Zenteresting

As of late, I've taken an interest to Zen practice. Let me list a few of my notions about Zen and the characteristics that are appealing:

• Note the key word being practice. Zen Buddhism is unique in that it's not so much about belief (although there is a philosophy, but it is not to get hung up on). It is about trying it and seeing what happens. It is about the experience of being awake and aware, residing as the Witness, whether in Emptiness or in the world of form. Which leads me to...
• Zen appears to be one of the few nondualist traditions. As Ken Wilber would put it: there are many traditions/religions that are Ascending (this world is bad or illusion and the idea is to escape it, go beyond it, or "get to heaven") and there are many that are Descending (spirit is found in and through the Earth, Gaia, your fellow man, nature). But Zen would say that both are true (nondual=not two, one reality). "Emptiness is form, and form is emptiness." You go into the emptiness to discover your original face that was "there before your parents were born" then come back into ordinary, everyday life and see the One in the Many ("Before enlightenment there is chopping wood and carrying water, after enlightenment there is chopping wood and carrying water," "When you sit, just sit. When you walk, just walk.").
• Zen has an inherent HUMOR to it. Take this story, in which the only real response is to laugh in realization: "Tokusan kept his master Ryutan up late one evening with his questions. "Why don't you go to bed?" asked Ryutan finally. Tokusan got up to leave, then said, "It's dark in the hall." "Here, take this candle," said Ryutan. Gratefully Tokusan took his master's candle. Then Ryutan leaned forward and blew it out." (from David Fontana's "Discover Zen")
• Zen appreciates mindful ART as seen in Zen painting and poetry, gardening, tea-making, flower-arranging and the like.