[Buddha-l] Confused

[lemmett at talk21.com]

>>Not trying to offer a last word or anything (no really)-- but, Mr. Luke...
I'd suggest that your encounter with Buddhism has been
trumped (and screwed) by the Mahayana texts you apparently are
reading.
So you are unable to ask meaningful questions because of it. 
Wouldn't be the first time that such texts confused, and later
(hopefully) amused, eh? 
How about considering the gradual approach? Do you have patience?
How about starting to learn something about the ideas the Buddha
himself
allegedly taught, before plunging into arcane trumped-up
"philosophical" questions?
... Being a one-time philosophy major is guaranteed not to be
helpful,
as your latest confirms. Doesn't even help with generating a few
good belly laughs.

So in what way don't understand what I read?
>You are apparently interested in Mediaeval Chinese buddhism and its aftermath -- commonly known as Zen. Reading that stuff is good, and it is very heady broth indeed. Then, just as you finish your twentieth sutra and 500 pages of koans, some wise ass walks into the monastery and declares reading is unnecessary or even harmful to real enlightenment (the Platform Sutra)! Or a beggar with no formal education or buddhist training shows up all the monks who question with his intuitive understanding of buddhist that shames them all (Vimilakrti Sutra).
You forgot this? Whatever this is.