{"id":16594,"date":"2012-11-04T16:40:47","date_gmt":"2012-11-04T16:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=16594"},"modified":"2012-11-04T16:40:47","modified_gmt":"2012-11-04T16:40:47","slug":"details-nuances-and-blind-spots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=16594","title":{"rendered":"Details, nuances and blind-spots…"},"content":{"rendered":"

[ by Charles Cameron<\/strong> — Zen, Mahdism, and the importance of details ]
\n.<\/p>\n

If you hear the phrase, “Details, details” from time to time, you may have noticed it is often accompanied by a sigh.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n.<\/p>\n

I’m never quite clear on which came first, the saying “God is in the details” or the saying “the Devil is in the details” — but whichever it is, the details are where you’ll find it. <\/p>\n

I ran across Philip Kapleau<\/strong> Roshi’s comment on koans (above) in his classic book, The Three Pillars of Zen<\/a>, the other morning, and it sent me from Zen <\/strong>by rapid mental transit to Mahdism <\/strong>— one of the other termini in my mental system — and to the quote fro m Tim Furnish<\/strong>, one of many to the same effect, which I’ve juxtaposed to it.<\/p>\n

If you still think Ahmadinejad<\/strong> (Shiite), and only Ahmadinejad, in terms of Mahdism, then you’ve missed the general point that Furnish is rightly making — and the specific point that Al-Qaeda (Sunni), and not only Al-Qaeda but many Sunnis are also liable to hold strong Mahdist expectations — Abu Musab al-Suri<\/strong> among them.<\/p>\n

Because the Whichever-it-is is in the details, the details are the nuances and — when we make decisions without knowing the details, we’re liable to sail right into our blind-spots.<\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

Now if you go to a zen master for instruction, you may or may not bee taught shikantaza<\/strong> (“just sitting”) or given a koan<\/strong> (“meditation paradox”) — both descriptions are simplistic; Kapleau Roshi’s book will take you deeper — but one way or another you’ll soon find out, and hopefully you and the master in question can figure things out.<\/p>\n

If, on the other hand, you don’t know that Mahdism may be a Sunni as well as a Shiite phenomenon, watch out!<\/p>\n

Amplified Mahdist expectation transforms the mental “set” of a jihadist from someone “fighting the good fight” in a generalized way into someone who believes the fight they are fighting is the Culminating War of Good against Evil<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Which, as Furnish’s article’s title, What’s Worse than Violent Jihadists?<\/a> suggests, is a whole lot more intense.<\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

I argued for taking “wide-angle view” at the end of my recent post, Sensitive dependence on initial conditions<\/a> — here. I’m at the other end of a mental zoom, arguing for precise and nuanced focus on distinctions.<\/p>\n

As with Hayakawa<\/strong>‘s Ladder of Abstraction<\/a>, it pays to be able to work both ends of the spectrum — from the detailed specifics of “my cow Bessie” abstract statistical generalities of “livestock in Colorado” — and beyond.<\/p>\n

Ladders will feature one of these days in a “form is insight” post of their own — Hayakawa’s Ladder, and William Blake<\/strong>‘s, and Herman Kahn<\/strong>‘s. <\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

Details have their own details, and details are essentially differences — so there’s a lot of zooming in and out to do before you gain clarity. In Gregory Bateson<\/strong>‘s terms, you want to be clear on the differences that make a difference<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[ by Charles Cameron — Zen, Mahdism, and the importance of details ] . If you hear the phrase, “Details, details” from time to time, you may have noticed it is often accompanied by a sigh. . I’m never quite clear on which came first, the saying “God is in the details” or the saying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[701,526,623,771,1,657],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism","category-charles-cameron","category-mahdist","category-nuance-subtlety","category-uncategorized","category-zen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16594"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16663,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16594\/revisions\/16663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}