As far as I know, Zen Buddhism has strongly influenced Japanese culture.
Since these are areas of my major interest, I've been wondering if it can
be said that this is true for Japanese mathematics particularly. I mean,
its history, its flavor... What relation, if any, has had Zen with Japanese
mathematics? What about Chinese mathematics?
Any comments or bibliography would be very appreciated.
The next is not a historical question, but it might be adequate to the
context. I have no experience with koans, because I'm a practitioner of the
Soto Zen tradition, but when I read about it I often see a sort of
parallelism between the work with koans and the work with mathematical
problems. Say,
Rinzai Experience Mathematical Experience
----------------- -----------------------
Dealing with a koan Dealing with a mathematical problem
The zafu / the bus The chair of your office / the bus
Satori Solution becomes suddenly clear in your mind
More than this, mathematical solution is not always a discursive one, but a
sort of intuition...
Any comments on this?
Thank you very much, and regards from Barcelona,
-- Xavier