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Giggling & Mysticism. Barrister Christmas Humphreys, longtime head of the British Buddhist Society, counters that Koestler cannot talk about Zen from the outside as if it were a religion or a philosophy, when it is nothing less than enlightenment. Critic Cyril Connolly, while praising the book, suggests that Koestler has the "metaphysical shortcoming" of not being able temperamentally to deny the existence of the physical world. But Swiss Psychiatrist Carl Jung surprisingly praises Koestler's "needful act of debunking, for which he deserves our gratitude...
Asleep or Awake. Japan was no wet diaper, but "a scented bath which gives you electric shocks at unexpected moments." Many of the shocks came from Zen Buddhism, which Koestler feels makes sense in Japan's rigidly conformist social structure. "Taken at face value and considered in itself," he writes, "Zen is at best an existentialist hoax, at worst a web of solemn absurdities. But within the frame work of Japanese society, this cult of the absurd, of ritual leg-pulls and nose-tweaks, made beautiful sense. It was, and to a limited extent still is, a form...
...object of Zen is satori (enlightenment), and Koestler thinks this is the opposite of Yoga's aim, samadhi. "Samadhi is the elimination of the conscious self in the deep sleep of Nirvana; satori is the elimination of the conscious self in the wide-awake activities of intuitive living . . . To make the point quite clear: literally, samadhi means 'deep sleep,' satori means 'awakening.' Mystically, of course, 'deep sleep' means entering into Real Life, whereas the Awakened one 'lives like one already dead.' But cynically speaking, it is less risky and more pleasant...
C.N.S. Mukasa of Uganda, like a Zen master suggesting but never defining, described the African personality as "mystical and yet very tangible to us." As it emerges from colonial rule, Africa feels a compelling need to claim its own place among the world's peoples, he said. However, the Balliol-educated intellectual cautioned against "throwing away" all traces of the colonial inheritance, for Africa will develop an eclectic civilization...
Like Enemy, Tigers celebrates oddballs Author King has known. The title itself comes from a Zen Buddhist pal who always uttered "his senseless little orison" on leaving King's apartment. After three years, King exploded, "What is the meaning of this idiot prayer?" "Well," said the hurt friend, "have you been bothered by any tigers lately...