On China 2

China, in many ways, is the fountainhead of East Asia. Zen Buddhism started in China, not Japan. Zen Buddhism focuses on the NOW, the moment. What is the sound of one hand clapping. It is the sound of self-congradulations. Don't think. Be in the moment and your perceptions open up like never before. The lotus is on the water, the bottom touching the surface.

Formalism, in Western Philosophy, was a school of thought that began in Russia I believe. Vladimir Nabokov and Susan Sontag both came out of the school of formalism. This school of thought taught that you should look at the artwork or the text as a thing in itself. All you needed to understand Shakespeare was the text of the plays. Nothing else was relevant. Zen Buddhism looks at life in this manner. Let me explain.

What is the structure of the society? Who's in the position of power? Who are those who can influence the person in power? What philosophical ideas are the dominant ones influencing the NOW? Do any in the lower position carry the ability to make decisions? There are thousands of other questions that influence the NOW, the present reality.

Formalism assumes that art or NOW is a stable phenomena that carries a permanent and absolute meaning. This is untrue. Also NOW power structures are not stable. You never step in the same river twice. The NOW lasts as long as those in power have a permanent, stable ideology. These days, they don't. They just dance.

Zen Buddhism asserts that NOW is the thing-in-itself. Marxists do not believe in the thing-in-itself. Identity is a class-based. The context of class creates an identity based on the struggle for status and power which forms consciousness in a certain manner.