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Ways of Knowing

Would My Zen Master Fail Me For Writing This Article?

Patrick Cox tells us why Zen has to use words to get beyond words.

In Zen Buddhism, one often finds ‘explanation’ spoken about in a negative manner. But in writing on Zen, one necessarily explains; explaining something is often the only purpose of an article or book. Can Zen and explanation be reconciled?

What about concepts? Concepts (ideas) are the atoms of explanation: they are what make up explanation. Zen is not fond of concepts, and instructs students of Zen to avoid them. “This mind is no mind of conceptual thought” says The Zen Teaching of Huang Po, translated by John Blofeld, p.

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