Zen

So a few months ago I read Joseph Campbell's "Myths to Live By" and among many fascinating ideas he describes, I found that his explanation of Zen Buddhism to be particularly interesting. He starts off by presenting two animals as metaphors for the "two types of religious attitude." Those animals are kittens and monkeys. Kittens, when in trouble, will call out "meow" and their mother will come and carry them off to safety. Monkeys on the other hand are not being carried off by their parents but are actively clinging to their parents themselves. In Japan the kitten type is known as tariki (power from outside) and the monkey type as jiriki (effort or power from within). These are the two ways to obtain enlightenment.

Examples of the kitten type of religious attitude, or tariki, are Christianity where Jesus would be the mother cat and the sects of Buddhism such as Jodo or Shinshu where Amida might come and release people from the cycle of rebirth. The moneky type, or jiriki, however does not depend on any diety or saint or Buddha or religious figures to achieve what is needs. There are no supernatral elements, beings etc. whatsoever. This type is best represented by Zen. Zen, Campbell states, has been described as: "a special transmission outside the scriptures; not dependent on words or letters; a direct pointing to the heart of man; seeing into ones own nature; and the attainment thereby of Buddhahood."

"Zen" is the Japanese version of the Chinese "Ch'an" which is a mispronunciation of Sanskrit "Dhyana" which means "contemplation, meditation." The next metaphor used is one dealing with lightbulbs. Imagine there are a bunch of lightbulbs on the ceiling. Each one is seperate from all the others. But consider now the bulbs not as just bulbs but conveyors of light. When we see the light we do not differentiate it depending on which bulb is giving what part of it off. We see it as one unified light. If one bulb were to go out we would just replace it and the light would be the same. So the one light comes from many bulbs. He then compares this to the body. You can't think of people as individual and seperate bodies but see the bodies as conveyors of consciousness. While we tend to think of our own individual bodies and problems we must see that consciousness is the light that is made through all of us. These are two ways of interpreting the same facts. One way is not better than the other. The way of seeing things as seperate entities is called "ji hokkai" and the way of seeing things as one unified entity is called "ri hokkai."

Zen therefore meditates on these two ways hoping to be able to see things as one. If you see things as seperate you are bounded by discrimination. When you see things as ri hokkai this problem does not arise. However it is very difficult to change the accent of your thinking from ji hokkai to ri hokkai.

That is the basic idea of Zen. That is why so many monks take vows of silence, for all words are used to differentiate one thing from another. If a book is a book then it is not a magazine, if a fruit is a fruit then it is not a vegetable, etc. It is also impossible for people to convey an experience clearly unless the person your are explaining it to has experienced it themself. When you try to describe experiences you limit them to what words can describe. And anyone who tries to weave life into contexts and meaning eventually loses the sense of experiencing life. Therefore the first and foremost aim is to shatter all conceptions. The philosophy of "no mind".