Zen and the art of stupid fucking questions
Posted March 3, 2006 
Comments(11)
Comments(11) Years ago, my mother told me that she thought I had a very black and white way of looking at the world. To my adolescent mind this seemed almost an insult, I thought I was liberal, a free-thinker, an introspective testament to open-mindedness. I didn’t realise until a long time later that the capacity to decide what I think didn’t invalidate any of these descriptions. I am a cynic, and I am an idealist. I am the former as a result of the latter. I see how the world should work, and I know it will never be achieved. I see what people could be, and what they aren’t.
Someone asked me last week what my definition of right and wrong was, and laughed when I replied “What you should do, and what you shouldn’t do.
Did I never tell you that I have long since revised my “black and white” description of you. I think you are a very colourful person–especially your language!! I cannot think for the life of me where you picked up this trait!!
My smiley won’t work so I’ve lost my humour factor.
No stupid questions but lots of stupid people!!
Mother, a smiley cannot stop working. Rest assured that you are doing it wrong :)
Hello….I’m Artemis! My name is Artemis and I came across your blog ….is your name really Artemis! Are you Persian? How old are you? email me if you get a chance!
Hello Artemis,
No, artemis is not my actual name, it is a nick I use to talk online. I am not Persian, and I am probably much older than you if you are still at the stage of asking random strangers to email you.
Yours,
/artemis
How deeply worrying. I hope this blog is not becoming googleable.
http://www.google.ie/search?q=artemis+%2B+blog&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official
Google knows all, see’s all, and soon will taste all.
Well, my small brother has the ability to clap one of his hands. I must get him to show you some time.
Because I can’t find your email address:
http://www.aerarann.ie/
Now, come to Galway, you know you want to!!!!!
But not with Aer Arann…….. :-(
Interesting pile of wank there (to use your phrase).
There is no such thing as stupid questions – just stupid answers.
Sound can be measured (in Bells) therefore it can exist without anyone being around to see said tree fall.
If a man speaks in a forest, and there is no woman around to hear him – is he still wrong?
Atremis, how i miss our metaphysical meanderings.
Mummy of Artemis, not one expletive will you find here, I bow to those who’s skill in such matters is far greater than mine…
There are stupid questions, and stupid answers, and stupid people to ask or answer, but most stupid of all, are those who do not understand. If I have inadvertantly called anybody stupid, then, dont worry, you will get over it…
The problem is not the question, nor indeed the answer.
The problem lies with apparantly smart people who try to provide the smart answer. I know this to be true, I am intermittently one of those people. I’ve played around with Zen, with or without motorcycle maitenance, and to hell with multicoloured wheelbarrows.
I have come to the conclusion that it is merely a tool to keep idle minds occupied. I’ve also come to believe that it is an entirely alien concept for someone brought up in a western culture. But i stray from my point…
The point is not the answer, nor the question, but the uncertain state between the knowing and the unknown. The place where all the answers exist, but none are concrete, the place from which all the questions you have not yet formed begin and yet cease to be… it is the state of Zen which is sought after, and if sought after, it will be forever out of reach. And it doesnt get more Zen than that…
Zen : the state of seeking something which once sought, becomes out of reach. And therefore to search you must stop searching, and go back to the state you occupied before. Zen is an excuse for not changing :)
By its nature it allows stagnation, a spherical sworl of thought which can be traversed in a thousand different ways but will always return you to the same point eventually. You can spend a lifetime travelling roads that go nowhere.
So the question is, what is the point, the journey, or the destination? Unless you do not seek a point, in which case fall over and stop breathing, for you are not really alive…
*smile* Welcome back to the web Akashla, how I’ve missed you :)
Oh, but I disagree. (but of course, how else would life be interesting?)
Zen is not an excuse for not changing.
An excuse is only ever an excuse.
The reason for not changing cannot be Zen as Zen itself welcomes change, uses change, uses contradictory states even, to explain itself.
A person, however, can use whatever excuse they can think of, regardless of its aptness.
All roads go somewhere.
They cannot go nowhere.
At the very least, the end of the road is the end of the road.
It is not the fault of philosophy if one sees nothing where there may be something.
And of course the journey is the point, the destination is completely arbitrary.
Its wherever you stop.