The Quixotic Jedi

Overall, I think the sin I struggled with most during my trip to San Diego was envy.  I’d like to discuss this at length, but I’m tired and would like to make it to work on time tomorrow – even if it is a Friday.  So this will be short.
[Famous last words of Ted [...]

My zen-a-day calendar has been a bit list-happy for the past few days.  Yesterday’s quote (which is today’s quote for me, because you’re now reading something that was written in the past (yay time capsules)) was, I thought (try to follow me, here dear reader, without criticizing my tense-usage), pretty darned apropos and pragmatically…well…Zen:

Get enough [...]

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about ego deflation in the last couple of days.  I was speaking with a friend of mine this evening, and she passed along this aphorism:  “10% of life is what happens to us, 90% is our reaction to it.”
Now, what I’m wondering is if we follow the “kill self [...]

So I walked in to Barnes & Noble tonight and asked the girl at the help desk if she could point me in the direction of the self-help section.  Her reply:  “Wouldn’t that be defeating the purpose?”
Joke.
I know full well where the self-help section of the B&N is – it’s like the section on [...]

Today’s hike was a good one.  Jack said it was “pretty easy”, then promptly fell asleep in the car for half an hour.  On the way back we stopped at the Rosendale street festival to see our friends Johnny and Nicole.  It was pretty interesting.  I checked out some of Johnny’s art and bought some [...]

Thank you, Scott, for lending me The Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman.  I can’t say that it’s life-changing just yet, but I’m only halfway through.  Perhaps I’ve read too many books about zen at this point to be particularly disturbed by his implications thusfar.  We’ll see – I still have the other [...]

So that busy patch at work is pretty much over, for the moment.  It looks like I’ll have a few days of breathing space before I have to start busting my ass on another needs-to-get-done-in-a-month project.  Yay.  Definitely no more 12-16 hour days for this weary blogger.  I left work at like 6 today, and [...]

Every morning, I read from two different sets of meditations.  This is the third year in a row that I’ve been reading from the Page-a-Day Zen calendar (“zen-a-day” in my head) – each year, the readings are different.  The other slot is a rotating one.  This year, “God Calling” by A. J. Russell fills that [...]

Of the things that interested me about the study and practice of Zen were statements like “chop wood, fetch water, seek enlightenment”.  Statements that Zen is intensely practical piqued my interest.  I’ve stated before that I’m a Pragmatist (“do what works”).  I came to this conclusion on my own, through experience and study – but [...]

I’ve read about many different forms of meditation: moon-walking, sun-walking, yoga, wall staring, zazen, etc. The books relating to Zen Buddhism I’ve read that have been written by westerners stress zazen as the sine qua non of Zen practice.  Zazen itself takes many forms (koan meditation, etc.), but the central idea is sitting still – which [...]