witness_zen.txt

: zen_points_beyond_language

In a sense, what modern physics is to the history of Western thought,
Zen is to the development of the Eastern worldview: 

the ultimate refinement of more than two thousand years 
of incisive debate, discussion, and critical development. 

Yet the difference between the two could hardly be more marked. 

Whereas physics is interested above all 
in theories, concepts, and formulas, 
Zen values only the concrete and the simple. 

Zen wants facts — not in the Western sense of things 
that are measurable and numerical (which are, in fact, abstractions!) 
but as living, immediate, and tangible. 

Its approach to understanding is not to theorize 
because it recognizes that previously accumulated ideas and knowledge — 

in other words, memories of all kinds — 
block the direct perception of reality. 

Therefore, Zen adopts an unusual approach. 
Its buildup involves language — which is unavoidable. 

Any method, even if it turns out to be an antimethod, 
has first to convey some background in order to be effective. 

But the way Zen uses language is always to point 
beyond language, beyond concepts to the concrete.

David Darling, 1996




: zen_physics_intellectual_catastrophe 

Two major schools of Zen exist in Japan: 
the Rinzai and the Soto. 

Both have the same goal, of seeing the world unmediated, 
but their approaches are different. 

In the Soto school, the emphasis is on quiet contemplation 
in a seated position without a particular focus for thought. 

The method in the Rinzai school, however, 
is to put the intellect to work on problems 
that have no logical resolution. 

Such problems are known as koans, 
from the Chinese kung-an meaning “public announcement.”

Some are mere questions, for example:

“When your mind is not dwelling 
on the dualism of good and evil, 
what is your original face before you were born?”

Others are set in a question-and-answer form, like:

“What is the Buddha?” 

Answer: “Three pounds of flax” 
or “The cypress tree in the courtyard” 
(to name but two of the classic responses). 

According to tradition 
there are seventeen hundred such conundrums 
in the Zen repertoire. 

And their common aim is 
to induce a kind of intellectual catastrophe, 

a sudden jump 
which lifts the individual out of the domain of words and reason 
into a direct, nonmediated experience known as satori.

Zen differs from other meditative forms, 
including other schools of Buddhism, 

in that it does not start from where we are 
and gradually lead us to a clear view 
of the true way of the world. 

It is not a progressive system in this respect. 

The sole purpose of studying Zen is to have Zen experiences —
sudden moments, like flashes of lightning, 

when the intellect is short-circuited 
and there is no longer a barrier 
between the experiencer and reality. 

David Darling, 1996