4.0308 Monkey Mind (2/27)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Fri, 20 Jul 90 19:13:10 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0308. Friday, 20 Jul 1990.
(1) Date: Thu, 19 Jul 90 16:14 PDT (11 lines)
From: KESSLER <IME9JFK@UCLAMVS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: 4.0299 Holmes; Borges and Foucault; ...and Kuhn; Zen
(2) Date: Thu, 19 Jul 90 16:17 PDT (16 lines)
From: KESSLER <IME9JFK@UCLAMVS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: 4.0299 Holmes; Borges and Foucault; ...and Kuhn; Zen
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 90 16:14 PDT
From: KESSLER <IME9JFK@UCLAMVS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: 4.0299 Holmes; Borges and Foucault; ...and Kuhn; Zen (4/103)
Yes indeed, EMPTY MIRROR. How easily that title expunges itself, by
mere suggestion! And yes, that one hand clapping certainly does call
the dithering monkey minds of the assembled little monks back to
reality, that sudden sharp crack of the palm on the table! That, that
is reality itself. What a nice thing is e-mail when so many can help
refresh the one. Kessler
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------251---
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 90 16:17 PDT
From: KESSLER <IME9JFK@UCLAMVS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: 4.0299 Holmes; Borges and Foucault; ...and Kuhn; Zen (4/103)
Afterthought to Junger: in Saul Bellow's HENDERSON THE RAIN KING,
Henderson, who cannot grasp his own monkey mind, let alone reality,
gets his first (zen) glimpse when a log of firewood he is splitting
jumps up from the ax and hits him squarely in the forehead (where his
3rd eye would be, if it were awakened), and the shock and the light are
his first intimation. We need shocks. And that is the sound of the
one hand clapping too. Only repeated shocks, which are his fate in the
novel serve cumulatively to bring him from the slumber that has sealed
his spirit, as he says over and over to himself. Kessler again