Zen Buddhism: The Nature of the Self

"but many buddhists say "i am the universe". I used to be into buddhism and read all watts and suzuki's books in college, but later i came to the realization that there is no such thing as nirvana,"

And you came to this conclusion by reading books did you...?

nope, I came to it by my own thinking and life experience.

Sooo.... going by books, and combining that with your great age and life experience, you have managed to - just by reading and living 25 years - invalidate Nirvana...?

Heh... since you are dreaming, why don't you wish for a pony?:)

Well it's not my responsibility to invalidate nirvana, the onus is on the person who thinks there is nirvana to validate it.

You said that you did.

I said I came to the conclusion that there is no nirvana, because it hasn't been validated. It's more of a burden of proof thing.

look, i just think a lot of buddhists just state the obvious and present it as a profound sort of truth that only very few actually know, when in fact that is not the case.

we all experience reality and we all have a pretty firm grasp on it, excluding psychotic individuals. so basically you don't need any form of practice to see it, most people are pretty much in tune with reality even if they don't know it themselves. my point is that buddhism, or any sort of ism for that matter, is not needed to understand "IT".

but no one is saying that good and bad are actual material things. they exist as concepts and yes that is what most people understand them as, no one is thinking of them as inherent properties, thats what i was trying to say. so saying "there is no good or bad" doesnt really say anything, we already know they are ideas we attach to actions.