Zen is basically training the "philosophy muscle" to failure thereby arriving pure being (tathātā/dharmatā). Nagarjuna basically does this same thing with a formal philosophical system rather than a dialectical process. It's beautiful in contrast to the humanity of chan/song Zen.
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Contrast this with the attitude and image of your average dude weed college Zen bro.pic.twitter.com/HGRgmqVKPM
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Zen students often try to mimic the master's dialectical technique with wordplay and it's easy to spot. Usually they are chided and made to do extra work, but Yunmen would just best the fuck out of you with his staff. Imagine that in a garbage ass modern Soto temple.
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Is there a parallel with Isaac/israel and the angel who broke his leg?
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Extremely doubtful, this is probably way before that.
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We’re talking Old Testament patriarchs, and I meant Jacob when he runs from his brother Esau into the wilderness to Horeb and sees a vision of a ladder into heaven with angels and god at the top. And it’s said god himself wrestled with Jacob and broke his leg, changing his name
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to israel
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Hmm actually I don't know if these two stories interacted in history but there is definitely an obvious parallel you could draw from reading them both together.
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It’s archetypal, kinda like Odin losing an eye in exchange for knowledge. The body is damaged, and this is a catalyst for gnosis
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we need a white version of the madhyamaka. does this exist
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Maybe in pyrrhon
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