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Zen and Brewing Beer (?)

tumbleweed41

tumbleweed41

Resident Liberal Hippie
For a while now, I have been brewing beer at home. This involves creating a recipe, buying the necessary ingredients, "brewday", patience, bottling, more patience, and finally enjoying the results.

The entire process can take from one to two months just for a good ale. My last brew was a Spiced Honey Wheat Winter Brew that has turned out beautifully. Using a lite malt extract, honey, oat and wheat grains, mulling spices and a yeast I got from a local microbrewery.

I have found the entire process to be very rewarding. From the planning stages to tasting the finished product. The time and effort is rewarded by the taste, and the satisfaction when others enjoy it.

Zen, or meditation, is a process off clearing the mind and cleansing ones soul of impurities. Impurities in the mind can ruin a spirit. Impurities in a wort can ruin an Ale.

The Bodhisattva is a selfless person, who ignores his/her own needs to help others achieve enlightenment. A zen brewer should also follow this path, finding joy in the happiness that others receive when his product is enjoyed.

You can do this with anything you enjoy. Take the time to do it right. Share your gift with others, and take joy in the happiness they receive.

That is how I perceive it, feedback?
 
zenzero

zenzero

Its only a Label
Friend tumbletweed41,

Well thanks for sharing and it was a real pleasure.
Just a point here:
Share your gift with others, and take joy in the happiness they receive.
Click to expand...

There is no *OTHER*; everything is ONE and so the act of doing meditatively itself becomes a SHARING!

Love & rgds
 
Buttons*

Buttons*

Glass half Panda'd
I suppose that it could make sense... but is enlightenment anything like enjoying a good beer? Jokingly, maybe, lol, but realistically, no. Pleasures in life are empty, like the calories in a beer, if you're going by zen/mahayana teachings. All is suffering. :) ... also, all concepts are empty. This is reality... but enlightenment is the true way. Zen is actually more of an individualist practice than it is a "cling to me" practice of Buddhism.
 
zenzero

zenzero

Its only a Label
Friend Buttons,

. but is enlightenment anything like enjoying a good beer? Jokingly,
Click to expand...

That is one perception that will change next; i.e. Enlightenment is about seriousness.
Personally it is the Laughing buddha and the drunken monk even enjoying beer etc.

Love & rgds
 
Buttons*

Buttons*

Glass half Panda'd
zenzero said:
Friend Buttons,



That is one perception that will change next; i.e. Enlightenment is about seriousness.
Personally it is the Laughing buddha and the drunken monk even enjoying beer etc.

Love & rgds
Click to expand...
Sure, but drunkenness is not the middle path :)
 
zenzero

zenzero

Its only a Label
Friend Sunstone,

Can you brew beer without attachment to the outcome? Without seeking a reward?
Click to expand...

That depends on the brewer; if he is drunk with enlightenment surely who cares the end as the act itself is fully absorbing enough to get the HIGH!

Love & rgds
 
tumbleweed41

tumbleweed41

Resident Liberal Hippie
The goal of the Brewer (in this instance, myself) is not drunkenness, but to combine elements of nature into an enjoyable result. Is it wrong to feel joy in the happiness others find in your creation? Is it wrong for the Baker to feel joy when you find his muffins to be delicious? If some sort of reward ie. satisfaction, is not sought, what is the motivation to create? Complete selflessness is to withdraw from the world, is that not in and of itself selfish?
Not looking for conflict here, just understanding, thanks.
 
zenzero

zenzero

Its only a Label
Friend tumbletweed,

Yes no one is talking about drunkenness that one gets from drinking alcohol but that of enlightenment.
Enlightened people are always drunk.

Love & rgds
 
koan

koan

Active Member
zenzero said:
Friend Sunstone,



That depends on the brewer; if he is drunk with enlightenment surely who cares the end as the act itself is fully absorbing enough to get the HIGH!

Love & rgds
Click to expand...

Enlightenment is not about getting a "High." It's about the realisation of what causes a high or a low and then controlling these.
 
Ben Dhyan

Ben Dhyan

Veteran Member
tumbleweed41 said:
The Bodhisattva is a selfless person, who ignores his/her own needs to help others achieve enlightenment.
Click to expand...

Because the Bodhisattva is an enlightened being, there is no 'his/her self' to exist, and hence no 'own needs' to ignore, for in this enlightened state there is no duality and hence also no 'others' to help.

Try to see enlightenment as analogous to the Sun that radiates in all directions and gives light and life to all without distinction.

It is the unenlightened mind that functions from a conceptual dualistic frame of reference that perceives itself separate from its perceptions, which must realize that the 'light' being sought is already within and omnipresent.

The unenlightened mind that finds itself conceptually in the presence of such a Bodhisattva will experience accelerated evolutionary unfolding, but such opportunity does not come from a personal desire or choice, but rather for having passed trials and tribulations for worthiness. This is what is mean by "when the student is ready the master appears".

"First I saw the Light,
Next I was in the Light,
Finally there is just LIGHT"

When the mind is still, there is no master nor student, just THAT which is beyond words, the Alpha and the Omega are indeed ONE without separation.

Prost!
 
zenzero

zenzero

Its only a Label
Friend koan,

Enlightenment is not about getting a "High." It's about the realisation of what causes a high or a low and then controlling these.
Click to expand...

Ofcourse, besides there is NO one to CONTROL and so no controlling.
There is NOTHING to even hold on too and so stating that state as a different HIGH.

Love & rgds
 
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