1. Introduction: Why Zen, Why Me, and How Did I Get Here?
2. Frankl had an appreciation of beauty and being in the moment. In Man’s Search for Meaning he states “One evening, when we were already resting on the floor of our hut, dead tired, soup bowls in hand, a fellow prisoner rushed in and asked us to run out to the assembly grounds and see the wonderful sunset. Standing outside we saw sinister clouds glowing in the west and the whole sky alive with clouds of ever-changing shapes and colors, from steel blue to blood red. The desolate grey mud huts provided a sharp contrast, while the puddles on the muddy ground reflected the glowing sky. Then, after minutes of moving silence, one prisoner said to another, “How beautiful the world could be…” (1,2)
3. In Logotherapy and Eastern Religions by Joseph B. Fabry, Fabry describes his conversation with Frankl on his return from lecturing in Asia. Fabry writes “But, he (Frankl) recalls, “on my tours in Asia, in India and Japan, I was told … that what I was saying were old truths one might find in the ancient Vedas, in Zen, or in the writings of Lao Tzu.” The article also examines the relationship and contributions of Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism to Logotherapy (3).
3. Berg und Sinn (Mountain and Meaning) was written by Klaus Haselböck and Michael Holzer (4). The authors, who are mountaineers and versed in Logotherapy, follow Frankl’s footsteps using his climbing notes on routes he pioneered up the Schneeberg, Rax, Peilstein, and Cima Grande. They meet with Elly Frankl. They describe Frankl’s life, routes, attention to detail, his fellow climbers, and the historical perspective of how climbing shaped and was formative in his survival in the concentration camps and refining Logotherapy.
The book has an introduction by Elizabeth Lukas. “Frankl and the Mountains”. Lukas, a well published disciple of Frankl, states; “Frankl once told me himself that he came up with the most brilliant of his ideas in the solitude of the Rax”. “On his free weekends, he set out on his backyard mountain, the Rax, in order to refuel his inner serenity. The physical activity of climbing offered an ideal balance to the exhausting cognitive activity during the week. The exercise on the Rax plateau was his compensation for sitting in his practice and standing in the lecture theater”
I describe selected passages from the book and how they support Frankl’s Zen-like thinking and behavior.
4. In Expert Advice From Jonathan Vaughters (5) (on climbing mountain passes on a bicycle) Jonathan Vaughters describes the techniques, thinking and visualization one employs on the long climbs of the Cols in the Alps. Vaughters retired as a completive cyclist having raced in the Tour de France and coached a professional cycling team.
5. Zen and Western Psychotherapy: Nirvanic Transcendence and Samsaric Fixation by Sandra A. Wawrytko (6) discusses different psychotherapies and their relation to Zen Buddhism. It concludes that of all psychotherapies the closest parallels are to be found between logotherapeutic techniques and those of Zen, including an understanding of enlightenment and insight into the key role of suffering in transcendence and insight.
6. Follow Your Bliss is a quote by Joseph Campbell with my thoughts and comments.
7. Japanese Zen Buddhist Philosophy (7) describes the school of the Buddha-Way (Zen) and its contention that wisdom, accompanied by compassion, is expressed in the everyday lifeworld when associating with one’s self, other people, and nature.
8. In the The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi (8), Musashi, the most famous Japanese swordsman reflects upon his life experience after he retired undefeated following sixty one duals. He retired to a cave to write the classical Buddhist Five Element theory to elucidate strategies of battle and life and the spiritual dynamic that forms the jumping off point to satori, enlightenment.
9. Bodhidharma is a Buddhist monk who lived during the fifth or sixth century and is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Chan Buddhism to China and is regarded as its first Chinese Patriarch. The three teachings; Taoism, and Buddhism and Confucianism are traditionally considered to be a harmonious aggregate within Chinese culture and Philosophy.
10. The Tao Te Ching 道德經道德经; (‘Classic of the Way and its Virtue’) is an ancient foundational text that is central to both philosophical and religious Taoism. Two translators are Red Pine (9) and Johnathan Star (10). Mindfulness and the Tao are deeply intertwined; mindfulness is essentially the active, lived practice of the Taoist philosophy
11. Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present and aware of our current surroundings, thoughts, and feelings. Mindfulness serves as the practical tool to anchor your awareness in this exact “now,” allowing you to experience life directly.
12. Haiku is a Japanese verse form most often composed, in English versions, of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables. A haiku often features an image, or a pair of images, meant to depict the essence of a specific moment in time. (11). On my daily journey I experienced and photographed Nature, attempted to distill it down and share the experience in the form of a haiku to accompany the photographs.
13. Images taken and haikus written over seven years on my daily commute from home to work along the Long Island Shore, CT (USA) on my bicycle. When appropriate these are paired with a passage from the Tao.
Citations
- Frankl, V. E. (1992). Man’s search for meaning: An introduction to logotherapy (I. Lasch, Trans.). Beacon Press. (Original work published 1946) p 51.
- Frankl, V. E. (2024). Embracing Hope: On Freedom, Responsibility & the Meaning of Life Beacon Press. (Original work published 1946) p 51.
- Fabry, J. B. (1975). Logotherapy and Eastern Religions. Journal of Religion and Health, 14(4), 271–276. doi.org
- Holzer, M., & Haselböck, K. (2019). Berg und Sinn: Im Nachstieg von Viktor Frankl. Bergwelten.
- Vaughters, J. (2008, June 6). Expert advice from Jonathan Vaughters. The New York Times. https://archive.nytimes.com/theclimb.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/ready-to-edit-and-post-expert-advice-from-jonathan-vaughters/
- Wawrytko, S. A. (1991). Zen and western psychotherapy: Nirvanic transcendence and samsaric fixation. Chung-Hwa Buddhist Journal, 4, 451–494
- Nagatomo, Shigenori, “Japanese Zen Buddhist Philosophy”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2024 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2024/entries/japanese-zen/>.
- Musashi, M. (2005). The book of five rings (T. Cleary, Trans.). Shambhala. (Original work published ca. 1645)
- Tzu, L. (2009). Lao-tzu’s Taoteching (Red Pine, Trans.). Copper Canyon Press.
- Tzu, L. (2003). Taoteching: The definitive edition (J. Star, Trans.). TarcherPerigee.
- Haiku Society of America (2024) https://www.poetryfoundation.org/education/glossary/haiku-or-hokku