Snape the Zen Master/ was Re: Harry's Role in OotP (long)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 130186

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "nrenka" <nrenka at y...> wrote:

<SNIP>
> 
> I don't recall Snape offering anything to make one think in that 
kind 
> of paradoxical manner so beloved by Zen masters.  (By the way, the 
> koan of 'one hand clapping' *actually does have an answer*.)  My 
take 
> on "Close your mind", from a lot of personal experience doing 
things 
> with relaxation, is that it's pretty impossible to do yourself as 
a 
> beginner without a feedback mechanism.

Let's see, a Snape Koan.  How about "What is the sound of one moron 
snarking?"

I actually discussed this very subject recently with a Buddhist monk 
I know.  He's in the Theravadin tradition but his Sangha uses a lot 
of Zen meditation practices.  He's also a big Harry Potter fan.

He said of the whole Occlumency scene that he found it all very 
silly.  The two instructions Snape gave, "Clear your mind" 
and "Master yourself" were essentially worthless.  The first (once 
again in his belief) takes years to learn how to do effectively, and 
the second takes ten thousand lifetimes.


> 
> Hitting a student is not feedback; giving them pressure that 
allows 
> them to feel what they're doing is.  Snape never gives any ideas 
as 
> to how to clear one's mind, which is something that I know 
personally 
> can be done.  It's an essential *component* of the process of 
> learning by doing.

I don't know if my friend's Sangha uses hitting or insults.  I've 
never seen such, but perhaps it goes on there when I'm not around.  
My friend has said, in other contexts not having to do with Harry 
Potter, that he has found most accomplished meditation masters to be 
jolly, jovial sorts.  But that is hearsay, so take it as such.  

> A Zen master gives a student something that's very productive to 
> think about and go on.  A Zen master also tends not to lose his 
> temper dramatically at the foibles of youth.  I don't see any of 
> Snape's statements falling into that category of koan-like, nor do 
I 
> see his instruction as like that of a meditation master.
> 

Well, my friend said about Snape, "A wounded bird cannot teach 
anyone to fly."  Now, I should say he loves to do a Kwai-chang Cain 
act -- he finds it vastly amusing to watch people's reactions.  So 
take that for what it's worth.


Lupinlore