Bob Schwartz

This is it
Ah but what is this?
This is it
Ah but what is this?
This is it
Ah but what is this?
Sweet silly fool
Stay silent.

Why would tinkering with Zen bring me to Wittgenstein? Why not?

Mine the treasures of mind deep enough through the earth and, as the old nostrum goes, you will end up in China. Ha!

Kidding. Mine the treasures of mind deep enough and you will find something that is nothing. When you try to describe or picture it, it will look and sound like…everything?

As a younger philosopher Wittgenstein wrote Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. The final section is much quoted and interpreted:

7
Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

Wittgenstein claimed at the time that he had answered all the questions of philosophy. Later and older, he changed his mind, repudiating some of the things he had said before.

No matter. His endorsement of silent surrender remains.

Except. It is not conventional surrender. Boshan prescribes great doubt through questions. But those who arrogantly pretend to have answers and those who earnestly work for answers both fall short. The final answer is not enough and so not final. Surrender and go on.

What is this?

© 2023 by Bob Schwartz