Strict Form

Two items from this morning’s news:

“Sasaki Roshi trained for years in a distinctively strict style of Zen
that he transplanted to the U.S. His students rose at 3 a.m.
for chanting, exhausting hours of meditation and one-on-one
meetings with their teacher, who would pose impenetrable
koans, riddles like: ‘When you see the flower, where is God?'”

For a mathematician’s example of an alleged Zen ideal, see the feast day
this year of St. Gerard Manley Hopkins.