ZEN - Buddhism Glossary
Mokurai's Temple defines Zen as:"Zen: Japanese; Ch'an (Chinese); a branch of Mahayana Buddhism which developed in China during the sixth and seventh centuries after Bodhidharma arrived; it later divided into the Soto and Rinzai schools; Zen stresses the importance of the enlightenment experience and the futility of rational thought, intellectual study and religious ritual in attaining this; a central element of Zen is zazen, a meditative practice which seeks to free the mind of all thought and conceptualization."
What has this to do with Alzheimer's? Well, I like to think of Dad as nearing a state of Zen in many ways. His favourite TV is the adverts which he engages with totally with little or no critical thought about the content, intent, self awareness or indeed any manipulation of his behaviour - he doesnt do shopping and I reckon the "need to" rarely if ever crosses his mind.
For mum's funeral he repeatedly asked "what do the ladies drink?" and attempted to make a list. That was over a year ago. Fair, enough all his daily needs are taken care of between the family and the staff at the "extra care accommodation" but I have to assume from being with him that the concept of needs and pro-actively tending to them oneself does not impinge on his being.
The first awareness to go after one stroke was hunger, he just does not feel it and so has to always be prompted to eat. As a large part of human activity still has the aim of fulfilling hunger plus other basic needs before the desires induced by western capitalist culture this alone frees him from thought about what needs to be done. As he also forgets almost immediatly that he has eaten (and almost everything else) he is also freed from much of the noise of memory.
I see this emptiness as far from the void of nihilism but to mix my metaphors as more akin to a state of grace. Medicalisation of "going ga-ga" carries very negative connotations but sometimes I really envy him for his seeming to exist right here right now without complication...
posted by Jen @ 10:22 PM
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