Antal Dobosy

Zen Teacher at Dharma Gate Buddhist College
(Zen Meditation, Zen Koans, Zen and Mathematics)

I am a Zen teacher. Zen Buddhism is both my hobby and my profession, and my goals are connected to it as well. Although I have studied many fields and worked in various areas throughout my life, my true focus has always been the human spirit, thought processes, and the workings of the mind. Alongside the natural sciences, such as physics, engineering, and biology, I have also been interested in the humanities, including psychology, linguistics, and religions.

I consider myself fortunate to have approached mathematics not only as a science but as a world created by the human spirit. This perspective ultimately led me to Buddhism, long before I became a Buddhist. For me, there is no contradiction between the scientific and Buddhist worldviews. I believe these two offer different ways of understanding the world, and it has always been my goal to be at home in both.

Zen is perhaps the driest branch of Buddhism, yet it is also highly purposeful. It is an approach to understanding the human spirit and ourselves, emphasizing direct insight through the practice of meditation as the most important way of gaining knowledge.

This semester, I teach three courses, all of which are practical. One course introduces Zen meditation to students, including the ceremonial requirements and tools. The second course is a seminar where we focus on a specific genre of Zen literature, the koan. The third is an elective course that explores the perspective of Zen Buddhism and mathematical thinking, along with the analogies between the two.