Date sent: Sun, 19 Sep 1999 23:45:28 -0400 From: Robert Owen <rowen@technologist.com> Subject: Re: Zen To: extropians@extropy.com Send reply to: extropians@extropy.com
> Joe E Dees wrote:
>
> > > >
> > One of the basic tenets of Zen Buddhism is that there is no
>
> > way to characterize what Zen is. No matter what verbal space you
>
> > try to enclose Zen in, it resists, and spills over. It might seem, then,
>
> > that all efforts to explain Zen are complete wastes of time. But that
>
> > is not the attitude of Zen masters and students.
>
> The problem is the Occidental declarative sentence. Every definition
> is a statement of the identity of subject and predicate. But we are
> then trapped into saying:
>
> T H I S I S T H A T
>
> Therefore the correct answer to all declaratives transformed into the
> interrogative mode is: Wu = Mu = Neti-Neti. That is, [neither this nor
> that nor (neither this nor that)].
>
> What is Zen? Mu. What is not-Zen? Mu.
>
Neither this, nor that, nor [neither this nor that], nor [both this and
that].
>
> =======================
> Robert M. Owen
> Director
> The Orion Institute
> 57 W. Morgan Street
> Brevard, NC 28712-3659 USA
> =======================
>
>