Leslie Liszak
@lambster
Leslie Liszak
@lambster
If you think Zen is something lofty and esoteric, the master will give you a shout or slap for an answer. If you think it is abstract, you’ll be told it’s three pounds of flax or the oak tree in the garden. If you think it is beyond words and abstractions, the master may quote the sutras or a poem by Han Shan. If you think Zen is nothing but our
... See moreIt can be worth forgoing marriage for sex, and it can be worth forgoing sex for marriage. It can be worth forgoing parenthood for work, and it can be worth forgoing work for parenthood. Every case is orthogonal to all the others. That’s the entire problem.
Zen had a great impact on the people, and during this period it exerted a formative influence on the arts of ink painting (sumi-e), Noh drama, the tea ceremony, flower arrangement, landscaping, and so forth. “The aesthetics nurtured in these arts was to remain a definitive force in Japanese culture during the following centuries” (ibid.).3