Question
Master,
What do you think of memetics?
Our ideas are like viruses that use us to replicate themselves.
It is a very materialistic theory of consciousness that defines religions as vast selfish systems. Like every materialistic theory, it leaves a chill and blacks out spirituality. Nevertheless, conceptually it fits Buddhism very well.
Within this system, Zen is the answer to enslavement—to suffering. Watching these memes wriggle around in our heads without getting attached to them while practicing zazen… like watching ducks fly over a lake on a cold autumn morning…
Nevertheless, I still hesitate to practice zazen. It seems more painful than downing a bottle of Black Label and having a few whores, especially if we should expect nothing from zazen… For some obscure reason, I think I would be better off practicing zazen…
What do you think of bonsai, something I already practice with all the humility of a beginner? Do you think there is a possibility of valid meditation in this path, in this particular relationship with nature?
Those are a few ideas and thoughts that leave me pondering and hold more spiritual and aesthetic than intellectual value for me. I do not know why I wanted to share them…
Anonymous
Answer from Master Kosen
When we use conscious thought to do something—to write, think, or calculate—we monopolize our energy for it.
The misfortune is that most human beings have fallen into the mental illness of trying to solve everything consciously, through thought and calculation.
Little by little, they have lost awareness of non-doing. We must follow the cosmic order of the awakening of the body and energy.
All their energy is constantly monopolized by consciousness, day and night. They think themselves more intelligent, but in reality they are limited.
So Zen consists of rediscovering the wholeness of body and mind.
Kosen