Think about it: what if you live your life without ever knowing happiness? That would suck. —The Zen Smoker
This article appears in May 14-20, 2015.
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If you never knew happiness then you would never know unhappiness because you would have no point of reference. Likewise, if you never experience unhappiness, you would never be happy — you would just be a static, emotionless, sociopath like the moderator.
ZEN & HAPPINESS
Zen, of course, has the elimination of all striving as its goal. However, the “Zen Smoker” claims that to “know happiness” is such a goal, otherwise life has no point. But that is self- contradictory. The result is that the Zen Smoker will never be happy because he did not properly practice Zen. He only embraced statues, chased shadows. He did not think as a child.
Remember Herman Hesse’s “Siddartha:”
Before I studied Zen,
Mountains were mountains,
And rivers were rivers.
While I was studying Zen,
Mountains became other than mountains
And rivers became other than rivers.
When I had finished studying Zen,
Mountains were once again mountains,
And rivers were once again rivers.
A pleasure as always,
Cheerio!
I smoke Zen.
Or does Zen smoke you? Is that a Zen koan?
Wait… let me have some Zen and I’ll get back to you.
Yes, but the mere fact that Zen Smoker is pondering happiness would, by implication, tell us that this person indeed knows unhappiness, the point of reference only invisible to the dimwitted.
Well actually there is nothing in the bitch to suggest that OB is unhappy. Quite the opposite, actually. But whether the OB is unhappy or not is irrelevant, because it is virtually impossible to go through life without ever knowing happiness or unhappiness. The OB posed a question and I answered it. I think the act of making lame insults based on arbitrary conclusions you arrived at seemingly at random is not only the epitome of what it is to be a dimwit but also a projection of your own perceived inadequacies.
ZEN & THE FALSE DICHOTOMY OF HAPPINESS & UNHAPPINESS
Both of you have entirely missed the point of Zen. The Zen Master has sluffed off the states of both happiness and unhappiness like a suit of old clothes. He is neither happy nor unhappy. He simply is. He understands that both happiness and unhappiness are caused by people/events which are outside and over which he has no control.
Western philosophy’s equivalent is Roman Stoicism. Here’s a quotation from “The Manual” of Epictetus the Slave:
“If it ever happen to you to be diverted to things outside, so that you desire to please another, know that you have lost your life’s plan. Be content then always to be a philosopher; if you wish to be regarded as one too, show yourself that you are one and you will be able to achieve it.”
Show yourselves to be philosophers gentlemen, and you will be able to achieve it.
A pleasure as always,
Cheerio!
so a ….
denY-zen
You can’t know happiness without knowing sadness.
You can know sadness by following this blog.
Denny-zen: breakfast that just is.
mmmm, I could go for a grand-slamwich right now…