shut up and eat the tangerine

[bluegreen17]

People long for big thrills. Peak experiences. Some people come to Zen expecting that Enlightenment will be the Ultimate Peak Experience. The Mother of All Peak Experiences. But real enlightenment is the most ordinary of the ordinary. Once I had an amazing vision. I saw myself transported through time and space. Millions, no, billions, trillions, Godzillions of years passed. Not figuratively, but literally. Whizzed by. I found myself at the very rim of time and space, a vast giant being composed of the living minds and bodies of every thing that ever was. It was an incredibly moving experience. Exhilarating. I was high for weeks. Finally I told Nishijima Sensei about it . He said it was nonsense. Just my imagination. I can't tell you how that made me feel. Imagination? This was as real an experience as any I've ever had. I just about cried. Later on that day I was eating a tangerine. I noticed how incredibly lovely a thing it was. So delicate. So amazingly orange. So very tasty. So I told Nishijima about that. That experience, he said, was enlightenment.

this is from brad warner's website
the first page says 'sit down and shut up'. today i started reading his book hardcore zen and found it inspiring so i came home and looked him up. i've already read a bunch of the essays on his site. well worth taking a look if you're interested in zen.

Comments

[gwferguson.livejournal.com]

Great link! And as he says, there's a tremendous amount of sheer garbage written about zen; Lord knows I've read a lot of it. There's some good stuff, too; Alan Watts and both Suzukis come to mind. I've especially enjoyed a little book by Wes Nisker called Crazy Wisdom, "a provacative romp through the philosophies of East and West."

[gwferguson.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...just checked on Amazon.com (not that I'm geeky or anything) and it looks like the book is now The Essential Crazy Wisdom by Wes "Scoop" Nisker.

Uhhh, and that should be "provocative."

Somebody stop me!

[bluegreen17]

amazon is like a whirlpool...did you know there's a book called 'amazon hacks'? i assume it's not illegal hacking but cool things you can do with the website.

yeah,i know. a big help i am.

[carocrow.livejournal.com]

That is a great story, and so true about Zen. Being amazed by the moment. Yeah.

[duriyah.livejournal.com]

Wow! Great story. Thanks!