More Monday Zen

“Zen Can Do Anything”

My zen and I 

Had a couple of drinks last night.

Oh? 

You didn’t think that zen could drink?

That it was against zen’s religion or something?

Ha Ha! 

Don’t make me laugh.

Zen can do anything!

Anyway, as I was saying,

We had a couple last night,

My zen and I.

Hmmm.

Now that I think about it,

Nothing was achieved.

I missed my dinner.

I spent my wages.

I stepped on the cat’s tail when I arrived home.

And now my head hurts.

“My Camera Helps Me Find My Zen”

My camera helps me find my zen.

I think it’s the way it makes me see the world.

To look upon things without distraction

And allow my eye to fall in love.

That’s the zen of it!

My camera helps me find beauty, too.

To see it right in front of my face

When it was there all the time.

That’s zen at work.

Beauty and zen share many traits.

You could probably name a dozen easily,

So I won’t bother, except to remind you…

That one cannot exist without the other.

“The Zen of Crows”

(Previously published July 20, 2015)

A murder of crows landed in the large oak tree 

That overhangs my home.

That’s what you call a gathering of these large, black birds.

A murder.

Who thought up that name, I wonder?

It is very zen!

Anyway, from beneath the tree 

I watched and listened,

While I drank some tea.

The crows were very noisy and active.

I might even call it confused or chaotic.

They seemed to be without zen.

I put down my tea,

And clapped my hands loudly 

As I rose from my seat.

“Where’s your zen?” I shouted.

The crows took flight

And circled overhead. 

Then as if by mutual consent 

They flew away to the north

Making a beautiful pattern 

Against the clear blue sky.

“Aha,” I said to myself.

“There’s the zen.”

“Keep Your Shiny Side Up!”

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

That is the name of a famous book

I once read a million years ago.

But I didn’t understand it too well.

Maybe it’s my fault 

That I didn’t understand it.

Maybe it’s the author’s.

Who can say?

Understanding doesn’t come easily

To anybody.

But I don’t blame my zen for that.

Who but an imbecile 

Would be stupid enough 

To find fault with their zen?

Not me.

I understand that much.

I like motorcycles.

I have since I was a boy.

I especially like riding them.

It is a very zen-like experience.

The freedom.

The speed.

The chance to empty my mind 

Of all but the road ahead.

The strangely relaxed tension

Of body, mind, and machine.

United as one,

Working in harmony 

To execute a perfect corner,

Or avoid being crushed 

By that eighteen-wheeler!

Yes! It’s quite a thrill

To ride a motorcycle!

And live to tell about it.

I guess, after reading that book, 

That I understand the zen of riding… 

Better than I do the zen of fixing.

But that’s okay.

So long as I don’t 

Confuse the two.

And remember to 

Keep my shiny side up.

Zen!

“The Odds of Zen”

“I don’t have time for zen today.”

Yeah. 

Right.

You may think that statement is true.

But it’s not.

There’s always time for zen.

It only takes a minute.

Sometimes even less.

But it can last you all day.

Maybe even a lifetime.

How do you like those odds?

And it’s free too.

I’m offering it to you now.

You simply have to reach out and take it.

I’m no mathematician 

Or economist.

But I know this much;

Zen offers a great return 

For your investment. 

“It Don’t Pay to Eat Too Much on an Empty Stomach”

“It Don’t Pay to Eat Too Much on an Empty Stomach”

It don’t pay to eat too much 

On an empty stomach.

No, nor to slumber too long 

When you’ve been without sleep.

And how about the one that advises

Not drinking too much 

When you’ve been without water for a while

And you’re really thirsty?

Old wives’ tales?

Or good advice?

Hmmm.

With zen,

Where with most things 

Moderation is the gentle goal,

Less is more.

So it’s probably good advice.

By the way.

If it don’t pay to eat too much 

On an empty stomach,

Does it pay to think too much

With an empty mind?

“Evil Zen?”

See no evil,

Hear no evil,

Speak no evil.

Wonderful idea!

But wait a minute…

If that’s how you are,

With no evil to speak, see, or hear,

(And let us not forget our other senses,

For the touching and smelling and tasting of evil),

Then you must be dead.

Because evil, 

Which in this imperfect world

We call suffering,

Is all around us all the time,

And cannot be avoided

At any cost.

From the tiniest ant to the mighty elephant,

And every other living thing as well,

(Including and especially humans),

We all must suffer.

Thank goodness for zen!

A way to find a way

To begin to understand 

The true state of things,

And with this understanding

Make adjustments

To your thinking

In order to live 

A happier life.

Another wonderful idea!

After all,

Doesn’t Happiness

Destroy Evil?

Or at least make it wish

That it hadn’t gotten

Out of bed that morning?

So don’t worry about evil.

Who cares what it smells like?

Or anything else about it!

Get over it.

You’ve got bigger fish to fry.

Learn to unattach yourself 

From the things around you,

And then when you’ve learned that,

Unattach yourself 

From yourself.

Remember there is an unlimited 

Amount of zen in the universe!

Enough for the Happiness

Of everybody!

Take all you need.

“What is zen?”

What is zen?

Zen is the way to find a way.

It is the journey and the destination.

It is the empty cup’s emptiness.

It is the form of formlessness.

It is me.

And it is you.

But if you ask me again,

And I had to attempt an answer

That we could understand,

Then I would say

The essence of zen,

As I comprehend it, 

Is to firstly understand that

You and I are as perfect 

As the gods could make us,

But in spite of that perfection 

There will always be pain

And suffering in this world.

That is the way things are.

Thankfully, there is a way 

To reduce our worldly suffering,

And it is called zen.

With zen, we recognize

The interconnectedness of everything,

Past present future,

And realize that our actions 

Have karmic consequences.

What goes around comes around,

As they say,

So it pays therefore 

Not to be an asshole.

Then we remember

That everything 

Is changing all the time,

And nothing, good or bad, lasts forever.

Because if we accept the impermanence of everything, 

We can learn to unattach ourselves 

From the (merely temporary) things and ideas 

In the world around us,

Making them far less important, 

And with this un-attachment to unimportant things

Live a freer, happier life.

After all, 

Whoever said we didn’t

Deserve to be happy?

Not me.

Nor my zen.

For we must create our happiness,

Bringing it out from within.

It doesn’t just fall from the sky.

Remember,

Loving people live in a loving world.

Hostile people live in a hostile world. 

Same world.

There’s other stuff too,

In this essence of zen.

The cultivation of a loving heart.

Compassion for all creatures.

Respect for the planet.

Respect for yourself.

Devotion to others.

Oh, and maybe vegetarianism too.

(Although this last is not strictly obligatory

In my personal essence of zen.)

But there’s no point

In listing anything else.

That’s probably enough for now.

Let me know when you’ve mastered these.

And I’ll think of some more.

“You Gotta Fuck ‘Em Right in the Heart!”

“You gotta fuck ‘em right in the heart!”

I once heard a Hollywood executive say.

We were in a story meeting
At a big animation studio

In the 1990s.
About two dozen of us,

Artists and Management,

And even bigger Management
Who called themselves Executives.

You could tell the executives.

They wore suits and arrived in chauffeur driven limousines.

We artists,

As you can imagine,

Arrived by other means 

And were dressed a little more casually.

The executive was referring,
When he suggested this cardiac fornication,

To a story point in the cartoon

We were working on.

A very big,

Expensive cartoon.

With lots of executives

Putting their two cents in.

Oh boy!
As you can imagine,
That didn't make it any easier.

“Huh?” I answered. “What do you mean?”

Because I figured, however evil this executive’s Hollywood reputation,

(Which indeed was mighty evil)

That he didn’t mean it literally when he said

To fuck someone in the heart.

“Don’t be a moron,” was his answer.

“You know what I mean.”

He stared at me
Through horn-rimmed spectacles
And sipped his Diet Pepsi.

It was seven-thirty in the morning.

In this manner the big executive

Made sure he got his point across.
The point that he was important.
And that you were not so.

I and the other artists

Thereafter pretty much kept our traps shut.

We might just be stupid artists,

But we weren't that stupid.

Besides, like almost everything the Executives did

To improve the movie,

We’d have to fix it up later anyway.

But we knew what the executive meant.
He meant that he wanted the story to be more emotional during the scene,

So that you the audience might involve yourselves more deeply

In our movie and the plight of its hero.

“The suspension of disbelief” this audience involvement is called.

And we rely upon it tremendously in the movie business.

The idea that you will sit back

And enjoy the experience,

Rather than think too hard about what you are seeing.

Zen, on the contrary,
Wants you to think deeply and fully
About what you are experiencing
As you live your life.

To become aware of your emotions
And what causes you to feel the way you do.
And to attempt the controlling 

Of these thoughts and emotions,
As difficult as that may be,

Thereby increasing the chances

Of your Happiness.

Please love and respect yourself enough
To face life squarely as you find it.
A life you cannot control but must not fear!
And don't fall for every song
That someone sweetly sings.
(For there is much insincerity
In this world in spite of what the liars say.)
Try to protect your heart
From the bloodsucking vampires
(Sometimes called executives,
Sometimes called other things)
Who would merely dally with it
For their own amusement or personal gain.

Or of course,
To profit the shareholders.

So keep your suspension of disbelief

For the movies!
And maybe, if you'd care to, for these zen moments.

But not for real life.

Now, who's got the popcorn?