Think About This

Andrew Birk

February 25, 2008

4:05 AM

Zen and the Art

tier system from literal and metaphorical bottom to top consists of:

• ?

• Artist

• philosopher

• critic

• artist

or in terms more appropo (in the event that this writing has attracted the interest of a layman)

• ?

• Doing

• questioning questioning

• questioning

• doing

in the same way that a square can be a rectangle but a rectangle cannot possibly be a square

an artist can be a critic but a critic cannot possibly be an artist.

a child's only brilliance is that he is not yet concerned with external elements, upon being influenced by such elements, his or her ability to externalize the internal becomes greatly diminished in conjunction with his internalization of the external. true brilliance lies in the transcendence of internal or external bias, thus only being concerned with and inspired by the action itself for no other sake.

it should be known that even in questioning, you are doing. and again in questioning questioning. but in Doing, the Doer is only concerned with Doing for the sake of Doing, and the acknowledgment of any of the lower three tiers of activity is no longer necessary, nor (perhaps) possible, as they (lower tiers) have absolutely zero persuasion over any Doing-processes (be it physically, mentally, conceptually, aesthetically, or [any other] ally-ally), other than befuddlement, which is a state of being reserved for critics and philosophers, not Artists and Doers.

keeping the mind regimented and sharp, yet simultaneously untrained and permeable, is to be the maintained state for a(n) Artist or Doer.

this writing can be seen as consistent with some zen writings, for the reason that the structure depicted in the process of reaching enlightenment though zen, is, in my mind, the same to be used to reach any metaphysical state of mind (such as that of the Artist or Doer). It is a metaphor to follow and perhaps eventually deviate from as the individual may see fit. perhaps to see what waits above the fourth tier, such deviation becomes a necessity. perhaps there are more tiers to be mentioned as well. all of this is neither here nor there, it is only the general theoretical outline that would best be adhered to.

none of these writings are to be in any way related to religion, and before you question this proclamation, you should first realize that the 'tier' model is so effective in its ability to stratify that it has surely been manipulated to place the manipulator in a position of hierarchical dominance. such abuse is intolerant, and will never result in true transcendence of the insignificant parameters in which we are all encapsulated.

i transcribe these thoughts for fear that sleep shall devour them from my consciousness. more to be added at a later date.