Yūgen
"The Japanese have a word yugen, which has no English equivalent whatsoever.
It's described poetically, you have the feeling of yugen when you see out in the distant water
some ships hidden behind a far-off island. You have the feeling of yugen when you watch wild geese
suddenly seen and then lost in the clouds. You have the feeling of yugen when you look across Mt Tamapeis,
and you've never been to the other side, and you see the sky beyond. You don't go over there to look and
see what's on the other side, that wouldn't be yugen. You let the other side be the other side, and it invokes
something in your imagination, but you don't attempt to define it to pin it down."
-Alan Watts, The World as Emptiness
It's described poetically, you have the feeling of yugen when you see out in the distant water
some ships hidden behind a far-off island. You have the feeling of yugen when you watch wild geese
suddenly seen and then lost in the clouds. You have the feeling of yugen when you look across Mt Tamapeis,
and you've never been to the other side, and you see the sky beyond. You don't go over there to look and
see what's on the other side, that wouldn't be yugen. You let the other side be the other side, and it invokes
something in your imagination, but you don't attempt to define it to pin it down."
-Alan Watts, The World as Emptiness
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