Just as it is impossible to explain the beauty of a sunset to a man blind from his birth, so it is impossible for sages to find any words which will express their wisdom to common folks. For the wisdom of sages is not in their teachings; otherwise anybody might become a sage by simply reading a scripture.
That’s where the concept of Zen becomes so interesting (and so hard to explain). And that’s the challenge that Alan Watts undertook in his book The Spirit of Zen. When you read the book, you begin to unfold this idea, layer by layer. In the excerpts below, you can see how Alan Watts starts with the very term itself and then builds upon the idea of Buddhism from where the Zen philosophy is actually derived.
Excerpts taken from The Spirit of Zen by Alan W. Watts:
Like so many of the keywords of Oriental philosophy, “Zen” has no exact equivalent in English. It is a Japanese word, derived from the Chinese Ch’an or Ch’an-na, which is in turn a corruption of the Sanskrit Dhyana, usually translated as “meditation.” This is a misleading translation because to the Englishman “meditation” means little more than deep thought and reflection, whereas in Yoga psychology Dhyana is a high state of consciousness in which man finds union with the Ultimate Reality of the universe.
The same is true of Ch’an and Zen, except that the Chinese mentality preferred to find this union less through solitary meditation in the jungle than through the work of everyday life. There is nothing “other-worldly” about Zen, for it is a constant attitude of mind just as applicable to washing clothes as to performing religious offices, and whereas the Yogi retires from the world to achieve his Dhayana, Zen is found in a monastic community where master and disciples share all the work of supporting the monastery – growing rice, gardening, cooking, chopping wood and keeping the place clean. Thus, if “Zen” is to be translated at all, the nearest equivalent is “Enlightenment,” but even so Zen is not only Enlightenment; it is also the way to its attainment.
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