From: MarshaV (marshalz@charter.net)
Date: Sat Jul 16 2005 - 13:36:44 BST
Greetings,
I've taken the below quote from 'The Way of Zen, 1957' by Alan Watts. To
me it speaks of nihilism.
"... to see that good without evil is like up without down, and that to
make an ideal of pursuing the good is like trying to get rid of the left by
turning constantly to the right. One is therefore compelled to go round in
circles.
The logic of this is so simple that one is tempted to think it
over-simple. The temptation is all the stronger because it upsets the
fondest illusion of the human mind, which is that in the course of time
everything may be made better and better. For it is the general opinion
that were this not possible the life of man would lack all meaning and
incentive. The only alternative to a life of constant progress is felt to
be a mere existence, static and dead, so joyless and inane that one might
as well commit suicide. The very notion of this "only alternative" shows
how firmly the mind is bound in a dualistic pattern, how hard it is to
think in any other terms than good or bad, or a muddy mixture of the two.
Yet Zen is a liberation from this pattern, ... "
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archives:
Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
Nov '02 Onward - http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Jul 16 2005 - 13:41:39 BST