Zen

Couple of hours back, I wrote a quiz on the "Literature and Environment" course. The course is more about philosophy than literature or environment and hence interesting in a vague sense. A lot of stuff like Eco-criticism and Eco- feminism are things that I neither find interesting nor agree with. But still, there are these golden flashes of an elusive treasure that keeps occurring throughout. There is something about philosophy which is frustrating yet intriguing. Its like that Pandora's box which is half open and lures you in. Two steps more and you think the end(truth) shall be seen but reality shows it to be a bottomless pit.

I have always wondered what would happen if all the philosophical questions had objective answers. It would mean an end to all doubts about purpose and karma. There wouldn't be any courts since everyone* would know what is right and what is wrong. Everyone would do only the right thing, since "wrong" becomes an absolute truth which is no longer dependent on subjective intrepretations. It would be the ideal world, but a boring one at that. Isn't uncertainty the greatest boon of mankind? I remember the dialog of Brad Pitt as Achilles in the film Troy "The Gods envy us. Because we are mortal, because we are doomed, each moment is so much more precious." These words should probably be there right at the top of any great list of quotes.

Words are powerful, yet some level only a symbol of man's efforts to propagate( to others) and re-assure( himself) his own ideas and the objectives behind his actions. Without words an enlightened man is no different from an ordinary mendicant. Actions might speak for themselves but not so loudly nor clearly as words. Where would we be without them ( words)? Without words, we would have no way of sharing ideas with others, which in turn means we would try to figure everything out ourselves or stop trying to figure out things at all. Maybe the real answer is that, that there is nothing to be figured out. Things happen just because that is way things are. This is again an oft repeated concept in our course. The "is"ness of a thing whereby it just "is" what it is. Probably deep down we all know that it is the truth, yet the hope of a greater reality pushes us to do more. We are not satisfied by eating good food or getting a shelter to sleep. Our wants go beyond. Maybe the realization of such a truth, that there is nothing to be realized might mean a return to the stone age or even behind, to a time when all we would care for is a good meal and a safe sleep.

So while engrossed in these eco feminist poems and essays, I did some googling on the "zen" school of thought. The zen philosophy says that to attain enlightment one should to "intentionally aware" of the "present" without being "judgemental" about it. I tried to figure out the meaning of the above statement for sometime and concluded that it probably means you should be clearly know and make an effort to understand what is happening around you, without trying to figure out if it is happening for the good or bad. This again means that you shouldn't try to "interfere", but just let things be. This is contradictory at multiple levels, since most of our actions are a reaction to an external stimuli and thus its impossible to act and yet not "interfere". At some level even our very presence is an intereference. Then again, it might mean you should do those things which come "naturally" to you, without letting the guiding hand of knowledge nor the filter of civilization change that "natural" course of action nor modify it. Would this be a return to the hippie culture of 70s, where people try to portray the rebel image. I doubt. The problem with a being a rebel is that you again made the conscious decision of being a rebel. To follow zen philosophy would probably mean to act in a way as though the society was never there, not against neither for it nor parallely, but in a way that is not affected by the presence of society itself.


to be continued...