Angels On a Pin Head

Live the questions now. Perhaps, then, someday far into the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer. - Rainer Maria Rilke in the Zen Calendar (June 26, 2007)

Blog Number 11 (But Who's Counting!?)

Peak Experience! I went to my trusty pile of saved pages from the Zen Calendar that my son gives me every year and there - right on top - was a quote that seemed perfect for what I planned to write tonight. Serendipity at its finest!

During a recent Cushion Sit (it's actually very difficult to find synonyms for "zazen"), an interesting memory from one of my favorite undergraduate classes floated up to my (rather vacant at the time!) mind. The class was History of Psychology, taught by Dr. Chance -- and what a happy chance it was to get to take the class with such a brilliant and provocative professor. I was 20, with a teeming and fertile mind ripe for sowing. To my delight, the history of psychology begins with a look at Aristotle and Plato and Socrates - of whom Dr. Chance spoke like they conversed nightly. I can vividly recall the lecture I still title in my mind, "The Day That Thought Got Free." I'm sure I have some of the content blurred (after all, age 20 was a LONG time ago!) but the essence of the message continues to reverberate through my being. Dr. Chance was speaking about the influence of The Church at the time of Socrates and Company, emphasizing the choke hold the institution held on the mind, the body and the spirit. In the midst of the lecture, Dr. Chance looked up from his notes and gaped out at the lecture hall chock full of sophomores. With eyes wide and burning, he declared ". . . . . AND THOUGHT GOT FREE!" I will never forget it (though I have managed to forget most of what came before and after that point in this life-altering lecture). He spoke with such animation and excitement that the room buzzed similarly to what I imagine happened at that magic moment so many thousands of years ago. Dr. Chance was asking us to contemplate the explosion of all those constricted minds at the moment that Original Thought came crashing through. In a calmer voice, he then speculated that the scholars of the time sat around at dusk as the stars appeared and mused over intriguing questions such as, "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?"

Counting angels on the head of a pin? Why the hell were these Original Thinkers wasting their time on a question like that when they could be solving the meaning of life, defining the reason for death, and similar meritorious pursuits. Until my recent insight during zazen, I approached the question from time to time in an embarrassingly literal and concrete way. I found myself envisioning these molecular sized deities and wondering about the mathematical formula necessary to calculate the exact area of a pin head (geometry was not my strongest subject).

So . . . . two nights ago I'm sitting on my cushion in a (relatively) deep state of meditation, and the answer comes to me -- fragmented and incomplete, but an answer nonetheless. We're not talking REAL angels here! At least, not in the sense that "real" requires matter and substance like other tangible things in our physical world. My answer to the question (which is resplendent with my subjective interpretation and distortion -- just as Socrates would wish) has to do with juxtaposing the metaphysical and the physical. The spiritual and the earthly. What we can observe with what we Know. The answer shot through me with crystal certainty: As many angels as want to can dance on the head of a pin! There are aspects of the universe that transcend quantification. That are not bound by physical perimeters. It wouldn't matter how diminutive a dance floor a pin head could provide -- it would be an immense space on which angels could dance!

In a non-meditative state, I'm having difficulty recalling why the realization filled me with such delight. I guess that's just the emotion that bubbles up when Thought Gets Free. There was something thrilling about Knowing that there is intricate interaction between the spiritual and the corporal. The expansiveness of it all. The wonderment that there is SO MUCH MORE to what our usual state of mind observes and grasps. The reminder that, for thousands of years, human beings have felt curiosity about what lies beyond the matter our senses can perceive.

You need intuition and imagination to think about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. And I needed a neuro- nudge to remember to think outside my box. To be humble at how much I don't know. And to be open to how much I do.

Gassho,
CycleBuddhaDoc