![]() To an imitator, it is merely intriguing, although the whirling produces various results. Coetzee uses the example of a whirling dervish, in his book Foe. To those on the other side, this may be shocking. Theological practices which lie outside one's own belief system are reduced to phenomena, or interpreted in terms of one's own, often profane system. In the theological arena (koans are arguably theological, say spiritual) there is a lot of this. Yet there is the risk that one takes something sacred (sacred to those who hold it sacred) and drops it to the level of the profane. There is a difference between the sacred and the profane, which seems hard to define. Sometimes the target is missed - we’re imperfect, after all - but often the bull’s-eye is struck, with an understanding and appreciation of context fully accounted for. Intercultural awareness and respect are a must, certainly. Rather, I interpret the dynamic as cultures encouragingly reaching out to each other for shared purposes. My take is that there’s no ‘denigration’ involved, nor the appropriation you allude to to me, that’s arguably an overly severe characterisation. Hopefully context is indeed embedded in all those resulting interactions. Everything - including technology, travel, communication, the internet, commerce, ideologies, shared interests, and global stakes, among other - contributes to that multiplicative totality of the parts. After all, not just ‘things’ more easily move around the world, but ideas do, too. I suspect that the critical phenomenon you refer to - ways to pay due diligence to ‘something out of its cultural, societal, or religious context’ - is of course one of the challenges of globalisation. In turn, these insights might lead to additional questions, inviting further reflection. ![]() The interpretations of koans are often not obvious or clear-cut, their ambiguity making multiple alternative insights possible. Each one is a meditative device aimed at prompting the deep awareness that comes only from an open, freed-up mind. There are more than 1,700 classical koans, amassed over many centuries in China, Japan, and elsewhere (Thomas Cleary, Secrets of the Blue Cliff Record, 2002). By pondering the mystery of koans, contemplative monks absorb Buddhist teachings - letting go of the strictly analytic method to understanding, and instead learning to accept ambiguity and paradox and the absence of just one truth. ![]() It’s a realm where logical reasoning is shown inadequate, to be suspended. ![]() The idea is that koans permit thinking to escape the bounds of rationality and instead embrace intuition-like ways to awaken enlightenment and arouse spiritual development. The Zen name for such a puzzle is koan - a paradoxical anecdote, dialog, or question. ![]()
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