Man Has An Irrepressible Tendency To Read

The Evils Of Mankind Are Caused, Not By The Primary Aggressiveness Of Individuals, But By Their Self-transcending Identification With Groups Whose Common Denominator Is Low Intelligence And High Emotionality.

The Ultimate Truth Is Penultimately A Falsehood.

Einstein's Space Is No Closer To Reality Than Van Gogh's Sky . The Glory Of Science Is Not In A Truth More Absolute Than The Truth Of Bach Or Tolstoy, But In The Act Of Creation Itself. The Scientist's Discoveries Impose His Own Order On Chaos, As The Composer Or Painter Imposes His; An Order That Always Refers To Limited Aspects Of Reality, And Is Based On The Observer's Frame Of Reference, Which Differs From Period To Period As A Rembrant Nude Differs From A Nude By Manet.

Zen Is To Religion What A Japanese "rock Garden" Is To A Garden. Zen Knows No God, No Afterlife, No Good And No Evil, As The Rock-garden Knows No Flowers, Herbs Or Shrubs. It Has No Doctrine Or Holy Writ: Its Teaching Is Transmitted Mainly In The Form Of Parables As Ambiguous As The Pebbles In The Rock-garden Which Symbolise Now A Mountain, Now A Fleeting Tiger. When A Disciple Asks "what Is Zen?", The Master's Traditional Answer Is "three Pounds Of Flax" Or "a Decaying Noodle" Or "a Toilet Stick" Or A Whack On The Pupil's Head.

The Disastrous History Of Our Species Indicates The Futility Of All Attempts At A Diagnosis Which Do Not Take Into Account The Possibility That Homo Sapiens Is A Victim Of One Of Evolution's Countless Mistakes.