Subject: RE: Awfully Quiet in Here
From: Sean Draine (seandr@microsoft.com)
Date: Tue Feb 27 2001 - 20:10:10 GMT
Cecilia,
"Now, I've been considering this, and the sound of one hand clapping can
also be something else: a slap. The hand colliding against something,
anyway."
It is now widely understood that the clever monks who invented
this koan had in mind a certain shameful solitary act that
does indeed involve the hand, typically the right one, "colliding"
over and over again with "something". Without doubt, the
deprived halls of the monastery roared with one-handed applause
on most evenings.
But what makes this riddle so interesting is that its answer
provides an apt metaphorical characterization of the
intellectual efforts of those bent on solving it! (It has
also been used, fittingly in my opinion, to describe some
of the later Salinger stories, such as Hapworth and Seymour:
An Introduction.)
All of which suggests that the best thing about Zen Buddhism
is its sense of humor, and that a true understanding of Bananafish
would entail a rather extreme Freudian interpretation.
-Sean
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