I think all of this is ridiculous to the point of embarrassment.

When I first encountered ewk, his posts annoyed me. Then I sat and thought about why that was for a while. I came to the conclusion that being challenged in the way that he does made me feel uncomfortable. I felt like there was nothing I could possibly say that would make him agree with me. He was always going to mischievously evade and counter my idea. Or maybe he'd suddenly agree with me, seemingly at random. Either way I felt I could never "win".

Then it hit me. This is a good thing.

We're all familiar with the style of Zen koans. We all have heard the stories of the interactions between student and master. Do they not have this same tone to them? ewk is far from arrogant, he is simply a zen agitator. Nowadays I smile when I see his posts, because it represents another challenge to my thoughts. I'll go back and forth with him on occasion just to see what comes out of it. It's no longer about being right or wrong, "winning" or "losing".

To be perfectly blunt: If you don't like your ideas, views, and values being challenged, Buddhism in general, and Zen in particular is not for you. ewk challenges everything, and thus, in my perspective, embodies a very important tradition in Zen. Comparisons to other topics miss the point that this very sort of challenge and agitation is a fundamental aspect of Zen.

And besides anything else, if you've disagreed with every word I've said, what it all comes down to is this: Don't like him? Ignore him. Be an adult about it. Somebody saying something you don't like doesn't give you the right to silence that person.