virus: A New Kind of Zen (was:Who evangelizes budhism?

David Rosdeitcher (76473.3041@compuserve.com)
Fri, 26 Feb 1999 09:48:19 -0500

KMO wrote:

>>It seems to me that the main Japanese contribution to Zen was asthetic
in that Japanese practitioners applied the singular focus that Zazen facilitates to arts such as landscaping, architechture, poetry, tea, caligraphy, and combat. The combination of Zen and the Japanese arts resulted in a lot of the beautiful, but largely superficial, trappings of Zen.
(snip)
I see the Japanese contribution to Zen as the icing on the cake, but the oven from which that cake emerged was China. Still, I would welcome having some science dropped on my dillitante ass.>>

About 5 months ago, I read a mathematics book called "Who Is Fourier?", which was about "Fourier math"--a form of math that is used for understanding waves(ie. sound, heat, water, etc.) An unusual thing about this book, was that it was not so much about math, but about the process of learning the math. The authors, a group of language researchers in Japan, had a theory that anyone can learn advanced math quickly and easily if they approach it as a language, and then learn this language using the same "strategy" that babies use when they learn to talk. This strategy is to not worry about understanding the meanings of the sounds (or symbols or formulas) but to just absorb and imitate the sounds before deciphering their meaning. It is only when these sounds are internalized in the body and the effects on the social environment of using these sounds are subjectively experienced, that one can catch on to the meanings of the sounds. This way of learning requires getting into an open pre-conceptual zen-like state of mind that isn't readily accessible to most enculturated adults.
The authors of this book were part of an organization in Japan called "Hippo", which is a club for people who practice speaking in many languages (like 14 different languages!). I had an opportunity to go to one of their meetings (they have a group in the US) where they played tapes of songs and stories in different languages while people of all ages acted like little kids by imitating the sounds on the tapes and playing kids' games like "Duck Duck Goose", and "London Bridge". Anyway, more info can be found at http://www.lexlrf.org

--David R.