Comments on: Friday Night Zen #23 http://tannish.net/2007/02/16/friday-night-zen-23/ Nobody Told Me There'd Be Days Like These Wed, 23 May 2012 09:17:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2 By: Tannish http://tannish.net/2007/02/16/friday-night-zen-23/#comment-6766 Tannish Sat, 17 Feb 2007 18:46:39 +0000 http://tannish.net/2007/02/16/friday-night-zen-23/#comment-6766 Thank you, Mr. Tux. I'ts been a while since I last heard from you... I take it that you disagree with this prescription for happiness on a fundamental level. This philosophy is very Zen, but it is not a "live and let live" mentality as it may seem. The Buddha counselled that rage is sometimes necessary to affect positive change, in certain instances. The main point is not to let oneself be taken over by the rage. To be taken by rage is to lose one's freedom. How free is a man who allows anger to drive him? Or fear? How much free will does a man have if he doesn't know the deeper workings of his mind, is not able to diffuse anger or assuage fear? While I agree in priciple with your Libertarian words, I ponder if any modern thinker is free or truly knows what freedom tastes like. The man you discribe would be suseptible to self bondage by the very acts of outrage or worry. A veritable tightrope... If I dare venture, I'd say you have not actually opened your mind to the joy of selfless giving. I hope I'm wrong about that. Namaste. Thank you, Mr. Tux. I’ts been a while since I last heard from you…
I take it that you disagree with this prescription for happiness on a fundamental level. This philosophy is very Zen, but it is not a “live and let live” mentality as it may seem. The Buddha counselled that rage is sometimes necessary to affect positive change, in certain instances. The main point is not to let oneself be taken over by the rage. To be taken by rage is to lose one’s freedom.
How free is a man who allows anger to drive him? Or fear? How much free will does a man have if he doesn’t know the deeper workings of his mind, is not able to diffuse anger or assuage fear?
While I agree in priciple with your Libertarian words, I ponder if any modern thinker is free or truly knows what freedom tastes like. The man you discribe would be suseptible to self bondage by the very acts of outrage or worry. A veritable tightrope…
If I dare venture, I’d say you have not actually opened your mind to the joy of selfless giving. I hope I’m wrong about that.
Namaste.

]]> By: BadTux http://tannish.net/2007/02/16/friday-night-zen-23/#comment-6746 BadTux Sat, 17 Feb 2007 02:13:14 +0000 http://tannish.net/2007/02/16/friday-night-zen-23/#comment-6746 Norman Vincent Peale's philosophy can be summed up by the last scene of "Monty Python's The Life of Brian", where Brian is hanging on the cross dying and the whole chorus of dying people is happily singing "Look on the bright side of life." It's a nice philosophy if you're living under a Confucian dictatorship with no hope of changing the conditions under which you live, or if you are a mouthpiece of men of wealth and power who want you to convince the rabble to not overthrow their oligarchy, or if you're hanging on a cross dying with no hope and no future. It is not, however, the philosophy of a free man who is both ready and willing to stand up for what is right and oppose that which is wrong. A free man must be willing to be outraged by injustice, applaud courage, worry about those in need, and otherwise experience the full gamut of human emotion. Otherwise he is but a tool. _Badtux the Philosophy Penguin Norman Vincent Peale’s philosophy can be summed up by the last scene of “Monty Python’s The Life of Brian”, where Brian is hanging on the cross dying and the whole chorus of dying people is happily singing “Look on the bright side of life.”

It’s a nice philosophy if you’re living under a Confucian dictatorship with no hope of changing the conditions under which you live, or if you are a mouthpiece of men of wealth and power who want you to convince the rabble to not overthrow their oligarchy, or if you’re hanging on a cross dying with no hope and no future. It is not, however, the philosophy of a free man who is both ready and willing to stand up for what is right and oppose that which is wrong. A free man must be willing to be outraged by injustice, applaud courage, worry about those in need, and otherwise experience the full gamut of human emotion. Otherwise he is but a tool.

_Badtux the Philosophy Penguin

]]>