Art and the Science of Zen

In Shakespeare and the Common Understanding, Rabkin shows how Shakespeare poses reality as , "...pairs of polar opposites...". He goes on to develop the notion of complementarity as a core world vision. "...there are phenomena which physicists can understand only by treating light as waves and others which they can interpret only by treating it as quanta...". Shakepeare's vision is portrayed in a discussion of Richard II, "...the complementarity of it protagonists virtues..."

In The Surrealist Revolution...Gershman says, "...The vital element in a myth...They express ...the feeling that there is a duality in nature...In a true surrealist work there is no message, only an invitation...to acknowledge the only true values in a fraudulent world, liberty, love and the poetry which expresses them...".

In the Theatre of the Absurd, Esslin says, "...The Theatre of the Absurd strives to express its sense of the senselessness of the human condition...striving for an integration between the subject-matter and the form in which it is expressed that separates the Theatre of the Absurd from the Existentialist Theatre".

The history of art, like that of science and philosophy is about a search for core values, truth, beauty, justice, love, harmony...Now, modern science has uncovered truths that transcend all historical thought. The twists and turns and dilemmas which surfaced in the historical search for truth are now seen in a new context.

As we are able to penetrate deeper and deeper into the nucleus of the atom what we find are mathematical structures and relationships which point to a multi-dimensional, interconnected universe. The fields, waves, quarks, photons, electrons and other fuzzy metaphors extracted from the mathematical and scientific data are just signs of a reality not to be understood by our senses or intellect.

What does this say about the nature of god...man...woman...being...? How do we now answer the age old questions...what is real...what is just...what is beautiful?

The answers are at least partially buried in the mathematical structures which continue to evolve and emerge at all levels of study.

Lee