my name is Adam

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My name is Adam.

The meaning of the name varies according to which etymological roots anyone might choose. "Red" (like blood or earth); "man" or "mankind;" "handsome;" "first man" ... the list seems to go on and on but each definition or derivation manages to employ half-hearted and uncertain explanations ... "it could refer to" or similar constructions. Here is one stab at a definition.

My Dharma or Zen Buddhist name is Genkaku, a word that roughly means "original realization" or "original understanding."

I don't suppose my name-situation differs much from anyone else's ... a bit of breath, a bit of noise and what is designated gets a designation. It may not be precisely true, but it's close enough for folk singing and it's nicer than someone's calling out "Hey Fuckbump!" as a means of getting my attention.

Rinzai, a Zen teacher, once encouraged an assembly by saying, "Grasp and use, but never name."

He wasn't just playing some "Buddhist" game.
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