Essential Zen

Kim and I were casually watching TV when a commercial came on. I had the sound muted, but what caught my eye was the setup...the seeker making it to the top of the mountain finding the old wise man. I turned the sound up to see what they were selling and the seeker asked some purposefully dumb questions about a car he wanted to buy. I muted the sound again, but that led to a discussion of what you would ask in the seeker's position. The standard question is, "What is the meaning of Life?" Kim said, "You know what I'd ask? 'What is the meaning of Death?' " She followed with, "What happens after death?" "What can I do in this life that would have an impact on an afterlife?"

Stunning questions.

Gonzo wrote:Kim and I were casually watching TV when a commercial came on. I had the sound muted, but what caught my eye was the setup...the seeker making it to the top of the mountain finding the old wise man. I turned the sound up to see what they were selling and the seeker asked some purposefully dumb questions about a car he wanted to buy. I muted the sound again, but that led to a discussion of what you would ask in the seeker's position. The standard question is, "What is the meaning of Life?" Kim said, "You know what I'd ask? 'What is the meaning of Death?' " She followed with, "What happens after death?" "What can I do in this life that would have an impact on an afterlife?"

Stunning questions.

Good stuff.

I think I posted this somewhere here before:

Words don't "have meaning." People mean things by them. Thus, what is “Life” or “Death” to each of us, subjectively?

I'm sorry, but that's just the way things are. And to guess what they mean, you have to know what the words they use commonly mean in their own linguistic community. There's no way around that.

It's not relativism, and it's not Humpty Dumpty. It requires imagination ("what could this person have meant?") and good faith, and familiarity with the linguistic community, if it's not your own.

Words outside of a linguistic community are just squiggles on a page or grunts in a throat. They don't mean a damn thing.

I like Kim’s comment, “What happens after Death?”

This seems to depend on the ‘meaning’ of Death. Is Death a static or active ‘event’ that occurs within a single moment (assuming ‘time’ exists in this definition,) thus there’s a before and after? I mention this as several of us who have had Death experiences and have been questioned such as, “Were you really dead?”

What if Death is right here with us occurring simultaneously with Life? What if Death of the physical body is a mere transition to further experiences or to nothing at all?

There much more I could add, but I’m sure you get the drift.

Also asked, "What can I do in this life that would have an impact on an afterlife?"

Whoa, a bunch of idea’s here.

First, there’s an assumption there’s an “I” here in the first place and that we may have free will or can “do” anything in this Life. Another question may be, “Would we want to do anything in this life to impact the afterlife?”

There’s a bunch here to add, yet I’m out of time.

John, ring up Michael King and ask him to contribute please. I’ve a feeling he could add a great deal of quality material to this post.

Kris

~

From another post: When life is ready, it takes another form than the one it has so far been assuming. Death?

I'd probably add to this a further question. Is there an afterlife? (you know, if the wise man had all the answers)

I think were he truly a wise man, he would invite you to tea, ask if you enjoyed the view.

mmmm, I like tea