

Line the barrel up with your weak picture then squeeze

Street scriptures for lost souls, in the crossroads

To the corner thugs hustlin for cars that cost dough

To the big dogs livin large, takin it light

Pushin big toys, gettin nice, enjoyin your life

is what you make it, suicide, few try to take it

Belt tied around they neck in jail cells naked

Heaven and hell, rap legend, presence is felt

And of course Z-O-O-M are the letters that spell . . .

[edlib]

Because your hand would very quickly cease to exist.

 

The black hole wouldn't care if you proved it's existance or not... it would just keep on sucking the atoms of your hand into non-existance.

Those horrible tears in the fabric of the universe tend to be that way, y'know.

 

You just can't reason with a singularity.

[Tierce]

Can't reason with much, so its not even worth trying

[edlib]

Maybe that's the ultimate secret behind Zen...

[K_Kinnison]

often people get to a true zen state when they are in a waking coma

[Zoom Rabbit]

For purposes of discussion, let's assume the black hole's event horizon is very small--say, two inches across--and your hand is impervious to gravitational effects.

 

The black hole just sits there, sucking in all information. Is it there, or isn't it? What does it taste like?

 

Hip-hop time!

 

Yippee skippy, trippy hippy

Make the boat get over tippy

Why do they play? Where is the fray?

Once upon a time there was a clown called Zippy

And he got down on the floor

The crowd wanted some more

And he say:

'Once upon a time, people, we all had feathers

Sun or rain, we didn't look at the weather

Now I'm just dancin,' Donner is prancin'

And the only one who came back from the whole trip was Merriweather!'

 

What? Word.

[Zoom Rabbit]

Today's daily zen:

 

'If time were stopped, would there be no time or all time?'

 

[Cmdr. Cracken]

If time stopped, time would cease to exist.

 

Infact, time is nothing more than a man made identifier to log what was, what is, and what will be.

 

So, technically, time never started. !!!

 

AND I LOVEDED YOU PIGGY!!! WHYYYYY!?!!?! WHYYY PIGGY WHYYYYYYYY!?!?!?

[Keyan Farlander]

Originally posted by Cmdr. Cracken

If time stopped, time would cease to exist.

 

Infact, time is nothing more than a man made identifier to log what was, what is, and what will be.

 

So, technically, time never started. !!!

 

Nonsense! Time is something real. It passes more slowly on you the closer you get to the speed of light. Physics, boy - physics!

[Taarkin]

Originally posted by Keyan Farlander

It passes more slowly on you the closer you get to the speed of light. Physics, boy - physics!

Wow, that means my physics class must be located inside a particle accelerator or something.

[RASTA VANDA]

WELL WELL It looks like i picked a good topic to post my first reply. Lets just for the fun of it, i was a priest, kicking it in my cathedral office, relaxing having a good cuban cigar, and a snifter of delicate brandy and you asked me about time, hmmmm. I would probally kick back in my gold laced mahogony chair fold my arms behind my head and make sure i looked intelligent, and say since god made the earth and the heavens in seven days that time is not a man made object but from a higher being that our little minds cannot fathom,so therefor time is beyond our grasp. If you try to stop time it is continual. just when you think you stopped it, it keeps on going laughing its ass off at you,besides only once in the history of man has time stopped.Joshua, the man who came after moses,needed time to kill the amorakites and to fullfill the promise he made to god, begged and prayed for more time and god stopped time for the first moment in history and gave joshua time to kill the amorakites. So even though time ceased, life did not. But if you asked me what i thought i'd probally take a puff contemplate the question and enjoy the hit, id say time is precious so dont waste it being an amorakite.

[Keyan Farlander]

As I remember that story, it was not that time stopped, but that the sun stayed where it was, indicating that the earth had stopped its rotation. However that was supposed to happen, I think one thing is clear - if Joshua had approached a relativistic velocity, he would have aged less than the rest of the people at the battle. And I think that's probably what that story was really about

[RASTA VANDA]

bowing humbley to keyan with respect, but the sun stood still for one twenty four hour period,so time stoood still for one day. the message or moral to that story was god wanted joshua and his army of isrealites to trust in god when everyone else says he dont exist. any way stupid things we remember from sunday school. I greatly appreciate the time and space ive spent on this subject with you now off to go swim with the bottlenose dolphins in jamaica. rast out must meet with my coral vanda fleet for further instructions.

[Keyan Farlander]

Why would the Bible have a story about the Isrealites and their battles? The story is obviously a lesson in physics. In fact, The Bible was the primary text for my third semester physics course. At least, I think it was...I might be wrong due to those late-night "experiment sessions" I used to have in the chemistry labs after everyone had gone home. Woo!