Picturing Understanding - A Few Handy Tools

The Venn Diagram

"If you can't draw a picture, then you don't understand it well enough."

- Zen Optimism

Of course, we all know the adage about a picture and a thousand words. One visualization tool that comes in so handy so often is the Venn Diagram. Let’s look at one example to ensure we’re all on the same page on how to read them.

Here, we have captured the relationship between the range of all spiritual practices, Buddhism, and Zen. From the diagram, we can make the following observations:

• Buddhism is just one ‘set’ of spiritual practices.

• What makes Buddhism is not the name but the intended goal of realizing non-duality.

• Zen is a subset of Buddhism with two distinctions: seated meditation and direct transmission.

• There is no notion of Zen outside of Buddhism (the Zen bubble is fully contained within the Buddhism bubble).

And while this Venn diagram does show relationships, it does not attempt to define terms. Eventually, one should be clear on the following:

• Intention,

• Realization,

• Non-duality, and

• Direct transmission