MC CARTHY, TIMOTHY J., MFA, May 2008            ENGLISH

AND YET… AND YET… (96 pp.)

Director of Thesis: Mary Biddinger

This creative writing thesis consists of four groups of poems, which function as "commentaries" on a significant Zen Buddhist literary work, or koan. Although these relate to each other as chapters of a single work, each may also stand as a separate chapbook. The four larger works, or chapters, are framed by two single-page poems, which comment on single short, more traditional, koans.

I have chosen three larger koans as well as one short scripture because, as a group, they exemplify each other, forming a cohesive artistic artifact. Also they are the most "literary" of the works to be found in the Zen literary tradition, clearly suggesting the appropriateness of a contemporary western poetic response. The four works commented on which form the basis of the four chapters are the following.

Genjokoan (Jap.) roughly "Enlightenment Appears in Everyday Life," or "Everyday Life is Enlightenment" was written by Dogen Zenji (1200-1253), the founder of the Japanese Soto sect of Zen Buddhism. This piece is the first chapter of Dogen's Shobo-genzo, which is considered "the most profound work in all of Zen literature and the most outstanding work of religious literature of Japan." *

Sei-ji-Koan. Early Chinese Ch'an (Zen) Buddhists appropriated this folk tale about a woman who splits into two people becoming whole at the end of the story as part of its wisdom literature. The interpretation of this story invites the use of contemporary western psychology and physics among other influences.

Hyakujo and the Fox. This koan deals with causality and ethics from the standpoint of paradox. Although it is the product of the Zen tradition it bears a resemblance to folk tradition. Because of this, like the Sei-ji koan, it is atypical in Zen tradition and lends itself to a western artistic interpretive approach.

Heart Sutra. This is the most important scripture for Zen Buddhists and is revered by all East Asian (Mahayana) Buddhists.