Beat Zen Square Zen and Zen

[iv], 25, [1] pp. "The following essay first appeared in the Chicago Review for the Summer of 1958, and is now republished with the Editor's kind permission. To the present version, however, certain additions have been made, because this seemed to be a good context in which to discuss the influence of Zen on Western Art, and because the original was published before the appearance of Kerouac's Dharma Bums.... [T]he spirit of awakening (satori) is not to be found by seeking and is not in any case something that can be acquired or cultivated. But seekers have persistently refuse to take the "No!" for an answer and to this the Zen sages have responded with a kind of judo. Realizing the uselessness of just telling the seeker that seeking will not find, they have replied with counter questions (koan) which have the effect of exciting the effort of seeking until it explodes with its own force, so that the student realizes the folly of seeking for himself - not just verbally but through to the very marrow of his bones. At this point the student "has" Zen."