At times, Zen does get into some Buddhist Cosmology. Nishijima Roshi, my main teacher would talk about that and almost every time immediately say that it was only one way of looking at it. Whenever addressing realms of Heaven or Hell, he'd also address that it was just a psychological state.
Brad WarnerSuffering occurs when your ideas about how things ought to be don't match how they really are.
Brad WarnerThe trick to not thinking is not adding energy to the equation in an effort to forcibly stop thinking from happening. Itโs more a matter of subtracting energy from the equation in order not to barf the thoughts up and start chewing them over again.
Brad WarnerYou can't live in paradiseโbut you are living right here. Make this your paradise or make this your hell. The choice is entirely yours. Really.
Brad WarnerAs you're implying, there's a new technology that can look even deeper into that brick and we can start getting into a level where it breaks down so that the brick isn't even there, but obviously it is because Moe can hit Curly on the head with it. It's quite bizarre and all relative.
Brad WarnerThere's also something that is often mistaken for enlightenment which is a kind of insanity. Often, people will have some kind of weird experience which is quite abnormal and think, "Oh my God, that's it, I understand everything" because they start seeing things in a very weird way and think that's how enlightened people see things as well.
Brad Warner