Zen is what I would define as the only religion without ideology.
I would call it a "Wisdom Tradition" or a "Path of Liberation". In fact, I would call it the Earth's supreme or foremost Wisdom Tradition, although some elements of western metaphysics from Ancient Greece and from German Idealism are its necessary counterparts to integrate....
But Zen's Wisdom is of a cryptic, mysterious, ineffable, paradoxical, humorous, and... well, a sheerly *magical* kind of Wisdom as opposed to what we as Westerners would call scientific knowledge or reason.
HOWEVER- this distinction--- between intellectual, rational, forms of intelligence and the non-rational (or meta-rational) wisdom of Zen enlightenment does NOT, in my opinion, mean that a knowledge of Symbolism-- the Philosophy of Symbolic Form (I believe this term is from the life's work of a philosopher named Cassier..?) is irrelevant!
I think human nature involves symbols straight down to its root, its ground.
While symbols and symbolism are associated with language and rational thought, and while Zen is often portrayed as the antidote to the evils of rational thought or concerned with a state of unity and simplicity/ emptiness that is somehow 'beyond" the realm of thought or language, I say Zen is Silent, yes, but only *MOSTLY* silent. by this I mean Silence and the Absolute One-Ness of the empty circle, no-mind, etc.... are fundamental, it's foundation in a way.... but NOT zen's entirety.
Zen is Silent. But Zen also speaks!
Humans are creatures of language and language is symbol. The koan system I believe must be interpreted as symbolic, meaning these are clues- hints--- they are written in a literal CODE. The idea of the "turning word" itself is entirely a Symbolic matter in the sense that, no, the ultimate truthes can never be stated as facts. Therefor, they must be "embodied" in public cases with personas- plays, characters, as in the embodiment of the platonic truthes in the living social world of dialogues rather than essays..... These public cases are CRYPTIC for a reason- they provide a dramatic scene that acts as a clue, a hint, or a trigger which is designed to "stand for" a Cosmic or Absolute Truth- in a sense One Single Truth (solve one koan and you solve them all) and yet they develop various different aspects of that one central Hub-Satori.
I am exploring this idea- Symbol, Symbolism, and symbolic interpretation of koan (and the zazen posture as the Ultimate Symbol of Wisdom or a Symbolic Act in itself) because I believe it is the most authentic approach to Zen. I came to believe this through a process of self-doubt in which I was tested by an opposing methadology which I came to call the "Literalist" approach.
Basically, if you are stuck in what I would call a "Literalist" approach to ANY reliogion, you are participating in its Dogma rather than its Core-faith. I think all wisdom-traditions, paths of liberation, world-religions... they all have an outer dogmatic literal interpretation {example: everything in the Bible is LITERALLY true} AND an inner, almost always "secret" inner circle or core that exemplafies that faith's mystical tradition. (Kaballa of judaeism for example). This is the difference between EXOteric and ESOteric knowledge.
I personally find Christianity highly distastefull. However, even I recognize that my distaste is due to the large, dogmatic, outer-circle of LITERALIST Christianity, and that as a major world religion it has an inner core that is mystical and interprets the Bible as a SYMBOLIC sacred text. Meaning, I can share an appreciation for Christian Wisdom insofar as it is Symbolist and uses that methadology to interpret the Bible. It's just unfortunate that when this is done correctly we find so many 'inverted symbols" that turned ancient pagan wisdom mythos backwards.
But I give this example to flesh out what I mean by a "Symbolist" approach to a faith and why that is a higher and more intellectually mature attitude to take towards the study of any sacred text, of which I definitly include collection of koan.
Submitted March 10, 2022 at 01:34AM by Mossmaster https://ift.tt/zSVBX1s
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