SOUL

Yes, why frown.

It's pretty obvious to see how people can get influenced by his brainwashing but I'm not sure how many of those that do are aware of the intolerance and misery that is infused with his perspective.

Even though we are all just a figment of the imagination in each other's perception it is a very persistent one so that we may navigate the manifest with awareness, knowledge and wisdom in our consciousness of it.

Observe it......

The way to alter the unconscious mind is by ceasing to reflexively believe what springs from it spontaneously. Then be selective about what one believes to be real because what we trust as being real and behave in accordance with we empower in us. Eventually the unconscious mind will transform into one that expresses itself in the pattern we create in present moment experience that eventually passes away to become part of the memory bank the mind uses to construct self identity. This consciousness work can be used to transcend any conditioning the mind may have acquired in life and attune our awareness to a clarity and equanimity that liberates the self from suffering.

It's all story telling conjured up in the imagination.

So you say 'nope'... then go on again to describe what you imagine is an elaborate conceptual paradigm which you trust is the 'truth'.... you know what that is called? A belief system. It doesn't exist unless you believe it does but it only does exist to you and those who also believe it does. It doesn't even matter how many agree with the belief it is the truth or the volume of media that details the belief system. Although, this doesn't make it exist or the 'truth', capital 'T' or not, beyond the imagination of those that believe it.

All you're talking about is how there isn't really a duality that yes, is very mind blowing once one transcends that illusory paradigm of the mind and perceives reality without it's filter. Yet, instead of abiding in clarity you are creating an archetypal hierarchy and mathematical formula in your imagination then calling it truth. The cessation of self suffering doesn't require running on that hamster wheel of the mind, genuine liberation's source is in just being present.

That's quite a story you got there, I'm fortunate my liberation is so simple..... just be.

Divine manifest!

It's so hilarious to me how people are eager to tell others there is no free will but I guess they have no choice to not do it.

People are white knuckle clinging to their conceptual beliefs using every form of mental masturbation reasoning to justify it, that is zen devilry. It's not the person, a person isn't the 'devil', it's the attachment to the conceptual beliefs that is makyo. With Christianity the 'devil' is the personification of evil, it isn't an actual person, it's the personification. Both of these are creations of imagination and don't exist unless they are empowered by belief. It seems some people conflate the two and call people who are trapped by zen devil as the personification of that trap themselves. If one uses conceptual dualism to teach it results in more dualism, it doesn't transcend dualism.

It has the word evil right in it.... it's d(uh)evil.... yea, how would anyone think it's moralizing, right? That was my initial post in this thread. If everything is all one then transcend the mythical mind of god and devil. It's a figment of the imagination, it only exists if you think it does. A chair is a chair. the desire for a chair makes you feel like the absence of a chair is a thing. It's really the desire for a chair that is the thing, there isn't really a chair shaped hole in the universe where you think a chair should be. The desire creates the feeling of absence....it feels like a hole in the universe that needs to be filled yearning out of a perceived incompleteness. It's not really there unless you think....and believe it is. Right, 'gods'? hah

I totally got distracted and meant to offer on the topic, @kev014. that in Jesus' commonly accepted biblical words I do hear a message that speaks to the cessation of self suffering... in a western theology way. Yet, religion often gets manipulated by humans to empower themselves through exploiting others. They do that through mental, emotional and yes, physical abuses with every societal tool at their disposal.

@Truth Addict In my own experience it has nothing to do with being opposed to using the word devil, it's just I'm aware of the mindset that results in it's use and the effects from it so I will speak about it. Even using it in context of 'zen devil' that is tossed around here constantly is misused. Someone else isn't a zen devil to another, it's one's own experience which becomes a conceptual trap that is it. Our own mind's attachment would be the 'devil' in it's more traditional use.