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Zen and me

August 17, 2008 /

This is a short introduction to Zen and me. I have no formal Zen training, I have arrived at Zen along a different path. Much in Zen matches my own experiences which is why I use Zen as a reference.

There are Hardcore Zen and Zen Lite. Over at Taoism.net I found What is Zen? which has a definition I like and share. There it says that:

The closest we can come to describing Zen in words may be as follows:
• Zen is more of an attitude than a belief.
• Zen is the peace that comes from being one with an entity other than yourself.
• Zen means being aware of your oneness with the world and everything in it.
• Zen means living in the present and experience this reality fully.
• Zen means being free of the distractions and illusory conflicts of the material world.
• Zen means being in the flow of the universe.
• Zen means experiencing fully the present, and delighting in the basic miracle of life itself.

I exclude Buddhism from my definition of Zen, I am currently not interested in that part.

This was originally posted at Zen And More, another blog of mine.

What is Zen?

August 6, 2008 /

I have read the book What is Zen? by Alan Watts. The book contains a selection of Alan’s talks and the four parts are about:
• A simple way, A difficult way
• Zen reconsidered
• Space
• Zen mind

I like the book, it is easy to read yet it makes you think and feel. My purpose with buying the book was to learn more about Zen, to be able to put the pieces together in my own view of Zen and mindfulness.

In the first part Alan writes that “Zen is a method of rediscovering the experience of being alive”. He brings up the concept of “ten thousand formations, one suchness”, there is simply one energy.

From the second part I select some quotes about the present:

If you understand fully that it is from the present that everything happens, then the only place for you to be, the only place for you to live, is here, right now.

If your plans are flexible and adaptable, and if you are here when things happen, you will always stay balanced.

Alan also writes “Anything that you can do without a great deal of thought becomes a perfect form of meditation”. That is the same as is said in The 5-minute Meditator.

The third part about the book is about space, how empty space is considered more important in the East than in the West. Alan mentions that Zen represents a simplified way of life and that the personality of Zen people is the uncluttered mind. He also says that “The beginning of Zen is overcoming the fear of death”. That is what made the samurai interested in Zen, as a way to become fearless.

The fourth and last part is about Zen Mind. Alan says that “The understanding of Zen is intuitive”. A final quote from the book:

The whole point of Zen is to suspend the rules we have superimposed on things and to see the world as it is – as all of a piece.

This was originally posted at another (now extinct) blog of mine.

Mindfulness with Jon Kabat-Zinn

July 27, 2008 /

Google has a collection of company videos at YouTube. There are a lot of sessions worth watching.

I came across Mindfulness with Jon Kabat-Zinn which is terrific. The workshop is an hour long but is well worth that time, it also includes a meditation session. Jon Kabat-Zinn talks about mindfulness and meditation, awareness, non-doing, beginner’s mind, to bring doing and being together, to be fully present.

Jon reminded me of the value of just tuning in to our own breathing as a simple way of bringing as back to here and now. Not with the intention to control our breathing, just to follow it and become more present.

I liked this presentation so much that I have ordered some of his books. Now I am looking forward to “Arriving at Your Own Door: 108 Lessons in Mindfulness”, “Mindfulness for Beginners” (CD) and “Wherever You Go, There You Are”.

See also: The 5-minute Meditator.

This was originally posted at another (now extinct) blog of mine.

Institutions vs. collaboration

July 17, 2008 /

Over at TED is a talk from 2005 by Clay Shirky about Institutions vs. collaboration. It is a very interesting talk about how closed groups and companies will give way to looser networks. Clay talks about institutions compared to collaboration, like Microsoft versus Linux. He shows the graphs behind the 80-20 rule, few contribute a lot and many contribute very little. Still, the small contributions can be very valuable.

Clay mentions Flickr and their tagging feature that makes it easy to find photos on a topic regardless of who uploaded that photo.

Clay also talks about Meetup, with the tag line Meetup Groups meet face-to-face to pursue hobbies, network, get support, make friends, find playgroups, and how that system is used as a tool for stay at home moms to create a real life social network.

This was originally posted at Forty Plus Two, another blog of mine.

Mindful eating

July 6, 2008 /

I came across the post Mindful Eating which has a great quote:

And when you chew, chew only the carrot, not your projects or your ideas. You are capable of living in the present moment, in the here and the now. It is simple, but you need some training to just enjoy the piece of carrot. This is a miracle.
Thich Nhat Hanh

This is the same way of thinking as in The 5-minute Meditator, a book about ‘spot meditations’. Living in the present makes life calmer.

This was originally posted at another (now extinct) blog of mine.

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