Absolutely everything you can name is related to absolutely every other thing you can name. To have a rule that posts must be "related to zen" is to have no rule at all, because zen (like everything else) is related to everything else.
How is an apple related to the set of prime numbers? By, among other things, the fact that you can count apples using prime numbers.
How is a my cat related to the Bhagavad Gita? By, among other things, the fact that both are referred to in a single post on Reddit.
In this way you can see--it is imposisble for two things to be entirely unrelated. Indeed--if two things were entirely unrelated, that itself would be a relationship between them, and they would thereby be related!
So often, the response to this is a blank stare. It feels irrelevant to people. They talk about how these are ridiculous "relations" and what is meant is clear.
But that's exactly the problem. What is meant is not clear. What seems like a clear relationship to one person, looks wild and off the wall to another. Someone comes and posts christian mysticism here. Someone else says "that's not related to Zen." The first person says "of course it is, I read this christian mysticism stuff and it immediately reminded me of stuff I've read on posters about Zen."
That's a relationship to zen. Both speakers are speaking in complete good faith. The difference is in _how they are relating thiings_, not on whether one is in compliance and the other not.
"X is related to Y" eliminates nothing at all. Relating is an action we do, not a thiing that exists out there independently of us. I relate an apple to prime numbers. I relate my cat to the Gita. Someone relates Christian mysticism to Zen. Others see these relations and think "ahhh that's nuts," but the right way to explain why it's nuts isn't just to repeat "it's got to be related to zen" over and over again. That is just to demand people know whatt you're thinking without taking responsibility for articulating what you're thinking.
The best way to explain is instead to _specify a relation_. Just like I did above with the apples and what not.
Has to be related to zen _how_?
I have the sidebar rule in mind to some extent, but I have more in mind participants here who will often reject posts or comments as not "related to zen" without explaining what relation they are actually demanding.
And it's not hard. Such redditors usually have this relation in mind: "X is related to Zen if X is an exploration of the implications and historical context of texts W, Y, Z..." for some set of texts W, Y, Z, generally including BCR, IZ, Mumonkan, among others.
That's what you mean! Just say that! If you just keep saying "related to zen" you're not communicating what you actually mean, because "related to Zen" eliminates nothing. It is wide open to broad interpretation.
Submitted January 19, 2020 at 10:02AM by Porn_Steal https://ift.tt/364KU2o
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