French Band

Random picture. This is from when we were in Southern France a couple years ago. These guys were just walking along on their way to/from a gig somewhere I guess. How French can you get? =)

I haven't missed a day of zazen yet this year. =) I'm also happy that I have usually done 20 minute periods. Some recommend doing 1 hour a day, but I've heard as little as 10 minutes a day is still beneficial. I don't know about that. I'd like to work up to doing 30 minutes morning, and 30 minutes night sometime, but I don't know when I'll be ready for something like that. Maybe next year's resolution could be something like that. Yikes!

I better run. Gotta meet my wife at work and help her move her office. 

Sunaday

Ah, another lazy Sunday morning. I've tried waking Panda up about 5 times, but she just keeps asking me to come back in twenty. Maybe if I try it with a plate of breakfast food? Hmmm...

Had some green tea and cereal myself. I guess green tea is like the new wonder drug. I figure, if I drink four cups of green tea, one glass of red wine, eat three whole grapefruits, don't eat any bread, eat 1/4 cup of garlic, and a bunch of pomegranate everyday, I could very well live for ever! Haha! Suck on that Mr. Grim Reaper. Well, you may not want to, I probably taste like shit.

So Israel has invaded, bombed the crap of Palestine, bisected the Gaza strip, and are now surrounding the biggest city, and Hamas threatens to turn Gaza in an "Israeli graveyard?" What? That's like saying, "Thank you sir, may I have another?" I don't really understand why Israel invaded. They say it's because they wanted to stop the rocket attacks that Hamas has been sending into Isreal. But man...they don't mess around I guess. Anyway, what's up with Palestine? 

To me it seems like Palestine instigates fighting, then cries and rebukes the rest of the world for not jumping in to save them when the big bully is beating them into submission. Maybe they shouldn't have voted in a terrorist organization to lead their government. Hmm. Seems like a no brainer to me. I'm sure there's lots to the story that we never hear though.

New Year

I was terribly lazy about meditation last year. All the military training was sort of overwhelming I guess. Or maybe I just got lazy. Anyway, in true American fashion, I've made a New Year's resolution. I think it's actually the first time in my life I've actually sort of commited to something on New Years. I'm going to practice zazen every day this year. Whether it's 5 minutes or 45, I want to commit to doing something each day.

You can't learn a lot about Zen from books. You have to practice zazen. However, the books I read often inspire me and I get excited about Buddhism. So, remind me if I should forget, read a little if I'm falling away from practice. What's the difference between zazen and meditation? To me at least, I think of zazen as sort of slowly chipping away at a sculpture or something, and meditation as just trying to relax. There's probably no real difference I guess.

I think many people look at meditation/Buddhism/zazen/eastern religion in general, as sort of exotic, far out, and nowadays as fluffy, bubbly, charming, and not very serious. I'm so tired of seeing little pocket Buddha books that have cute quotes for each day or whatever. I think it's really misleading. Zazen is nothing more than sitting down quietly and observing your mind. There's nothing metaphysical about it. Nothing fruity, flowery or nice. In fact, it totally sucks sometimes. Probably why I've been in and out of it over the past...15 years?

People are further confused by the many different world religions. Mahayanna vs. Thereavada, vs. Hindu, Zen, Islam, Krishna, Tibetan, Falon Gong, who can keep them all straight? After lots of reading and plowing through tons of wasted time and not-so-interesting books, I've sort of come to settle on Zen. It's Japanese...sort of. As with most things Japanese, it came from China (Called Chan there) and before that, India of course. 

Zen is pretty much the simplest, boiled down, sedimentary remains of Buddha's core teachings. This is just my opinion mind you. But here it is. Buddha taught the 4 truths...

1. Life isn't perfect
   
2. Despite this, we want it to be perfect
   
3. There are ways around this false idea that it can be perfect
   
4. Just observing your mind, you'll eventually see the way around it.

• This last one also has the eightfold path involved with it, which just describes a suggested list of behaviors that will help and individual live in a healthy environment.
  

That's really all there is to it! So, zazen is the way you observe the mind. You sit lotus usually because it's real stable. Even if you fall to sleep, you'll likely sit there without falling over. You keep your eyes open, you breath normally, and you listen to your thoughts and ideas. If you've never done it, you'll be surprised how active your mind really is. I very often find that, after 15 minutes, all I've done is sit there thinking about things rather than watching my thoughts. Sometimes that's cool too though. It's good to think deeply on stuff too ya know. It's not a "mistake" it's just how it is.

Well, I better get going. Pardon the shitty spelling.