Zen

I had people ask me if I were Buddhist or a student of Zen so many times that I finally decided to look into it.

So, exploring I find that many of the principles of Zen have already been incorporated into my world views and stories.

The Forgetting

In Zen there is this concept of the unlearning, it is the principle of allowing change.  To be able to forget.  To re-explore a solution space in search of new answers and new ways.  That's right, throw away your perfectly good answers, at least for a time, possibly a long time.  In genetic programming natural forces know this principle well.  The rate of house cleaning is slow, you don't throw out everything at once. (Well, unless it's all turned in to one big sticky, self referencing, mess.)  Usually, you can just pick a really old piece of knowledge and try throwing it out and see what happens.  The "a scientist knows nothing" line is a bit like this.  We pick up bits of knowledge all the time, that even though they look pretty good are in fact wrong, or at least prevent us from finding some other really cool piece of information that our previous ideas did in fact preclude.  Christianity's concept of repentance, or the 'turning about', is actually quite similar.  Through it we maintain the flexibility and humility which is required to continue growing.  The glory of evolution, that it can give up mistakes.  This concept is so basic and powerful that I used it in the spheres of knowledge before researching it in Zen.  Also, the repentance - memory loss suffered by Lawrence and later Alicia are forced by their circumstances to do so.

The Way

To enjoy experience life, the bitter, the sweet, the sad, the joyous; and to love every minute of it.  To see the glorious challenge of trials, to see hilariousness of irony, to see through the eyes of the master story teller and architect of eternity.

Reality

Often, what others view as 'reality' could be more appropriately termed 'wrong-ality'.  Merely because 6 billion humans think one way does NOT make it right, correct, or have any bearing at all on universal truth.