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From: wfs@mgweed.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.sport
Subject: Zen and Intuitive Response
Message-ID: <1254@mgweed.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 7-Jun-83 13:27:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: mgweed.1254
Posted: Tue Jun  7 13:27:00 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 8-Jun-83 07:23:20 EDT
Organization: Western Electric - Montgomery Illinois
Lines: 28


          Zen and Intuitive Response(Part 3)

      Intuition-a direct perception of  a  truth  or  fact  independent  of
    reasoning   or   logistical   support,  an  immediate  apprehension  of
    experience  that  defies  rational  inquiry.  But   because   of   this
    elusiveness from the rational intellect, Western culture has sublimated
    instincts and intuitive hunches and encouraged us to disregard them  as
    too imprecise, abstract and nebulous for our overbearing, rationalizing
    intellect. Zen says it is this Western insistence of intellect  as  the
    preferred  partner  over  instinct  and  intuition  that is essentially
    responsible  for  a  state  of  exist-  tial  paralysis;   insofar   as
    consciousness does not trust its reflexive intuitive responses in those
    very instances when they are more reliable and expedient than logistics
    or rationalization.
      Graduation exercises at the Shaolin Monastery were indicative of  the
    imphasis  put  on  the  intuitive reponse. As part of a student's final
    exam, he was required to  navigate  through  a  long,  dark  passageway
    strewn  with  devices  and  boobytraps  arranged  to test the student's
    intuitive/reflexive reaction. The nature and immediacy of running  this
    gauntlet  left  the  student  little  time to plan a defense or apply a
    technique.
      His only saving grace was how well he was  in  tune  with  his  inner
    feeling  and  instinctual  moves. This exercise conveyed to the student
    that reason and logic could not always be depended upon to deliver them
    from  unfavorable impending circumstances; it is therefore necessary to
    cultivate an open consciousness to the inner voice,  so  that  it  will
    guide  and  move us when the intellect is stifled......(cont'd. in part
    4)