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.