Creativity and the laughable
Situated in the East Bay area, near the lovely city of San Francisco, the Purple Lotus School is witnessing yet another miracle. … In April 1996, when the great “Merit Wall” on campus had just been constructed, a mysterious face appeared on the wall immediately after the cement dried. … Buddhists who have witnessed this phenomenon believe this to be the face of the compassionate Bodhisattva Kuan-Yin. … Others have believed this image to be that of the Virgin Mary. Magia and Junia Chou, the daughters of the Purple Lotus Society’s Master Samantha Chou, attend a Catholic elementary school. Upon seeing the image, both called out earnestly and delightedly, “Look! It’s the Virgin Mary!” … With the essence of Enlightenment and universal wisdom in mind, perhaps one can argue that a distinction between the two is not important after all.
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It’s laughable, I know — but I must confess I like the “meaning” I can draw from that…
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zen:
May 17th, 2011 at 4:22 am
You have hit on a very important point here Charles.
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The "craziness" perception is driven, I think, by two things. First, the idea is transgressing our inituitive understanding of how the world works in the sense of rules, laws, principles – our internalized sense of both metaphysics as well as our experience of physics. We recoil reflexively rather than consciously. Secondly, it trespasses on Kuhn’s concept of a paradigm as a cultural template as well as explanatory model. here are our conscious worries and calculations, our careerism and our social anxieties reign.
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How many good ideas and insights die here, I wonder?
J.ScottShipman:
June 7th, 2011 at 8:54 pm
Charles, Great post! Not sure how I missed it the first time, but a welcomed reference. Zen, Too many good ideas and insights die in our worries.