http://bactra.org/notebooks Cosma's Notebooks en http://bactra.org/notebooks/1994/10/03#zen Myths of the sect. Attitude towards the intellect. History of its lay following --- artists, literati, samurai. And authoritarianism. <a href="wisdom-of-the-east.html">Introduction to the West and influence there</a>. Origins of koans. And <a href="ai.html">AI</a>. Comparison to analytical philosophy (all those paradoxes, claims that things are pseudo-problems, etc.). <a href="hu-shih.html">Hu Shih</a> once <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/1397361">wrote a paper</a> arguing that koans began as analytical paradoxes, which were intended to have logical (but perhaps counter-intuitive) answers; I don't know how well that idea has held up, but I like it. <P>I have a <a href="../Zen/">micro-collection of Zen documents.</a> <ul>To read: <li>Bernard Faure, <cite>Chan Insights and Oversights: An Epistemological Critique of the Chan Tradition</cite> [<a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/5244.html">blurb</a>] <li>Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright (eds.), <cite>The Zen Canon: Understanding the Classic Texts</cite> <li>Brian Victoria, <cite>Zen at War</cite> <li>Duncan Ryuken Williams, <cite>The Other Side of Zen: A Social History of Soto Zen Buddhism in Tokugawa Japan</cite> [<a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/7883.html">Blurb, ch. 1</a>.] <li>Shoji Yamada, <cite>Shots in the Dark: Japan, Zen, and the West</cite> [<a href="http://www.press.uchicago.edu/presssite/metadata.epl?mode=synopsis&bookkey=371709">blurb</a>] </ul>