Nan-in and the Professor โ A Western Zen Parable
โA Cup of Teaโ is a short Zen story that is quite famous and popular among Western (Zen) Buddhists. Itโs a bit of a peculiar story, however, as I hope to make clear in the following. Before we turn to that, letโs start with the story itself: Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitorโs cup full, and then kept on pouring.The professor watched the [cup] overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. โIt is overfull. No more will go in!โโLike this...
โDo Your Own Researchโ
There has been considerable push-back against โdoing your own researchโ recently, and Iโm not entirely happy with that. Iโm aware, of course, that the phrase โdo your own researchโ tends to be used by and/or associated with rather delusional people who believe that watching a Youtube video or googling something counts as โresearchโ, but pushing back too hard (or in the wrong way) against such silliness risks ending up with the other extreme: elitism and counterproductive conformism. There are (at least) two aspects of โdoing your own researchโ and the push-back that are worth paying closer attention to. One has...