Zen Jail
How's about this for punishment? Zen jails.
Imagine this. The murderer sees examples of prisoners being let out, and they are clearly happier.
The Warden approaches him, saying: "Look. If you can figure out this riddle, you can go free." He then gives him a koan. If a tree falls in the forest, and no one's around to hear it, etc.
Every day, the prisoner comes back and forth with an answer. He says No. This goes back on and on until the Prisoner finally achieves the Zen achievement of peace and enlightenment. He achieves thinking by not thinking, the enlightenment that happens to Zen monks. He starts to realize that the entire world is an illusion, that there is no answer to this question, just as there is no way out, that his pursuits of sex, violence and drugs are meaningless.
The prisoner does not deny that there is an answer to the koan in his pursuit, because he remembers the prisoner being let out.
The jail cell itself is a perfect example of a Zen atmosphere - no distractions, just simplicity, quietness. Because everyone would be focusing on the koan, trying desparately to achieve freedom.
Combined with psychotherapy, we could have Zen monks who were formerly rapists and child murderers.
But would they achieve enlightenment? Would they fake it? Would they achieve enlightenment, then be pulled back by the flesh? Would they function in the real world? Would they care about freedom? Would they give up, thinking that "I am not one of those men that escaped?"
Perhaps they achieve the enlightenment that the world is an illusion, and their own enlightenment - that morality is an illusion, also. That perhaps, in the world soul, just as we have the bad parts in us, the weaknesses in all of us, they are that part. They are a cancer in the body of the world, which must be excised, rather than being treated.
Murderers who become Zen Monks, or Zen Monk Murder?
Just a thought.
Imagine this. The murderer sees examples of prisoners being let out, and they are clearly happier.
The Warden approaches him, saying: "Look. If you can figure out this riddle, you can go free." He then gives him a koan. If a tree falls in the forest, and no one's around to hear it, etc.
Every day, the prisoner comes back and forth with an answer. He says No. This goes back on and on until the Prisoner finally achieves the Zen achievement of peace and enlightenment. He achieves thinking by not thinking, the enlightenment that happens to Zen monks. He starts to realize that the entire world is an illusion, that there is no answer to this question, just as there is no way out, that his pursuits of sex, violence and drugs are meaningless.
The prisoner does not deny that there is an answer to the koan in his pursuit, because he remembers the prisoner being let out.
The jail cell itself is a perfect example of a Zen atmosphere - no distractions, just simplicity, quietness. Because everyone would be focusing on the koan, trying desparately to achieve freedom.
Combined with psychotherapy, we could have Zen monks who were formerly rapists and child murderers.
But would they achieve enlightenment? Would they fake it? Would they achieve enlightenment, then be pulled back by the flesh? Would they function in the real world? Would they care about freedom? Would they give up, thinking that "I am not one of those men that escaped?"
Perhaps they achieve the enlightenment that the world is an illusion, and their own enlightenment - that morality is an illusion, also. That perhaps, in the world soul, just as we have the bad parts in us, the weaknesses in all of us, they are that part. They are a cancer in the body of the world, which must be excised, rather than being treated.
Murderers who become Zen Monks, or Zen Monk Murder?
Just a thought.
posted by Marshall McMahon at 8:36 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home