Zen Tiger
Part 8 and 9 — disturbing dreams, poetry and Zen Tiger koans
Eighth Part
“No being is wiser than Zen Tiger, therefore Zen Tiger is not jealous. He is only hungry.”
— Corpus Tigrinum, Zen Tiger, p. 73, Zarathustra Press, Persepolis 333 BC
Poetry of Zen Tiger
(scratched by a tiger’s claw in blood: “For Rosalie” and a heart beside it)
God’s chalice, the holy grail
Nectar of Nous and struggle
in the cave beneath the fire of shadows
struggle against mediocrity
Action for the sake of action
Hides the true thoughts
Thoughts of Zen Tiger
Warrior at the end of civilisation
Rosalie only said “Roar.” and Zen Tiger answered:
“Well, it isn’t exactly a love poem, but you see how powerful it is. Like a blow from a paw.”
Zen Tiger concluded correctly, and Rosalie lightly cuffed him on the head with her paw.
“I think she likes it, she’s just too proud to admit it. But precisely because of that pride… and of course because of her looks, she is dear to me.”
Zen Tiger pondered and fell asleep beside Rosalie.
In the night he dreamed a strange dream. A great white beast that looked like a toy for little Zen Tigers was threatening to break every bone in his body. Beside it stood a man in a horned helmet. He had long black hair and a goatee. He was smoking a cigar so that his whole face seemed to be smoking. He wore sunglasses and a yellow T-shirt that read Dr Intelligence.
At every threat from the beast the man nodded vigorously and yelled “Yes! You heard him, huh!” while the giant white toy declared:
“Zen Tiger, I know you have killed many men and beasts. But that is nothing compared to what I have done. I have almost emptied my homeland Hyperborea of every living thing. There is no one left, only eskimos and ice. I have come south to take your prey and to break your bones.”
At the end the breathless man with the horned helmet and cigar concluded with a roar:
“Zen Tiger! We are coming for you. I, Doctor Intelligence, and my white bear Storberg!” while behind him the great white toy flexed its muscles.
Zen Tiger told the dream to Rosalie, and she answered “Groar.” meaning “You are strong, you will handle it.”
And Zen Tiger said:
“You know what, Rosa, you concluded correctly.”
Before he left, with a claw dipped in blood, Zen Tiger wrote one more poem and left it for Rosalie:
Colossi of Struggle
We shall bring our ship into the mythical harbour of salvation
beneath the earth of ice
above the empire of the sun
And there, look! Golden gates stand
Colossi appear
The only guests
But we are the colossi of struggle
we seek the prophesied being
at the end of civilisation
That which opens the gates
Clearly light shines from there
And melts the darkness of black intoxicated souls
While it lets the discerning pass
to the ordered music of the spheres
into a new age of gold
We walk the radiant path
we seek with the heart
and see with strength
“Knowing Rosa, she will surely say Roar, or Grrr, maybe Arrrggh if she finds it truly excellent.”
Zen Tiger concluded correctly.
NINTH PART
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Zen Tiger Koans
On Problems
Word spread that Zen Tiger was the wisest being in the world. People in dilemmas, uncertainties and ignorance brought their burdens to Zen Tiger for solution.
Tall people, small people, strong and weak alike carried their loads to Zen Tiger.
No one ever saw them again. There are no more problems.
— The Life of Zen Tiger — Expanded Edition, cosmic bard Ja’buka Niramovski, p. 32, Zarathustra Press, Persepolis 321 BC
On the Path and Thoughts
“He who seeks the path loses the path. Equally: he who seeks a thought loses the thought!”
Zen Tiger concluded correctly and continued:
“Thus I know how to seek a thought, and then I realise that nothing is on my mind, or only things unworthy of me, Zen Tiger!”
He lay down on the rock by the stream, dipped one paw into the water and concluded correctly:
“This is a meta-thought. A thought about a thought. So let us prepare for a metaphysical day. I wanted something else…”
— The Life of Zen Tiger — Expanded Edition, cosmic bard Ja’buka Niramovski, p. 12, Zarathustra Press, Persepolis 321 BC
On Death
One Pseudologoi grew arrogant. He is remembered in the chronicles as Epicurus.
People said of him that never had such an orator walked the world.
“From lies he makes truth, from truth a lie,” they said in the marketplaces and at the Olympic games.
“Because of his words people stop believing their eyes and ears and begin to see and hear with Epicurus’s arguments,” they claimed.
People began to believe, encouraged by Epicurus himself, that not even Zen Tiger could match him in wisdom.
The proud Pseudologoi finally convinced himself of it and went to Zen Tiger to prove once and for all, with words, that Epicurus, and not Zen Tiger, was the wisest being in all creation.
When he arrived before Zen Tiger, he intended to begin the debate lightly. With an elegant verbal trick about the fear of death.
“What is there to fear when we shall not be, and while we are, there is no death,” Epicurus prepared himself.
So he came before Zen Tiger, who lay on his rock reading Hermes Trismegistus.
Epicurus was frightened when he saw the great Zen Tiger, yet he gathered courage, cleared his throat, arranged his half-long black hair and spoke:
“Zen Tiger, everyone says you are the wisest in the world and I respect that. But of late it has been heard throughout Anatolia, Persia, the Peloponnese, Attica, Illyria and Rome that I am wiser after all.
So let us settle it now by debate.
Tell me, O Zen Tiger, should one fear death?”
With one eyebrow raised he looked at Zen Tiger.
Zen Tiger looked at Epicurus and answered in a melodic voice:
“It is not change that makes death, but forgetting. I shall eat you and do not worry — you will feel nothing, but rejoice, for I shall never forget this meal!”
And in one bite Epicurus ended his life.
— Chronicle of Zen Tiger, cosmic bard Ja’buka Niramovski, p. 105, Zarathustra Press, Persepolis 324 BC
On Debates and Shadows
“Satori stings me and I have no time for debates.”
Those were the last words the forgotten Pseudologoi heard during one of Zen Tiger’s cave-clearings.
Later chroniclers, among them I, your Ja’buka Niramovski, cosmic and astral bard of the nine heavens and countless constellations, analysed those words of the leader into the Golden Age of historical cycles.
“What did Zen Tiger mean by that?” the thought urged us.
By consensus we concluded the following: debating and listening to debates is a struggle and a game with shadows. Precisely for that reason the Pseudologoi played with shadows and by the theatre of shadows kept people imprisoned in ignorance. For that which is cannot be spoken or heard; it is lived, felt.
That is it!
When Satori stings you, you simply know without words. And even these are too many.
— Chronicle of Zen Tiger, cosmic bard Ja’buka Niramovski, Preface p. 7, Zarathustra Press, Persepolis 324 BC
