Re: virus: Desire. Subject/Object duality. Life.

Tim Rhodes (proftim@speakeasy.org)
Mon, 2 Jun 1997 22:41:04 -0700 (PDT)


On Sat, 1 Jun 1996, Eric Boyd wrote:

> The way to resolve all of this lies at the heart of desire: the
> Subject/Object duality. Zen will make us free! Understand that _you_
> and _the_world_ are really one and the same thing and you will
> understand that material desires are irrelevant (actually: impossible).

One of my favorite Zen koans:

A Zen master is in his hut meditating one afternoon when he hears
several students outside arguing about Objectivity vs. Subjectivity. One
student makes wonderful points about the how experience is subjective and
that, in truth, both he and a stick lying on the ground are the same
thing. Such distinctions, he musters, are only in the mind.
On hearing this the Master comes storming out of the hut, picks up
the stick and, with a mighty blow, cracks the student over the head with
it. Befuddled, the student plaintively asks the master why he has struck
him so.
"I did not," he replies, "it was only in your mind."