I found this zen painting in a book, and it's based on the Zen priest of T'ang China who is said to have cut a kitten in two to illustrate the escence of Zen. Artists who painted this kind of zen scenes were required to have not only a natural gift for art but also a personal experience of Zen enlightenment, therefore there were a lot of zen priests who dedicate time to this particular practice.
However I just copied this one to upload it here due to the fact that we already discussed this koan in class. The real painting has two more monks on the right looking scared and just starring at Nen as if there were nothing they could do. I find interesting that the cat doesn't look like a kitten at all, isn't it? Anyways, a simple non-verbal response would saved his life.
"The monks of the east and west halls were arguing about a cat.
Nan Ch'uan picked it up and said:If you can tell me something, I will spare it: & if you
cannot tell me anything, I will kill it.No one replied: so Nan Ch'uan killed the cat."
No comments:
Post a Comment