Anthony,
I assert the idea that RMP was in fact using Socratic method, for he was using
the literary device of the Koan, they are one in the same device. East and West
Philosophy are united in the utilization of it.
I feel this has a huge impact on the understanding of the MoQ.
Do you see the same?
(comparisons below)
“LILA was originally conceived of as a case-book in philosophy. ‘Does Lila
have Quality?’ is its central question. It was intended to parallel the
ancient Rinzai Zen koans (which literally means ‘public cases,’) and in
particular, Joshu’s ‘Mu,’ which asks, ‘Does a dog have a Buddha nature?’.”
(Pirsig 2002d)
Koan:
From wiki-
kōan is a story, dialogue, question, or statement in the history and lore of
Zen Buddhism, generally
containing aspects that are inaccessible to rational understanding, yet may be
accessible to intuition.
English-speaking non-Zen practitioners sometimes use kōan to refer to an
unanswerable question or a
meaningless statement. However, in Zen practice, a kōan is not meaningless, and
teachers often do
expect students to present an appropriate response when asked about a kōan.
Even so, a kōan is not
a riddle or a puzzle.[1] Appropriate responses to a kōan may vary according to
circumstances;
different teachers may demand different responses to a given kōan, and a fixed
answer cannot be
correct in every circumstance.
A kōan or part of a kōan may serve as a point of concentration during
meditation and other activities,
often called "kōan practice" (as distinct from "kōan study", the study of kōan
literature). Generally,
a qualified teacher provides instruction in kōan practice to qualified students
in private. In the
Wumenguan (Mumonkan), public case #1 ("Zhaozhou's Dog"), Wumen (Mumon) wrote
"...concentrate yourself
into this 'Wu'...making your whole body one great inquiry. Day and night work
intently at it. Do not
attempt nihilistic or dualistic interpretations."[3] Arousing this great
inquiry, or "Great Doubt"
is an essential element of kōan practice.
Socratic method:
From wiki-
According to W. K. C. Guthrie's The Greek Philosophers, while sometimes
erroneously believed to be
a method by which one seeks the answer to a problem, or knowledge, the Socratic
method was actually
intended to demonstrate one's ignorance. Socrates, unlike the Sophists, did
believe that knowledge
was possible, but believed that the first step to knowledge was recognition of
one's ignorance.
Guthrie writes, "[Socrates] was accustomed to say that he did not himself know
anything, and that
the only way in which he was wiser than other men was that he was conscious of
his own ignorance,
while they were not. The essence of the Socratic method is to convince the
interlocutor that whereas
he thought he knew something, in fact he does not."
Socrates generally applied his method of examination to concepts that seem to
lack any concrete
definition; e.g., the key moral concepts at the time, the virtues of piety,
wisdom, temperance,
courage, and justice. Such an examination challenged the implicit moral beliefs
of the interlocutors,
bringing out inadequacies and inconsistencies in their beliefs, and usually
resulting in puzzlement
known as aporia.
Application:
(1) Kōan is a Japanese rendering of the Chinese term (公案), transliterated
kung-an (Wade-Giles) or gōng'àn
(Pinyin). Chung Feng Ming Pen (中峰明本 1263-1323) wrote that kung-an is an
abbreviation for kung-fu an-tu
(公府之案牘, Pinyin gōngfǔ zhī àndú, pronounced in Japanese as ko-fu no an-toku),
which referred to a
"public record" or the "case records of a public law court"
(2) Traditionally, the casebook method is coupled with the Socratic method in
American law schools.
For a given class, a professor will assign several cases from the casebook to
read, and may also
require students to be familiar with any notes following those cases. In class,
the professor will
ask students questions about the assigned cases to determine whether they
identified and understood
the correct rule from the case, if there is one — in certain heavily contested
areas of the law,
there will not be any one correct rule.
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