Zen-Buddhism, Instinctivity and Rationality
I just watched a documentation on Zen-Buddhism and meditation.
In a simplified manner, I discovered three basic claims:
- Thinking is no good.
- It it better to go with the flow than to resist.
- The past and the future are not important, only the present moment.
Drastically translated, this means to give up important specific human faculties and to reduce oneself to the existence of an animal. It means to submit to instinctivity and avoid rationality.
I am not insinuating, that adapting Zen-Buddhism would automatically cause mature people to become a hazard to others. But it is the perfect justification for immature and selfish persons like narcissists, psychopaths and sociopaths for their monstrous behavior towards others.
Implicitly it is the conscious expression of the attitude determined by the animal identity of the bearer of the genes without the more human identity as an individual. The eternal chain of the survival of the genes is translated into the conscious admiration of the flow of nature.
Any person, whose rationality and instinctivity are about equal, needs to rationally control urges, that at one moment can cause impulsive actions with long term detrimental effect, either on the self or on others.
Such a person needs to reflect, needs to learn from their past behavior for the future, needs to learn and practice a lot of self-control, and needs to take responsibility for his actions in the past.
The principles of Zen-Buddhism encourages him instead to allow the instincts to guide his behavior without feeling a conscience.
Some examples:
Without Zen-Buddhism, such a person would control the eating instinct to avoid unhealthy obesity. Zen-Buddhism would allow him to eat and get fat.
Without Zen-Buddhism, such a person would know from observation and thinking, that having children would be detrimental to their long term happiness, and he would not breed. Zen-Buddhism would allow him breed without thinking.
Without Zen-Buddhism, such a person, who has hurt another in the past, would make amends and earn forgiveness by learning not to do the same again in the future. With Zen-Buddhism, the transgressor would demand the hurt person to feel, as if the transgression has never happened.
Without Zen-Buddhism, such a person would honor obligations, once he has accepted them in the past as valid in the future. Zen-Buddhism allows him to act on the impulse of the moment as if obligations from the past do not exist.
Interestingly enough, the statues of Buddha show him usually as quite fat. Also it is known that he deserted his wife and children.
Teaching Zen-Buddhism to a narcissist, psychopath or sociopath is like giving a knife to someone, who wishes to kill.
I just watched a documentation on Zen-Buddhism and meditation.
In a simplified manner, I discovered three basic claims:
- Thinking is no good.
- It it better to go with the flow than to resist.
- The past and the future are not important, only the present moment.
Drastically translated, this means to give up important specific human faculties and to reduce oneself to the existence of an animal. It means to submit to instinctivity and avoid rationality.
I am not insinuating, that adapting Zen-Buddhism would automatically cause mature people to become a hazard to others. But it is the perfect justification for immature and selfish persons like narcissists, psychopaths and sociopaths for their monstrous behavior towards others.
Implicitly it is the conscious expression of the attitude determined by the animal identity of the bearer of the genes without the more human identity as an individual. The eternal chain of the survival of the genes is translated into the conscious admiration of the flow of nature.
Any person, whose rationality and instinctivity are about equal, needs to rationally control urges, that at one moment can cause impulsive actions with long term detrimental effect, either on the self or on others.
Such a person needs to reflect, needs to learn from their past behavior for the future, needs to learn and practice a lot of self-control, and needs to take responsibility for his actions in the past.
The principles of Zen-Buddhism encourages him instead to allow the instincts to guide his behavior without feeling a conscience.
Some examples:
Without Zen-Buddhism, such a person would control the eating instinct to avoid unhealthy obesity. Zen-Buddhism would allow him to eat and get fat.
Without Zen-Buddhism, such a person would know from observation and thinking, that having children would be detrimental to their long term happiness, and he would not breed. Zen-Buddhism would allow him breed without thinking.
Without Zen-Buddhism, such a person, who has hurt another in the past, would make amends and earn forgiveness by learning not to do the same again in the future. With Zen-Buddhism, the transgressor would demand the hurt person to feel, as if the transgression has never happened.
Without Zen-Buddhism, such a person would honor obligations, once he has accepted them in the past as valid in the future. Zen-Buddhism allows him to act on the impulse of the moment as if obligations from the past do not exist.
Interestingly enough, the statues of Buddha show him usually as quite fat. Also it is known that he deserted his wife and children.
Teaching Zen-Buddhism to a narcissist, psychopath or sociopath is like giving a knife to someone, who wishes to kill.
