A Zen View Upon the World (Less is More)
- Wikimedia . This article is inspired by the Alexandrine pattern 134, Zen View. The pattern states: “ The archetypal zen view occurs in a famous Japanese house, which gives this pattern its name. ” Let’s start with listening to the wisdom of A Pattern Language (Please note that the illustrations of the original text are missing): A Buddhist monk lived high in the mountains, in a small stone house. Far, far in the distance was the ocean, visible and beautiful from the mountains. But it was not visible from the monk’s house itself, nor from the approach road to the house. However, in front of the house there stood a courtyard surrounded by a thick stone wall. As one came to the house, one passed through a gate into this court, and then diagonally across the court to the front door of the house. On the far side of the courtyard there was a slit in the wall, narrow and diagonal, cut through the thickness of the wall. As a person walked across the court, at one spot, where...