Jed McKenna

[Korpo]

http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Jed_McKenna

The movies list is not very good. The comments certainly are not helpful.

Some of the movies are quite good, some seem to be selected quite at random. Listing "Total Recall" made me laugh.

Oliver

[ButterflyWoman]

I like Total Recall as a metaphor, actually. Your memories are all you have left of pretty much everything. It's how you know who you are. Your memories define that which you are (in a material sense; obviously the True Self is not defined by the memories of a single lifetime). There's also the theme that you can be whomever you want to be, no matter what your past is. So it works for me.

[Korpo]

http://ezinearticles.com/?Spirituality: ... a&id=13244

The article about Buddhism is ... what exactly? Beyond that it is bashing Buddhism without properly spelling things out there's nothing in there. I think this guy is spreading the spiritual "junkfood" he is accusing Buddhism of.

Oliver

[Korpo]

I like Total Recall as a metaphor, actually. Your memories are all you have left of pretty much everything. It's how you know who you are. Your memories define that which you are (in a material sense; obviously the True Self is not defined by the memories of a single lifetime). There's also the theme that you can be whomever you want to be, no matter what your past is. So it works for me.

I actually felt like watching it again recently, until I remembered what the movie is actually like. It's like you take the ideas of a better movie and drop it in what it became.

Oliver

[Tom]

Personally after studying Buddhism since 1989 and meeting lots of Buddhists over the years, joining in 1997, and receiving initiation in 200? (not sure, 2002 maybe?) I have to agree with Jed about Buddhism, too. The problem isn't what Buddha taught; it is the behavior of most Buddhists. I have met plenty of Buddhists who were really messed up individuals. In fact, although I still say "Buddhist" when people ask what I am, they are the reason I don't mean it the way I used to.

[Korpo]

To the outside observer, much of Buddhist knowledge and practice seems focused on spiritual self-improvement. This, too, is hard to speak against... except within the context of awakening from delusion. Then it's easy.

There is no such thing as true self, so any pursuit geared toward its aggrandizement, betterment, upliftment, elevation, evolution, glorification, salvation, etc, is utter folly. How much more so any endeavor undertaken merely to increase one's own happiness or contentment or, I'm embarrassed to even say it, bliss?

Makes me want to quote you, OW, when quoting "A Fish named Wanda": "What kind of Buddhism is this, Otto?"

Theravada for example, and the Pali canon, surely do not teach about a "true self." States of rapture or bliss are not the goal, but to be recognised as states that arise and fall away, and therefore constitute nothing permanent. But maybe this is only meant to be a critique of Mahayana and the concept of "Buddha self"?

I cannot remember that pursuing bliss is a goal of any Buddhist sect. So what is this guy writing about and does he know?

I remember specifically a sutra where the Buddha lists all kinds of subtle mind states and spiritual achievements wise men claimed to have achieved, and how that exactly does not constitute enlightenment and what is to be done.

Personally after studying Buddhism since 1989 and meeting lots of Buddhists over the years, joining in 1997, and receiving initiation in 200? (not sure, 2002 maybe?) I have to agree with Jed about Buddhism, too. The problem isn't what Buddha taught; it is the behavior of most Buddhists. I have met plenty of Buddhists who were really messed up individuals. In fact, although I still say "Buddhist" when people ask what I am, they are the reason I don't mean it the way I used to.

He is not saying that the actual Buddhists are the problem. He says, Buddhism itself is the problem. He is saying stuff like the Four Noble Truths or the practice of Metta is the problem. He is saying the teachings themselves are wrong.

There is an awful lot of Buddhists I don't like, personally. I just try to discern Buddhism from misguided followers. I doubt any spiritual teaching would survive that test, actually.

Oliver

[ariesr]

I've read the first and third books of the trilogy and enjoyed them.

Partly, because the theme that comes from the books is one I had subscribed too in my earlier years. i.e. the reality that he portrays, It may be one that most spiritual people would not want to even consider.

Interesting he pov on enlightenment, what is it exactly? And why are so few people out there enlightened? Does the high failure rate not say anything?

And Zen, he says that Zen in it's early form was worth paying attention to before it became widepsread.

Also, it makes me think, and still does from time to time. I will have to re-read them.

[ButterflyWoman]

Makes me want to quote you, OW, when quoting "A Fish named Wanda": "What kind of Buddhism is this, Otto?"

He is not saying that the actual Buddhists are the problem. He says, Buddhism itself is the problem.

Well, I've said the same about organised Christianity from time to time.

There is an awful lot of Buddhists I don't like, personally. I just try to discern Buddhism from misguided followers. I doubt any spiritual teaching would survive that test, actually.

Substitute the word "Christian" for "Buddhist" and I've said the same thing.

Also, it makes me think, and still does from time to time.

Yes, that's what I'm mostly getting from the things I read about what people say about this particular author. He most definitely IS controversial, and I have yet to see even one person who said they agreed with everything he wrote (in fact, even people who liked the books said they didn't agree with everything in them), but controversy rattles cages, and perhaps that's the point? (I don't know, I'm just guessing.)

[Tom]

Either you find his books work for you or you don't, but the point is to do the math for yourself as the saying goes. Jed offers a technique and by the time I was done reading his third book I felt I understood what he was really getting at. More importantly, I have used the technique. It was something that I had been doing even as a small kid, but I was better able to direct the process after reading Jed's books.

[ButterflyWoman]

After yet another nudge toward Jed McKenna from yet another source, I went to Amazon and ordered all three books. I'll let you know how it goes.