Shinzen was making the point that not all people with a deep awakening are good @ teaching it to others. He would use JK as the prime example. His point is that while it’s true that there’s nothing to get and nowhere to go, you still have to give people something to hang onto.
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Obviously it's a bit more complicated than that, but it's much more useful than lumping together 2,500 years of spiritual development across a variety of cultures.
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Much as I agree with many of your points, I think you are falling victim to some of the same language games here: the usefulness of wanting to get enlightened is entirely dependent on what is meant by it, and the awareness one has of the ramifications *in context* - which varies.
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It's true & worth entertaining that most of the traditions find "seeking" or wanting to get enlightened problematic, but there are pretty clear reasons why - and not of the "starts Buddhist flame wars" variety, since that's more of an opt-in sort of problem, at least on this end.
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By flame wars I didn't literally mean internet wars (clear evidence that I'm not immune to misusing terminology). I meant just people from varying traditions arguing over what enlightenment is, who's more enlightened than who, etc, as if they're all talking about the same thing.
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Well, indeed, no need to label that as flame wars. Actual wars have been fought over that.
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I would simply say that there appear to be different types of enlightenment, so aim for the one(s) you want. But residing in is very different from glimpsing.
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Agreed. I liked that Chan master quote you posted. Awakening can be seen as coming to an understanding of what it is you're actually doing in practice. Then you actually have to practice it.
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