How TENET Is Like A Zen Koan
I went into TENET not expecting to understand anything, and this was an entirely satisfying experience. As the Robert Pattinson character explains about the grandfather paradox, you’re not supposed to understand, it’s a paradox.
This I think is the intended meaning of the film. Lean into the confusion, because therein lies understanding.
A slight and wholly inadequate digression into BuddhismA Zen koan is a statement like "two hands clap and there is a sound, what is the sound of one hand?" This is understood as a meditation on meaninglessness, but it's more than that. It is, indeed, above conventional understanding.From the Buddhist perspective, dualistic reality itself is meaningless. Reality is the illusion, and the koan is reality.I have never practiced Zen but in vipassana meditation we try to tame the 'monkey mind' with something simpler. By just focusing on breath. When you first sit in meditation it's like entering a stream, a stream of your own consciousness. The voice in your head is constantly naming, judging, questioning. Your breath is like a rope in the water, you just hold onto it until the stream dies down. If you can hold focus then your internal stream of words slows down and, for very…
