Zen Without Zen Masters

[Cramulus]

I just picked up Zen Without Zen Masters by Camden Benares, aka the Count of Five.

If you're into Discordian Zen, you'll dig this book. The book contains about 120 koans, each one is only a few paragraphs long. I'll share a few in this thread.

For those of you into Discordian History, you'll enjoy the numerous appearances of Mal and Omar. A few of the chapters describe conversations which took place between some of the classic Discordians -- conversations which are also referenced in the Principia. For example----


Reality

In a discussion Bert said that reality can be described in many ways, but the description that an individual accepts is the one that conforms to that individual's preconceptions. Omar expanded on this by defining objective reality as the fantasy that has received the majority vote and subjective reality as personal fantasy. Mal concluded the discussion by saying "Reality is the original Rorschach."










Here's some others I liked:

Illusion and Reality

Expounding on his knowledge of gurus and their system,s Ralph said, "Any system that prepares you for enlightenment by a description or a nondescription gives you the tools to build the illusion of enlightenment. If this is done with skill it is perhaps impossible to tell the difference between the illusion and the reality."

Lucas replied, "Perhaps there is no difference."








Belief and Creation

Today I heard about a new thing called whatamores. I now believe in whatamores. If you can live in whatamores and if we can form a mutually acceptable definition, we will discover large amounts of circumstantial evidence proving the existence of whatamores. When we believe enough, there will be whatamores. Do we really want any?




Science and Magic

Science and magic are frequently different maps for very similar territory. Following the past of least resistance, science ignores magic's hard-to-travel path. Magic uses myth and science uses ambiguous terminology: Semantically, both say the same thing. Each principle is expressed as "An unknown something is doing we don't know what." Each law is a variation of "It did it again."




The Artist's Enlightenment

An artist, depressed and almost unable to paint, consulted Sam, a Zen-oriented therapist, for aid in coping with his problems. He asked what the fee would be, explaining that his income had dwindled since he was doing fewer paintings. Sam said his fee would be two paintings. The first, to be titled Despair, was to be completed before the therapy began; the second was to be titled by the artist and was to be started when the therapy ended.

The artist painted Despair and presented it to Sam, who looked at it and then threw it into the blazing fireplace. The artist walked out. He returned a few days later with the second painting.

[Cramulus]

http://www.scribd.com/doc/79119783/Zen-Without-Zen-Masters-by-Camden-Benares

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

Gotta love that crazy Camden! Excellent find Cramulus! 

[Kai]

Thanks for this Cram.

I think some of these ideas are a bit sloppy by today's standards, but it's interesting to see the history of thought associated with the Principia Discordia and the people who wrote it.

[Bu🤠ns]

Thanks for this Cram.

I think some of these ideas are a bit sloppy by today's standards, but it's interesting to see the history of thought associated with the Principia Discordia and the people who wrote it.

I love that sloppiness of it, though.  I guess lately I'm really into that free-flow association.  I, of course, will spare the rest of you...but this book is right on the money for me at this time.

[Telarus]

Nice one Cram.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

That's a good book, especially if you can disregard the free love themes, and really re-sparked my interest in Taoism. I had been interested in Taoism to some degree when I was 22 or so, but it seemed too serious. Zen Without Zen Masters brought it into a better focus for me, and really tied Taoism and Discordianism together for me.