Counting to Zen

By SHARON K. GILBERT
November 18, 2008

SO, A FEW DAYS AGO, Derek and I were sitting in our new living room, watching HGTV, one of the few cable television stations that actually holds our interest these days, when the umpteenth designer said for the umpteenth time — this room is so ‘Zen’!

We exchanged rolled-eye glances, and Derek asked “Do they even know what that means?”

And so I started to thinking: Do most people know what they’re saying when they speak of ‘Zen this’ or ‘Zen that’, or is Zen becoming a post-modern, buzz word? Or–is there more to it–does Zen have more weight–does the ‘Zen concept’ carry with it hidden meaning and perhaps even power?

Well, the internet is a marvelous resource for couch-potato thinkers such as myself–so I spent a little time walking up and down the virtual library shelves, thumbing through electrons, and tiptoeing through the aetheric tulips of nodes and servers.

Zen, it seems, is getting to know yourself. Why, Zen is the pinnacle of knowledge. In fact, turning your eye inward is the way to achieve enlightenment. Forget scriptures! Forget the Lord God Almighty! The power to know you — is within you — and you are what it’s all about! The way to do this is to meditate to the point of ’emptiness’. When I read this, I was reminded of the parable Jesus taught of the house that is swept clean:

When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ 11:25 When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. 11:26 Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. (Luke 11:24-26)

Is this what meditation is all about? Cleaning house so spiritual entities will find a tidy place to live? Curiously, the image of a clean house could be summed up with the number ‘zero’. And that is one reason why the symbol for Zen is so very interesting:

The ‘Enso’, Japanese symbol for Zen Buddhism. Source: Wikipedia.

Does the above image look at all familiar? If it does, you’re gonna love what comes next….

This image is the logo for Lucent Technologies. Curiously, this mega-communcations company is partnered with Bell Labs (Bell is one etymological permutation of Baal). The name ‘Lucent’, of course, rings of Lucifer. In fact, some sites on the internet claim the original name of this company was Lucifer Enterprises (LucEnt for short). One thing is certain: Lucent has chosen some very telling names for their products: Inferno, Limbo, and Styx. The red ‘Zen-type’ circle looks suspiciously like this:

The Ouroboros (above image) represents the ‘Leviathan’ dragon that surrounds the earth’s ecliptic (apparent path of the sun). On December 21, 2012, the sun will rise out of the ‘mouth’ of this dragon in the constellation Sagittarius, and a new ‘Age’ will begin.

And speaking of the sun rising out the mouth of Leviathan. I’m reminded of another ‘Zen-like’ image:

Isn’t it interesting that this ‘O’ is rising over a stylized US flag? The United States represents ‘The West’. The Sun rising in the west? Now, where have we heard that before? Hint: Predictions and sayings regarding the return of Islam’s Mahdi include the sun rising in the west.

The ‘Big O’ is Overstock.com — Oprah’s magazine is ‘O’ — and the original crop formations were ‘O’ shaped. All right, I’ll stop now. I can’t help it. This whole Zen thing just got me thinking…and thinking…and thinking.

My, how Zen.

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