There is a vast and rich treasure by way of understanding humanity to be found in literature. If we read Thucydides' 2,500 year old account of the Peloponnesian War and we change the names of people and places, we could be reading the news of the day. War-ish tribalism is in us like dye in water. The swaggering pronouncements of politicians and public figures are unchanged from 2,500 years ago. And the subsequent descent into chaos and death and social upheaval is likewise unchanged.
But one of the shadows on the wall of human opacity that we also find in every "where" and in all times is an intuited sense of humanity as an expression of something larger than life its self and from which life emerges.
And it is entering into the light by which this shadow is cast that is the purpose of Zen.
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