What is the sound of one hand clapping

'The sound of one hand slapping' is what I would describe as how many of my dates ended for me in whil'st I was in my '20s.

Oh wait ...you said clapping?

As Ragman has already explained, 'the sound of one hand clapping' is a ko-an, a Zen Buddhist mind exercise largely designed to show that spoken (or written) language is inadequate in describing ultimate reality (something that Fresco seems to have trouble understanding).

Here's a ko-an to explain it. There was a Zen master who always spoke to his acolytes in parables, allegories and metaphors, never giving a straight answer to a direct question. (Kind of like Jesus with his parables ) One day one of his students asked the master to explain why he did this. The master thought for a moment, then asked, "Who of you knows what a rose smells like?"

All hands went up.

"Describe it to me," said the master.

Although the purpose of a koan is to undermine reflective thought, there apparently can be specific kinds of intuition achieved by each which are only partly explorable or improperly expressed by language (given that the master and student engage in at least some degree of "discussion" about a koan).

David Darling . . . There is a saying in Zen: “The instant you speak about a thing you miss the mark.” So, presumably, this saying has also missed the mark -- and this one, too. Our endless analysis can lead us into all sorts of difficulties. But how can we break free of it? Living in a world of words and concepts and inherited beliefs, says Zen, we have lost the power to grasp reality directly. Our minds are permeated with notions of cause and effect, subject and object, being and nonbeing, life and death. ... Zen's whole emphasis is on the experience of reality as it is, rather than a solution of the problems that, in the end, arise merely from our mistaken beliefs.

[...] Two major schools of Zen exist in Japan: the Rinzai and the Soto. Both have the same goal, of seeing the world unmediated, but their approaches are different. In the Soto school, the emphasis is on quiet contemplation in a seated position (zazen) without a particular focus for thought. The method in the Rinzai school, however, is to put the intellect to work on problems that have no logical resolution. Such problems are known as koans [...] their common aim is to induce a kind of intellectual catastrophe, a sudden jump which lifts the individual out of the domain of words and reason into a direct, nonmediated experience known as satori.

[...] The sole purpose of studying Zen is to have Zen experiences -- sudden moments, like flashes of lightning, when the intellect is short-circuited and there is no longer a barrier between the experiencer and reality. Sometimes its methods can seem bizarre and even startling. To catch the flavor, if a Zen master found you reading this book he might grab it from you and hit you over the head with it, saying: “Here’s something else for you to think about!” Such shock tactics, however, are intended not to offend but rather to wake us up from our normal symbol-bound frame of mind.

Zen may seem chaotic and irrational (often unfuriatingly so!). Yet traditionally it is pursued and imparted in a highly formal, doctrinal way. [...] Students at a Japanese Rinzai monastery must abide by strict rules and follow a precisely prescribed path of development, involving regular periods of meditation and private interviews with the Zen master (roshi), in which koans are given and discussed. When the student attains, in the master’s judgment, the correct insight into a koan, he or she will be given a new koan designed to open up a further appreciation of the true nature of reality. In this sense, enlightenment comes as a result of a succession of satoris, some more profound than others.

Zen uses language to point beyond language, which is what poets and playwrights and musicians do. But, less obviously, it is also what modern science does if the intuitive leap is taken beyond its abstract formalism.
--Zen Physics

Excellent post, GH.

You are somewhat misguided there as anyone checking my 10 years references to ineffability will recognize !

The comments here were offered as a minor peace offering to Setanta who elsewhere has expressed an interest in philology. One can but try !

I think you need to careful with the expression "ultimate reality" because it opens the door for the simplistic "absolutism" of religionists. On the other hand I am perfectly aware, and even claim to have experienced, what some call "higher levels of consciousness". Zen practices are merely one route to such experiences.

Just so long as you claim ineffability and not infallibility.


Oh, and as long as you don't bring that old bore Wittengestein [sp.?] into the equation.

I've actually moved on from Wittgenstein to Derrida. Derrida's concept of aporia(ἀπορɛία) is somewhat akin to the paradoxical nature of the ko-an, and he claims it is endemic in all attempts to make "philosophical assertions" (including that one !)

Fresco, why do you bother?

Good point!

On reflection my activities here are a useful exercise, and to some extent mirror for the "live" discussions of my local philosophy group. As a group we are interested in expanding our familiarity with developments in "the field" and we take turns, or invite outside speakers,to present formal discussion papers which include bordering subjects such as physics , biology and economics. Attendance is good even in adverse weather, so we obviously gain something from such meetings.

Perhaps to parody Socrates ....a mind unexamined is not worth possessing.

(BTW There is undoubtedly some of Nietzsche in Derrida's aporia. Whether this is traceable to Nietzsche's Schopenhauer studies...in particular Schopehauer's Buddhist leanings...might be an interesting exercise)

Yes, and I suspect that zen practitioners might agree that a life unlived is not worth examining.

You're a snide son of a bitch, JLN. Fresco "bothers" because he is obsessed with asserting his view of reality, meanwhile sneering at and scorning those who don't accept his tutelage.

Hmmm, just when I was beginning to warm up to you. I don't see you as any less preoccupied with asserting your view of reality than Fresco or myself. And "sneering" you say? He and I never call others things like "snide son of a bitch." I think you need a shot of vitamin B...or try meditation.

Even I might agree with that.

I don't recollect doing much "sneering", nor do I feel I am "obsessed". You and I have had a few battles which involved my intolerance of your belligerence which tends to be one of your predictable traits as (you well know). As for my philosophical "position", I would merely remark that it encompasses some of those recent developments in philosophy and science, in which "traditional logic" has failed to supply answers. As has often been pointed out, we would not be sitting at these very computers had significant thinkers stayed "within the box". No doubt my intolerance has extended to those who cannot understand that.

I do not know any such thing. In fact, you are sitting in the post-modern (what an hilariously idiotic title), semiotics box. We are sitting at computers because there is a reality which is not contingent on an obsession with "languaging" (god, you crack me up). All the chin music of your talking shops has done nothing to advance the human race to the point where we can communicate in this manner. That's not belligerence, that's an obvious, and for you, uncomfortable truth.

I consider you obsessed because in almost any discussion you enter, you will sooner or later, and likely sooner rather than later, attempt to sidetrack the discussion with the hobby horse you so love to ride.

But you have to admit, Set, that fresco has come damned close to deciphering just how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. That's something, ain't it?

Oh yeah, Buddhists are fond of that. Either they're financially secure westerners playing at profound experiencs of oneness with the cosmos--or, they're monks in Asia sitting around contributing nothing to the communities which feed them while the peasants who work to feed them slowly starve to death or die more quickly from the diseases of malnutrition.

Meditate on that, joker.

So, you're saying he's got a shot at Dancing with the Stars?

I tend to share your criticism of the parasitic qualities of monasteries, but as for the rest of your diatribe:

You and your boy Fresco both claim you don't sneer, and then you come out with something like that. How typical . . . i note that you have not responded to my criticisms or your straw men about my opinion of Nietzsche or the young men who seem so fascinated by him.