" Those who do not know cannot tell but those who knows do not tell. " - that sounds crazy, but that is what Zen is all about. It is actually devoid of meaning, and can only be understood through "absorption" or "immersion" from an experience that relates to one's enlightenment regarding a particular subject. In simple terms, one cannot explain fully to a non-reader how a novel composed of hundreds of pages without any pictures in it could arouse one's emotion and imagination.
Take for example the first "real" novel I read - " Love Story" by Erich Segal. I have seen the movie twice before I got to read the novel but the latter proved to be a better experience that mere seeing it on the TV screen. Ali McGraw and Ryan O'Neal fitted the roles of Jennifer Cavilleri and Oliver Barret to tee, as well as Ray Milland's portrayal of Oliver's father. It was a simple story about a rich boy falling in love with an ordinary girl and a father who wanted more for his son. They got married, went through life for better and for worse until fate left Oliver with a broken heart. The musical score made the movie even better, but reading the book was a lot different than merely watching it on TV.
The movie did not deviated much from the novel, but there is a great divide between watching the things that were happening than "feeling" how it is to there while they were occurring. Reading get you to imagine and feel the experience of falling in love, resenting the people who wanted to break you two apart, and losing the one you held so dearly in your life. I have seen the movie before so I knew what was about to happen including the ending, and yet I failed to hold back the tears when Oliver lost Jenny to cancer.
The sequel was even better - "Oliver's Story". I intentionally did not watch the movie before I read the novel. Jenny is gone and it was time for Oliver to fall in love again. He did found love with someone who was of the same class and everything was going for them. The novel would have had a happy ending until Oliver went back to his old shell after realizing that it would be unfair to his new love to go on with the relationship with a divided heart. Funny but I would have felt the same way, for why erase the memories of a past love when its the real thing that keeps you alive. More so interestingly, Segal's closure of the novel is one of the best I have read so far - " There's only one thing I know, that if Jenny was alive today, I would have been too. "
That's the Zen part of reading - you cannot describe the "feeling" unless you get to read. Reading means different to different people. To some, reality depends on their perception, but for others, their perception is their reality. The best thing about reading is that there are many doors you could choose from depending on how feel like seeing. It could be a source of knowledge and adventure, or a way to learn and experience the different facets of life. And sometimes that where the problem lies - given the number of things you can unravel, you develop more thirst for it ...
Once you have tasted the experience on how you can get "lost and buried " in the pages of the book you read, there is no turning back. Zen, Zen, the Zarapen ...
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