The Unreality of Phenomena?

[@diogo4011]

This video made me relate to the Chinese philosophical classic Zhuangzi, the great Daoist thinker of that name fell asleep one day and dreamed that he was a butterfly. When he woke up, he did not know whether he really was a man who had dreamed he was a butterfly or whether he was a butterfly now dreaming he was a man.

[@psag8216]

I like the word 'apparent', meaning something between real and unreal. More like a mirage than a hallucination.

[@samthesham4684]

Perception

[@kameko_exe]

Kind of reminds me of the game SOMA, where at the end they launch a computer satellite full of brain simulations to live in paradise to escape the dead Earth. So they pretty much made a computer dreaming it was the remnants of humanity, unable to wake up to it's own reality of being a hunk of metal orbiting the sun. The brain scans inside the simulation knew it was a simulation, but it was such a perfect dream that there was no need to remember that it was a simulation. And yet, when the main character realizes he was only copied into the satellite and didn't get to literally go into it, he lamented "they're not us". I don't really have a point to this, I just thought maybe Brad would like the idea if he never heard of SOMA.

[@jesseneal5909]

You started the video with a Muppets reference and every time you said “phenomena,” all I could think of was “manamana”

[@HardcoreZen]

I thought of that too, but I didn't think anyone would get it.

[@lshunt5462]

Nice job of making complex thoughts more clear-thanks!

[@JimTempleman]

Interesting talk! It was all over the place. But I suspect that's necessary to start addressing this topic. Bravo!

[@saralawlor780]

Thank you for this insightful video Brad. I love and appreciate these talks. 👍🙏🏽

[@joeg3950]

I enjoyed your 'Frankenstein' cover. Got me rockin'.
A few years ago, I encountered those chapters for the first time. At once, I thought of Hegel instead of Immanuel Kant. (First of all, I studied a lot of philosophy - leaving that there.) With this video and how you talked about it, I instantly grasped the Kant reference, yet Hegel carries it further. I will NOT go into explication. Nishijima's introductions are priceless in beginning to grasp all three chapters. To your credit, I think your Univox/Gibson example gives the needed catalyst to approach these chapters. Fantastic!
I don't always agree with you, but this time I find myself going, "Yup, that's it." That's the kernel of it (there are few kernels here, don't get me wrong).
Also, I agree confirmation is not the best term. Would this work? The teacher affirms the substantiation of the student's commensurateness. This is a little closer but may lose people due to the unattractiveness of the philosophical jargon it employs.
Anyway, Viva Ziggy! See you in Bozeman. Got my flight and stay confirmed. Good times, noodle salad

[@sunlovinsnowflake]

Thank you for this talk & the one that sparked it. ☺️🙏🏼✨💛🌊🌈🌌

[@jugsewell]

"When a mind is free from all form, it sees into (the fact) that there is no distinction between Buddhas and sentient beings; when once this state of mushin is attained it completes the Buddhist life. If Buddhists are unable to see into the truth of mushin without anything mediating, all their discipline of aeons would not enable them to attain enlightenment. They would ever be in bondage with the notion of discipline and merit as cherished by followers of the Triple Vehicle, they would never achieve emancipation." Huang Po (Manual of Zen Buddhism)

[@davidrivers2734]

Great example with the Guitar 📿

[@madameblatvatsky]

Bozeman is the end point of Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance which is not about Zen or Motorcycles

[@crafty50golf]

Great video. As a newer student of Zen I’m wondering if the Theory of Action touches upon this as much as I think it might. Per your suggestion I’m reading Gudo Nishijimas “To Meet the Real Dragon” and just got into chapter 14 titled “Zazen” while reading tonight. On the first page of the chapter p.171) Nishijima shares that the central idea of the Theory of Action is that the real world is utterly different than the world of our thoughts. Not negating the real but acknowledging it alongside our perceptions of it (skandhas I think apply here).
Now to get to guitars where, I tend to get too excited, but I’ll control myself by just saying I loved the intro to Frankenstein..drums rolling into a fuzzed out guitar with a somewhat doomy/stoner sounding riff with great hooks…I mean what’s not to love?
I picked up, for dirt cheap (at least in todays guitar world) a “National” SG knockoff a few months ago which is a MIJ pre lawsuit era as well. Was playing it earlier today and it is simply the one of the funnest guitars ever. Love seeing other versions of that eras guitars.
Looking forward to Bozeman and thanks again for the great video.

[@elzoog]

Ok Tim McCarthy story for you. When I knew Tim McCarthy, I would often go to the Cleveland Buddhist temple (when Rev. Koshin Ogui was teaching there). The Cleveland temple had just made zafus to sell and I told Tim McCarthy about it. Tim wanted to buy three zafus (I guess two for him and one for a student). So I drive up to the Cleveland Buddhist temple but none of the zafus were black. There were green, red, and other colors of zafus. So I decide to get the closest to black they seemed to have (which was a really dark blue). I bring them to Tim McCarthy and he was not happy. I remember the student specifically saying "I don't want a purple zafu!". Tim graciously took them anyway.
So, if phenomena is unreal, why would Tim McCarthy care about purple zafus?

[@user-iw7bl3hj1r]

The video could just as well been called The Emptiness of Phenomena.
The dream that we awaken from when Enlightenment dawns is the dream of Form. Forms and phenomena are recognized, or seen, to be empty of inherent existence. Nothing (including nothing) has an independent existence. Everything and everyone is an aggregation of causes and conditions.
We awaken from the dream that people and things exist independently.

[@houseson]

Great talk.

[@oscarzolettoluyando4842]

I watched. Good stuff

[@frozenpixie]

"Simulation dilemma" is how i refer to this notion when it presents itself during a psychosis (or similar states)-- "waking up" to the idea that one's existence is not really real, and is perhaps embedded in a higher reality.
I realized (at least for myself) that there are physical sensations associated with the mental realization of "truthiness" or "things clicking into place" (or whatever it should be called) and that these physical and mental sensations can spontaneously arise without (!) any attachment to logic or input from reality-- so a slow, analytical approach becomes necessary to navigate reality

[@JohnHettinger6]

"Pigs in Space" is real. The Muppet Show was/is awesome and it is real. Thank the great spirit Jim Henson and Frank Oz are/were real. Time is just distance, so the past is now just really far away. However I don't know anything so don't listen to me... 🙂

[@macdougdoug]

Even the best Buddhas are capable of catching a bus - buses are still visible to them.

[@lcbryant78]

Have you heard of the band YOB? Every song relates Zen Buddhism and they’re super fuzzy.
I think the singer reads your books.

[@xxxYYZxxx]

@16:02 Kant's philosophy is obscene in any language. The Japanese pronunciation of "Kant" is the correct one. Mysterianism is a pretense to tyranny, always manifesting an "expert" class of "authorities" on the very mysteries which supposedly can't be apprehended.

[@chrisplaysdrums09]

Please do a video on Sansuigyo. I’m not a huge Dogen person, but that chapter and Uji are very very good.

[@ecoliberal]

We make everything into a thing

[@elzoog]

You can tell the Japanese that it's important to distinguish between "r" and "l" because otherwise, they might confuse "election" with "erection".

[@williamvittitow3896]

I like this video. I liked the unreal guitar and the dream sequence. To me the confusing part of the question is the meaning of the word phenomena.
If an astronomer takes 3 photos of the same area of the sky and star appears in the middle one where none on the other two then he may report a flash
in the sky. It would just be a phenomen. If he reports as a variable star or as a nova or as a super nova he would ahve to justify the choice. In any case it is a real phenomen.

[@chromakey84]

You should try 5

[@bernardjohnson8093]

This talk put me in mind of the koan where a monk stubs his toe on a stone.

[@samthesham4684]

Like Ramesh says, All there is is consciousness

[@ryancagerbaker]

What are your thoughts on Zen gardens? Have you discussed or considered discussing them?

[@happyhead22]

What are your thoughts on “the power of now” by eckhart tolle?
Btw: love listening to you, I’m so happy to have found you

[@DavidJones-bl5wu]

When you were talkingvabout how things in the dream aren't real but they exist, u was thinking "The car in my dream is real in the context of the dream, but you maybe can't actually find it when you wake up. Things within the dream are completely real within the dream, but are just thoughts about the things once you awaken.

[@druma9691]

Can you please quote where the lotus sutra says All Dharma is real

[@ericoliverpaquette1885]

Taisho 262 volume 9. 5c10-13. "Buddha Sākyamuni said, « Only buddhas with buddhas can exhaustively investigate the real marks of the dharmas -- i.e., that dharmas are of such marks, such nature, such substance, such power, such actions, such causes, such conditions, such effects, such recompense, such ultimate equivalence from beginning to end. »"

[@martinlakeuk]

The big piece of the jigsaw missing from zen teaching, and zen discussions on what reality is, is the Buddhas teaching on dependant origination.
The word and idea we have of a guitar is a shared agreement we all have when communicating. But looking for something called a guitar in the object you held up to camera we can find nothing inherent in it called a guitar. If we remove the neck or the strings, is it still a guitar? If we removed all of the wood from it, is it a guitar? We can take it apart and never find a guitar. Same with a car. Same with a human being.
Similarly, when does a guitar come into being? When it’s tuned, or lacquered? Was it when the tree was chopped down and a plank of wood chosen? Was the guitar hiding in the trees flesh? Will it die when you burn it, or just when I pick it up and try and play it! No beginning or end can be found for your guitar.
It’s so dependant on everything else, those other things also being dependant on everything else, we can never find anything called a guitar. But we can play one.
When you lose yourself in the action of playing the guitar, the universe is made real, - an undivided state where real and unreal can’t be found. Nishijima Roshi was right about the philosophy of action. In action the universe is made real, just as Dogen says a flower is nothing but the [action of] five petals opening (Kuge).

[@hiddenobserver8447]

23:40

[@markbrad123]

That which reflects substance is not made of the same substance. However direct attention is the most reliable cognize of what is in connection to what is, hence in connection it has an interactive reality that changes what is even if it is not made of the same substance. So yes and no. Enjoy the sandwich then as you eat into to its reality.

[@ecoliberal]

I don't respect zen or Buddhism, i think some of the gurus were right, but the other gurus were just schizophrenic or mentally ill , they believed that this world is illusion..💀

[@ecoliberal]

(Maybe Dissipation disorder)