Friday, February 18, 2005

The Way of Zen

I just finished reading the book "The Way of Zen" by Alan W. Watts, (or rather, a portuguese translation of it). I was motivated by a sudden interest on Haiku poetry and a fascination for Koans. Beginning only as a superficial interest, in a short while I found myself delving deeper into it and accepting a colleague's offer to read the book just mentioned, since she remembered having read in the past a book about Zen. I also recall having some form of contact with it when I was a child (maybe watching TV? or was it some book?) and I remember a small spark of interest was always present, and it was kept alive away from indifference by the intriguing nature of the Oriental cultures to me and probably most people in the West.
Reading the book, I found Zen a fascinating and attractive philosphy, although I can't say I understood it. :-) Well, if I had, I probably would have reached Satori by now. :-) So this is not an acknowledgement of Zen as the path to take, but rather my statement that it seems a very interesting way of looking at life. I found it especially attractive as it was during the T'ang dynasty (see Hui Neng, the school of "Sudden Awakening" and the "Platform Sutra"), as an attitude in normal daily life, rather than what you find in the mainstream Za-Zen version, where explicit meditation is the rule.
The relation of Zen with many japanese art forms is also quite interesting: poetry, calligraphy, painting, serving tea or firing a bow may share much more in common than meets the eye.