“Zen has no special doctrine or philosophy, no set of concepts or intellectual formulas, except” — wrote Zen priest Daisetz T Suzuki (1870-1966) in “Zen and Japanese Culture” (1959) — “that it tries to release one from the bondage of birth and death, by certain intuitive modes of understanding peculiar to itself.”
This is puzzling. “Intuitive modes of understanding” escape the ready grasp of minds fed on “concepts” and “intellectual formulas.” “Release from the bondage of birth and death” is equally elusive. It’s not the “Western” intellect’s view of things, nor that of most modern Japanese, whose thought processes, regardless of Zen’s shaping influence over many centuries on traditional Japanese culture, are more “Western” than Zen.
In Zen, everything is not. Which seems to mean: nothing is. But doesn’t. Because nothing, too, is not. Likewise life, death, self, I, you, subject, object, mind, thought. None of it is. It’s all nothing. Which itself is not.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.