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    Goodbye Mr. Zen: An informal wander through Zen via James Hilton’s “Goodbye, Mr. Chips”
    Goodbye Mr. Zen: An informal wander through Zen via James Hilton’s “Goodbye, Mr. Chips”
    Goodbye Mr. Zen: An informal wander through Zen via James Hilton’s “Goodbye, Mr. Chips”
    Ebook39 pages41 minutes

    Goodbye Mr. Zen: An informal wander through Zen via James Hilton’s “Goodbye, Mr. Chips”

    By Cameron Gordon

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    About this ebook

    This little book is a short meander through Zen thought and practice intertwined with a discussion of the novella by James Hilton about an eccentric Oxford don titled "Goodbye, Mr. Chips," interwoven with a discussion of James Hilton's short but remarkable life and the durability of the "Chips" book in its various stage and screen incarnations. I, the author, am an amateur seeker. That sort may be the worst kind, or, as Zen might put it, the best kind. Or perhaps no kind at all which may be even better than the best. It is not meant to be a definitive or expert treatise on Zen, of which there are many (and I provide a few references, at the end, of some of my personal favorites). Neither is it a how-to guide. As the author, I'm not sure I can say exactly what it is at all except that I hope it might be a bit of an inspiration to readers to learn and search some more about Zen. For Zen asks that we find out for ourselves what it's all about.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCameron Gordon
    Release dateDec 15, 2015
    ISBN9781310177446
    Goodbye Mr. Zen: An informal wander through Zen via James Hilton’s “Goodbye, Mr. Chips”
    Author

    Cameron Gordon

    More will be revealed. My watchword. My life. Like everyone else's life. I am nothing special. Just a writer who embraced the craft, the art and the vocation relatively late in life, with later better than never. I have had two careers up to now, the first as a policy researcher, analyst and report writer in government (in the US) and the second as an academic lecturer and researcher (in the US, Australia, China, Singapore, Russia, Spain and the UK). These careers have been creative in their own way and have involved a lot of writing. But it took me a long while in that rather plush wilderness to embrace the identity that I have always known, and practised 'on the side', namely artist. That's a rather pompous term to be sure, but for me it simply is devotion to one's craft, putting it first, and giving it form on a regular and daily basis. To quote the poet W.S. Merwin, who visited Ezra Pound to get this advice: "...it was important to regard writing as not a chance or romantic or inspired (in the occasional sense) thing, but rather a kind of spontaneity which arises out of discipline and continual devotion to something." (p. 318, Good Poems for Hard Times", Keillor, Garrison (ed), Viking: 2005). That is why I have left my former work behind and embarked on the writing life full-time. I write both poetry (haiku in the beginning and now other forms as well), short stories, novellas and novels, and plays. I also write creative non-fiction. I have a play in early development with the Street Theatre in Canberra, Australia (where I now live as a former native New Yorker) and two poetry books nearing completion. I am currently also editing a collection of my short stories and am reworking a first (unpublished) novel. I blog regularly on a number of platforms. My themes seem to focus on two major things: the life of cities and the tension between humanity and mechanisation. But, of course, I cover a wide range of topics, as most people do as they live a daily life and the days accumulate into experience.

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      Book preview

      Goodbye Mr. Zen - Cameron Gordon

      GOODBYE, MR. ZEN

      An informal wander through Zen via James Hilton’s Goodbye, Mr. Chips

      By Cameron Gordon

      FRONT MATTER

      Goodbye, Mr. Zen: an informal wander through Zen via James Hilton's Goodbye, Mr. Chips

      By Cameron Gordon

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright 2015 Cameron Gordon

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Introduction

      A ZEN JOKE

      A man walks into a monastery

      The Master is sitting there drinking tea.

      A newspaper lays by his side, ignored.

      The man asks the Master for advice.

      The Master says:

      If you drink tea, just drink tea.

      If you read the paper, just read the paper,

      Next day, the same man walks into the same monastery.

      There's the Master, reading the newspaper and sipping on his tea simultaneously.

      But you said... the man begins to object.

      Before he can finish the Master says If you drink tea and read the paper, just drink tea and read the paper.

      * * * * * * * * *

      It's impossible to describe Zen except indirectly. The joke above is meant to capture its humor, irreverence, avoidance of rigidity in practice, and silliness. Boiling down Zen to a single command one could say: just be. The trick of Zen is how to do that. Zen won't instruct anybody directly on that either, however, for to instruct is to kill off.

      This little book is a short meander through Zen thought and practice intertwined with a discussion of the novella by James Hilton about an eccentric Oxford don titled Goodbye, Mr. Chips. I, the author, am an amateur seeker. That sort may be the worst kind, or, as Zen might put it, the best kind. Or perhaps no kind at all which may be even better than the best. It is not meant to be a definitive or expert treatise on Zen, of which there are many (and I provide a few references, at the end, of some of my personal favorites). Neither is it a how-to guide. As the author, I'm not sure I can say exactly what it is at all except that I hope it might be a bit of an inspiration to readers to learn and search some more about Zen. For Zen asks that we find out for ourselves what it's all about.

      This work itself was spontaneously inspired. For a long time I owned a worn-out used paperback edition of Goodbye, Mr. Chips which I just couldn't get myself to read. I had seen just a bit of a television show inspired by the novel and thought it dreadfully saccharine and sentimental. It doesn't take too much for me to jump to conclusions so don't take that as a judgment of the show itself. I recall watching only a snippet. But that was enough for my summary negative assessment.

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