alanbwt on Nostr: “There is a famous Zen parable which fitly sums up this particular attitude to ...

“There is a famous Zen parable which fitly sums up this particular attitude to life. It is said that to those who know nothing of Zen mountains are just mountains, trees are just trees, and men are just men. After one has studied Zen for a little time, the emptiness and transience of all forms is perceived, and mountains are no longer mountains, trees no longer trees, and men no longer men, for while ignorant people believe in the reality of objective things, the partially enlightened see that they are only appearances, that they have no abiding reality and pass away like drifting clouds. But, the parable concludes, to him who has a full understanding of Zen mountains are once again mountains, trees are trees, and men are men.”

— Alan Watts, The Spirit of Zen