2009年10月10日星期六

koan, zen, paradoxical riddles

NEWS ANALYSIS
Google, Zen Master of the Market
By STEVE LOHR
Microsoft challenged the rules on competition and antitrust law. Now, it’s Google’s turn.

He pursued Zen even more intensely, mastering two approaches — one “just sitting,” and the other solving paradoxical riddles, called koans. A highly regarded teacher in Los Angeles asked him to start a center in the East.

Zen (RELIGION) Show phonetics
noun [U] ［Jap.］ n. 禅.
a form of Buddhism which developed in Japan and which emphasizes that religious knowledge is achieved through emptying the mind of thoughts and giving attention to only one thing, rather than by reading religious writings:
Zen Buddhism

zen (RELAXED) Show phonetics
adjective UK INFORMAL
relaxed and not worrying about things that you can not change:
There's nothing you can do to change the situation so you just have to be a bit more zen about it.

公案

以古代禪師開悟的故事、非邏輯的言行，作為參禪時思惟的內容。這類的故事或言行，稱為公案。英文為 koan --取自日文發音 (20世紀中才納入):

WHAT is the sound, asks an ancient Buddhist koan, of one man driving? In my case, for more than 1,500 miles, the answer was a low-frequency whine emanating from my front wheels. The bearings were seizing up, and the Volvo, which had never moved quickly, lurched forward with ever-greater reluctance.