From: utzoo!decvax!decwrl!sun!megatest!fortune!hpda!hplabs!hao!cires!harkins
Newsgroups: net.religion
Title: zen
Article-I.D.: cires.2046
Posted: Tue Apr 19 15:24:39 1983
Received: Fri Apr 29 09:15:41 1983

first, recall that zen is only one sect of buddhism, which, somewhat like
christianity ('a prophet has no honor in his own country' more or less),
really fluorished outside india; other sects (from memory here) include
Hinayana and Mahayana, both in the Burma Cambodia area and still going
strong; zen though, and you can check in Britannica for this, took off
as a sort of reborn confucianism in japan.  My personal favorite is
Alan Watts, but also appreciate Suzuki.  My reading of what is zen is
something along the lines of 'doing,' ie, living a religious life, but
not worrying too much about form and rules, as long as it all fits into
a concept (Eightfold path) of 'rightness.'  All the blather on the net
would be regarded, i think, as noise instead of signal; the essence is
'just sitting,' ie, getting rid of the noise and letting the signal
(wisdom) flood your being.  BTW, Alan Watts (not at itt; dead in fact)
has a really funny essay about the need to kill to eat called "Murder
in the Kitchen," in which (sorry, don't recall which book, but there
are several worth reading) he goes into the 'fact' that plants feel
pain, and therefore, even the most righteous vegetarians are killers
too!!  You might also reread Jack Kerouac: On the Road and Dharma Bums,
as he seems to get the zen flavor down.  ernie harkins