The Nature Of Beings Essay Research Paper — страница 3

Guitarist would, such as Jimi Hendrix, Brian Eno, Carlos Santana, Les Paul, and B. B. King (Figure 4, Sudo 23, 34, 79, 83, 143). Radiohead in its recent musical endeavors approaches more and more a state of Zen enlightenment, shown with the song Paranoid Android, a song about a seemingly simple person living a simple life. Although a simple life, it lacks a certain quality for him, and begins to drive away the calm, serene feelings of his life in order to replace them with a burning hatred for everyone. This is easily led into a state of paranoia that instills feelings of insubstantiality in his life and all he has worked for, and eventually is set off into an explosion of emotion, breaks down, and is suddenly replaced with the calm serene bliss he has been searching for. This

represents the man s enlightenment after having fallen away from the world and its impermanence. This bliss does not last however, and suddenly is realized to mean that he is only one step closer to enlightenment. The stress of this and the world is unbearable and the man realizes that he will never be complete and tears out the last bits of hair he has. The man then calmly goes to sleep just to wake up for a new day, repeating the same ordeal. This represents the rebirth of sentient beings in the Buddhist belief system, and also the unconscious realization of the suffering present in all life, with no way to avoid it, a realization that is imperative for enlightenment (Figure 5). Even exercise techniques show their roots in Zen Buddhism, with the practice of Body Dynamics. Body

Dynamics is similar to, and draws inspiration from Zen Buddhism, in which the practical quest for self-knowledge and development seems, above all other oriental teachings, most acceptable to the American pragmatic temperament. Although the average American does not practice Body Dynamics, the theories presented within, such as deep breathing and striving for bodily perfection in health, are also presented in many similar activities and even in apparently unrelated activities (Enelow 26-27). Short fiction of the twentieth century has been influenced heavily by the way of the Zen, seen very prominently in J. D. Salinger s novels and short stories, such as Catcher in the Rye. Salinger s characters act as a kind of teacher, while the reader is the student, a relationship that is

integral in Zen Buddhism. When the character is confronted with a moral dilemma, the reader is given the answer to the problem through a koan, thus allowing the reader to reach their next stage of enlightenment. Holden, in the final chapters of Catcher in the Rye, appears to have reached enlightenment and is at peace with the world, and then finishes with a simple that s all I m going to tell you and proceeds to ask the kind of questions which have plagued him throughout the book. Apparently having returned to square one of his existence, he is in fact in tune with the universe and is relating the cycle of the Buddhist lifestyle, to return to the beginnings of our creation and the beginnings of our minds. The story, just like a koan, has the purpose of stimulating our minds into

another plane of existence as we are compelled to find the answer with non-logic (Salinger 213-214). Zen is even present in the scientific world, where one would think it least likely to show up, as related by Robert Pirsig: If that law of gravity existed, I honestly don t know what a thing has to do to be nonexistent. It seems to me that law of gravity has passed every test of nonexistence there is. You cannot think of a single attribute of nonexistence that that law of gravity didn t have. Or a single scientific attribute of existence it did have. And yet it is still common sense to believe that it existed. This analysis of the words of Newton s law of gravity shows the inherent nature of Zen that is present in all things. The more something appears to lack Zen qualities, the

more Zen qualities it actually has, primarily because it is thought to lack them, for it is the nature of not being (Pirsig 30-31). Poetry itself is the very life breath of Zen, as it s form and non-form are the heart of Zen, the ability to live freely without rules or constraints, and yet still stay within the confines of a language to express the feelings of the author. Truong Dinh s poetry is most apparent in it s Zen nature with haikus such as come is to be gone be gone is to become new new is to be old (Figure 6) This shows the cyclic nature of our existence in Zen beliefs, and consequently shows the influence of Zen on our lives, with just three simple lines (Dinh). Thus, in our lives and in our thoughts, Zen is present everywhere. To attempt to deny its presence is simply