[Mr. Blonde]

Nietzsche and Zen

Here I offer a summary of Nietzsche’s philosophical development and say something
about what Zen is. There is something inherently paradoxical about trying to do
either. Nietzsche’s philosophy and Zen are elusive, aphoristic and practical in ways
that render any précis of them incomplete and misleading. Paradoxically, their
essence is to have no essence. The only way to understand Nietzsche is to read him
and think. The only way to understand Zen is to do it or, more accurately, be it.