Zen Fiction

When we talk we generally talk about something that we both see.

If only one of us sees it then we resort to analogy.

If neither of us see it then what we enter the realm of fiction.

In Zen we have such a fiction. We got it from old books. This fiction has some strange properties.

• It is a confusing fiction, open to interpretation. Unconstrained by convention or rationality.

• It carries the strength of authority. It is true because the Zen Masters say it's true. There are no other authorities.

Some will react to it strangely to this fiction. Some will prefer it over all other kinds of knowledge.

There's an experiment, maybe you heard of it.

Given a momma bird, in her nest, with her eggs.

We put another egg in there. A fake egg. Twice the size of the other eggs. Twice as pretty, beautifully painted.

Momma bird will push her own real eggs out of the nest. She will keep the fake egg and try to hatch it.

I think that we are seeing a similar phenomenon here.

Submitted July 01, 2017 at 09:05PM by woodrail http://ift.tt/2txATv5