The Upside Down Circle: Zen Laughter

What is Zen? Zen is a realization of Absolute Reality ... which is life, the Source. You are Zen, but not the personal you as provided by ordinary mind. Many books available today translate centuries-old verbal exchanges between monks and Zen Masters. These stories depict monks asking questions that seem simple and understandable. Yet the answers they received from the masters were often irrelevant, illogical, and confusing. To break habitual thinking patterns, Zen Masters often give their students a koan, a question which cannot be answered logically. This twist in normal thinking often becomes a catalyst for the person to enter into a new relationship with his or her own thinking process. One then experiences the immediacy of the present moment - the flow of life - without resistance. Since this world is constantly changing - and we realize nothing is permanent - the fluid teachings of Zen are eminently adaptable to our Western world, as Zen Master Gilbert illustrates so artfully in these "teaching cartoons." His main character, Unk, seeks truth and happiness. But time and again, he merely bumbles his way from one confusion to another, mistaking the moon in the water as reality. With the help of his friend, Pepito, and his teacher, Master Woof, Unk eventually learns that when ordinary little mind is free to see clearly, the real moon has merely been hidden by clouds of concepts. Only when he climbs the mountain and views the whole panorama, can he truly laugh at all the little clouds of worldly entanglement and glimpse, perhaps for the first time, the exquisite beauty and natural freedom of all life.