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Originally Posted by Apexx
woah woah woah, nobody said anything about pushing enlightenment on anyone. that's foolish. since you're in a quoting mood "when the student is ready, the teacher will appear". I never met a buddhist who wasn't willing to teach someone who really wanted to know.
that is the act of selflessness.
and enlightening your self soley for the prospect of possibly enlightening others is A: dumb and B: not what i said.
if you want to go through life drifting from one indifference to the next you're a waste of existance. buddhism teaches that one ascends into the vastness of matter for the purpose of ascending others.
if you feel tomorrow won't be better than today that's on you man. i damn sure know my today was beter than my yesterday. and my yesterday is leaps and bounds better than my days were a year ago. then again... i don't drift through life either, so my POV is evidently much different.
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That is part of loving kindness and compassion. Telling someone if they truly want to know. Not the purpose of enlightenment. However it wasnt always the case... Chuang Tzu's master made him sit outside his hut for two years, never once inviting him inside. If Chuang Tzu asked him a question, often he would answer it as quickly as possible and go back to his business. It's not that he didn't like Chuang Tzu, but he had absolutely nothing to teach. What was he meant to say to him? "Don't do anything, and you'll be enlightened."
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Originally Posted by apexx
and enlightening your self soley for the prospect of possibly enlightening others is A: dumb and B: not what i said."
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Originally Posted by apexx
buddhism teaches that one ascends into the vastness of matter for the purpose of ascending others.
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Huh? You're saying you should aim to become enlightened for a reason other than the supposed purpose of enlightenment? I don't get it. Shouldn't you be doing something because of its purpose?
The purpose of enlightenment is NOT to enlighten others. Others becoming enlightened may be a product of your awakening, but it is not the purpose of it. Far from it. The purpose of enlightenment is to have no purpose, to become content with just existence (aka not having a purpose, so dont pull me up on technicalities). If you go to Kyoto around the temples there, you'll notice that the zen monks that are walking have a different walk to the rushy walk of the other japanese... They have a sort of swagger, its a movement forward alright, but not an urgent one. They are walking for the sake of walking, not because they have somewhere in particular to go. This is the mentality of existing to exist.
Look at yourself man. You are completely dependent on the future. Utterly conditioned to be attached to it. I'm not attacking you, we all are brought up in this society with that mentality. Always preparing for something that never comes. You go to pre-school to prepare for school, you go to primary to prepare for high school, you go to high school to prepare for college, you go to college to prepare for work, you go to work to make money so you have prepare for the future and perhaps live a better life when you are richer, as you work you prepare for retirement... Then you retire. You have a lump of cash, scenility, a limp dick, a shitty prostate and bad bones. By this time many people would have put their dependence on the crutch of religion, thinking that in the future when they die they'll go to heaven. It's bullshit man. You are putting hope in the future, saying things will be better, but when the future comes you'll continue to depend on the future because that future aint all its cracked up to be.
Why not be happy now? Right now? What is wrong with this exact moment? If you can find something wrong with it, i'd like to know what it is.