Mike and Ed Discuss Brads New Book.

Mike was but a child when his brother asked him, "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"


Mike was a bright child of a precocious nature and he said to his brother Ed, are you asking me if something can exist without being perceived?

Ed, replied, “Reality is the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or may be thought to be. Reality I would think includes everything that is and has being, whether or not it is observable or comprehensible.”

Mike, gave this some thought and said, “are you suggesting that there exists an objective reality that exists whether we as humans can observe and comprehend it or not?”

Ed replied, ” Are you suggesting that Heisenberg’s observer effect, the theory that there will always be changes that the act of observation will make on the phenomenon being observed, makes unobserved reality a fiction? Are you suggesting that objective reality is a fantasy?”

      " Once, at a funeral, a monk named Zengen tapped on the coffin and asked his teacher, Dogo, "Living or dead?" Dogo said, "Living, I won't say. Dead, I won't say." Zengen said, "Why won't you say?" Dogo said, "I won't say, I won't say." Later, as the two were walking home, Zengen said, "Living or dead? If you will not tell me, I will hit you." Dogo said, "You can hit me, but still I won't say." Zengen hit him. Later, after Dogo died, Zengen related this incident to Sekiso, his new teacher at the time.
      Sekiso asked Zengion to ask him the same question, to which Sekiso replied, "Living, I won't say. Dead, I won't say." Again Zengen asked, "Why won't you say?" Sekiso said, "I won't say, I won't say." At these words, Zengen became enlighted."

      The body and the mind are one and the same; the body without the mind is a dead body. It cannot move even an inch or act without the mind. In zazen the body and mind drop away, they are shed like a snake sheds its skin. The body is a material object; it is made out of matter. The mind is not a material object it has no mass and occupies no space.

      Matter is any substance which has mass and occupies space. All physical objects are composed of matter, in the form of atoms, which are in turn composed of protons, neutrons, and electrons.

      But light is made of photons and photons have no mass, so they are an example of something in physics which is not comprised of matter. They are also not considered "objects" in the traditional sense, as they cannot exist in a stationary state. Mind has no mass and cannot exist in a stationary state.
  
I won’t say is not the same as I don’t know!

     Ed was an old hand at confusion and spoke to mike in this manner:

“In arriving not an atom is added,
Thus life is called “the unborn.”
In departing not a particle is lost,
Thus death is called “the unextinguished.”

      Mike responded in this manner: “Nothing is more usual than for philosophers to encroach on the province of grammarians, and to engage in disputes of words, while they imagine they are handling controversies of the deepest importance and concern.” --- David Hume

     Ed was not going to take this so he said: “In Buddhist philosophy and psychology, the mind and body are not separate entities.”
     Mike asked Ed, "If all that exists is matter only, where did the natural laws that govern it come from?" Mike lost control and expressed his feelings; “spirit (from Latin spiritus "breath") is a non-corporeal substance; it is the vital principle or animating force within living things. It is the aspect of our being which animates us -- makes us live, move, change, do, be active, feel, think, interact with the world around us.

      Ed said, “Matter is described by its properties. Matter can exist in various phases: solid, liquid, gas, or plasma. Most substances can transition between these phases based on the amount of heat the material absorbs (or loses).
    Mike said, “Did Einstein not show that matter and energy are essentially the same, that matter can be transformed into energy and energy into matter?”
    Ed, responds, “There is a rumor to that effect, yes.”
    Mike snorts, “Then Energy makes change possible and is not mind a kind of energy, is thought not a kind of energy? Does mind not in fact do work, and accomplish much that is observable in the material world? ”
    Ed,” I suppose since all energy can and does change from one form into another constantly and seems not to be capable of being destroyed just converted from one form to another it might be said that mind is one form among many that energy takes from time to time.”
   Mike softly says, “And matter and energy is in fact the same thing simply existing in different states. And the body and the mind are one and the same!”
   Ed, taps his foot and smiles, “you are a crafty little devil my brother.”
   
“Words are our servants, not our masters. For different purposes we find it convenient to use words in different senses.” —Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker

   My buddy Brad says:

There is no rebirth!!!!
There is no such thing as a spiritual aspect to Zen!!!
Zen is not a religion!!!

   I say, Materialism cannot explain matter, you fool.

More than that I will not say!