Pages

Sunday, January 16, 2011

The Roshi Does Aristotle

He leans forward, and with one swift graceful movement sweeps up the small teacup from which he had been drinking. “This cup is ‘round’,” he says. “Roundness is right here, in the cup in front of us. This concept is not related to any distant concept of ‘roundness’, nor is it to any other words we may have built up in our mind.”
James Austin, Zen and the Brain, 62

1 comment:

  1. Hell yeah! That is the post-metaphysical realization par excellence! The roundness is right THERE, of the cup, in all its suchness - not substantially behind it, or otherwise withdrawn from the roundness thus encountered.

    ReplyDelete