The design of enlightenment in koan Zen [microform]
- Bib ID:
- 3282860
- Format:
- Book and Microform
- Author:
- Tarrant, John Maxwell
- Description:
- 204 p.
- Summary:
-
A map of Zen training and enlightenment is developed using systems design methods. Analogues between systems design and Zen are drawn. A design group for collaborative theory building was formed. Nine experienced Zen students, including the author, used consensus techniques to generate a description of enlightenment as a system. Additional material was drawn from literature and from the author's experience. Structures and processes of the Zen system are identified. Major structural features are: Student, koan, teacher, and sesshin. The Zen student concentrates on the koan to the exclusion of other concerns. The teacher holds the student to the koan. Important stages leading to enlightenment are: Existential doubt, which brings the student to Zen; deep concentration, in which the student is absorbed in the koan; a catalyst, an ordinary sense impression which breaks up the concentration; and enlightenment itself.
Enlightenment involves initiation into the depth of Zen and an encounter with the universe, the teacher and the tradition. A special language centered on the koan is developed. Enlightenment is operationally defined as the ability to respond to the teacher's koan questions. Other features include a sense of one's true identity and, paradoxically, of the ordinary nature of the insight. Readiness and expectations influence the emotional tone of the experience. Enlightenment is one event in a long journey of practice and development after enlightenment is seen in terms of the psychological concept of presence. More general theories of enlightenment are considered: psychological frame-breaking; altered states of consciousness; and the existential shift--this last providing the best description. Zen practice is then shown in relation to formal theories of discontinuous change, namely: Punctuated equilibrium; catastrophe; and dissipative structures.
These are viewed as particular cases within a general theory of design. In a dissipative structure a fluctuation from equilibrium is amplified and leads to an abrupt transformation, a symmetry break, followed by reorganization at a higher level. This provides an excellent model for Zen enlightenment. This theory may be useful further in linking Zen training and existential psychotherapy. Design is shown as a powerful method for inquiry into consciousness.
- Notes:
-
- (UnM)AAI8811851
- Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-04, Section: A, page: 0844.
- Chair: Bela Banathy.
- Thesis (Ph.D.)--Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center, 1987.
- Reproduction:
- Microfiche. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International.
- Subject:
- Other authors/contributors:
- Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
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Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Literary Dramatic Musical
- Published status:
- Unpublished
- Creation date:
- 1987
Copyright status may not be correct if data in the record is incomplete or inaccurate. Other access conditions may also apply. For more information please see: Copyright in library collections.
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