But in the new-ish strain of thinking about beauty, women have reconfigured beauty work not as a way to keep themselves objectified but as a liberation or expression of the “true self.” It’s a neater, more progressive response to objectification on the behalf of men, yet using “but I do it for me!” as the end to the conversation would be a mistake. ![]() The most obvious example is that women play dress-up to turn ourselves into objects under a system where men are the subjects. The relationship between subject and object lies at the core of our relationship with beauty. In seeking insight through the koan, the practitioner, instead of seeking an answer separate from oneself, is the koan. What is the sound of one hand? The sound of one hand clapping is the subject and object being unified, and unified in such a way that it’s not simply a twofer but something else entirely, something outside of the construct of subject and object (and, I suppose, outside the construct of sound). In fact, that’s sort of the idea behind what’s probably the most famous koan, even if most people who know it (myself included, until last week) don’t know what a koan is: Two hands clap and there is a sound. But permit me to like the idea of Zen Buddhism, okay?) One aim of these riddle-like phrases is exhausting the intellect, for how can one respond analytically to the question of whether a dog has Buddha-nature, especially if the proper answer is understood to always be no? Another aim is to relax the will, allowing the mind to operate on an intuitive level.īut it’s one of the koan’s tertiary goals that interests me the most: dissolving the duality of subject and object. (I wouldn’t know I used to say I was “agnostic” until I realized I was really just apathetic. Robin Trimingham is the chief operating officer of The Olderhood Group Ltd and a virtual presenter, journalist, podcaster and thought leader in the fields of life transition and change management.The Zen koan-a paradoxical statement or dialogue used as a meditative tool by Zen practitioners-has a number of aims, if one is allowed to “aim” in Zen, which one probably isn’t. Which begs the question … in any disagreement what do you actually react to more, the voice of your opponent or the one in your head? Would you hear yourself as others hear you and see the solution to the disagreement, or would you merely hear the sound of your ego buzzing in your ear as you endlessly swatted the air? Would you hear the hum of your refrigerator, or the bird in the street, or the neighbour on his porch?Īnd if you eventually ran out of external sounds to identify and finally looked beyond the noises that they make – what then would you hear? Perhaps at first, but what would happen if you continued to sit? Or would you settle down in a quiet place and attempt to hear that which you have refused to hear before?Īnd if you did choose this last and somewhat unlikely course of action, what do you suppose would happen next? Would you scoff in frustration and turn the page? If all you apply is logic and you are very clever, eventually you may realise that one hand can in fact make a sound if you use it to pat yourself on the back.īut in the context of this discussion, will patting yourself on the back ever help you solve a disagreement and, more importantly, is this the answer that the Zen master is seeking? ![]() If the Zen master insists that there is in fact a sound and that you the student must describe it, how will you respond?Īnd, if there actually is a sound, how can you hear it?Ĭlose your eyes and visualise this for a minute. On the surface, it pushes air but makes no sound end of discussion. ![]() Robin Trimingham suggests we all listen to the sound of one hand clapping
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