Re: shakuhachi V1 #288

From: Karl Young (kyoung@SLAC.Stanford.EDU)
Date: Fri Apr 04 2003 - 13:59:44 PST


Nelson,

>Karl,
>
>
>
>>Just curious as to how you come to the conclusion that "So much Zen, so
>>little enlightenment" is an anomalous situation in the US - is that as
>>opposed to the enlightenment/practitioner ratio in modern Japan, warring
>>states China, medieval Korea,...
>>
>>
>
>I didn't imply the situation is anomalous to the US, it's just that I don't
>have any personal knowledge of the enlightenment/practitioner ratio in other
>parts of the world.
>

So it might just be that Zen is a dead end for most people ? I guess
veiled beneath my questions is that some might quibble with your
assertion that enlightenment can be assessed in a manner similar to
pregnancy (e.g. Dogen) and the corresponding implication (I'm probably
again reading too much into your statements) that Zen practice is waste
of time for those who don't "get it".

>
>
>>and how did you determine those ratios as per your conclusion ?
>>
>>
>
>Through personal involvement.
>
>
>

Actually I was basing this part of the question on my mistaken
assumption that you were implying that the low
enlightenment/practitioner ratio was specific to the US, i.e. I was
asking not just how you determined it re. your experience but how you
decided that it was low (i.e. compared to what).



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jan 06 2004 - 14:09:32 PST