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From: tp0x+@CS.CMU.EDU (Thomas Price)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern
Subject: Re: Are Zen enlightened people superior?
Message-ID: <1991Jan5.015335.1058@nas.nasa.gov>
Date: 5 Jan 91 01:53:35 GMT
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>>along the lines of (not exact words) "I'm not a Korean Picasso.  I'm 
>>better than Picasso, because of my Zen enlightement."  
>>My question is, would someone who has acheived Zen enlightenment make 
>>such a boast?  
>Definitely not.  First of all, it sounds like ego talking, and Zen aims to 
>abandon egoistic ideas.  Secondly, value judgments are a result of
>delusion, according to most of the Zen literature I've read.  If your
>quote reflects what he really said, I'd say he's a fraud.

Perhaps I misunderstood my copy of Shunryu Suzuki's "Living By Zen"
which tells the following tale: (from memory)

A student asks the master what his enlightenment consists in. "In eating
when I am hungry, sleeping when I am tired." "But do not common people do
the same? Why are they not Zen Masters?" "Because they are ignorant and do
not realize the importance of these actions."

Or, John Cage's story about Suzuki giving a lecture:
Suzuki: Before studying Zen, men are men and mountains are mountains. After
 	studying Zen, however, men are men and mountains are mountains.
Q:	What's the difference?
Suzuki: (smiling) Afterwards your feet are a little bit off the ground.

I think the difficulties here are in confusing the Korean, Japanese, and
American concepts of "better" or "superior".

Tom Price
tp0x@cs.cmu.edu

Disclaimer: 
(You've got to be careful what I mean vs. what I say. -- Bill McCracken)