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From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (mordred)
Newsgroups: alt.magick.tyagi
Subject: Re: Zen?
Date: 11 Mar 1995 00:56:50 -0800
Organization: Portal Communications (shell)
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Reply-To: provenzano moses b <provenzn@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
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[from alt.philosophy.zen: provenzano moses b <provenzn@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu]

I suppose this should be a response to "Zen Alone?".  I would like to 
share my (pitiful) notions of the meaning of Zen.  Then I'll sit back and 
be corrected.  Let me first make two things perfectly clear: 1. I have 
very little education on the matter, 2. What I have "learned" has been 
entirely pragmatic.

My first introduction to the topic was in a course in Comparitive 
Religions.  While the professor never pretended to be able to give any 
definition of Zen (beyond what can be found in this news group), he cited 
some examples of everyday experience which gave me a feel for this 
concept.  One came from sports.  He talked about the moments of 
perfection an athlete experiences when he/she performs without any 
thought about his/her actions.  I easily related this to my days in high 
school wrestling.  There were times I quickly pinned opponents, but it 
didn't seem to be wrestling.  I was in my body watching my self.  Later, 
upon viewing the tapes, I couldn't figure out how I had kept up in such 
complicated situations without any thoughts of strategy.  I was just 
doing it.  On the other hand, his examples reminded me of the "high level 
of thinking" that I find when doing such activities as mowing the lawn, 
etc.  If I concentrate only on cutting perfectly straight lines, I often 
find my thoughts drifting to solutions to the problems in life I'm 
deealing with.  My best interpretation of all of this is that there is 
some state of mind related to perfection in action (or lack of) that may 
or may not have something to do with this thing called Zen.

My other exposure to Zen was in the Book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle 
Maintenance", by Robert Pirsig.  While Pirsig specifically dissociates 
his work from "that great body of factual information relating to 
orthodox Zen Buddhist practice", the connection is unavoidable.  It would 
be almost impossible for me to sun up his ideas here.  But I can say that 
what I read only strengthened my concept of Zen.  Particularly as 
pertains to perfection in Process (as opposed to completion, I think).  
He seemed to be saying that excellence in [something like thought] can be 
found in the process of doing what it is that you do.  I'm sure this is 
why he, and many of us, rides a motorcycle.  I might add, to those of you 
who haven't read this book, that it's one of the most worthwhile reads 
you can find.

So, I've put my notions up for criticism.  I would surely appreciate 
comments and corrections.