Steal the Moon

A Zen Master lived the simplest kind of life in a little hut at the foot of a mountain. One evening, while he was away, a thief sneaked into the hut only to find there was nothing in it to steal.

The Zen Master returned and found him. "You have come a long way to visit me," he told the prowler, "and you should not return empty handed. Please take my clothes as a gift."

The thief was bewildered, but he took the clothes and ran away. The Master sat naked, watching the moon.

"Poor fellow," he mused, " I wish I could give him this beautiful moon."

earworm

from urbandictionary.com

earworm (n.): Song that is stuck in your head.

I am currently obsessively, unhealthily addicted to the Gorillaz song "Feel Good, Inc." I can't get it out of my head, I have to listen to it a few times a day. It's extraordinarily creative (for a radio hit) and catchy to the point where I'm going insane. God, make it stop. (click on the link above to watch the video... it's equally as creative)

What about you? Got a recent earworm?

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.

Quick (zen) Question

Do any of you know anything about or have any experience with the Kwan Um School of Zen (Denomination: Korean Chogye Order)? I'm considering going to check out a Center in Indianapolis...

For that matter, are any of you students of Zen? Thoughts/reflections on your experience with this path?

Back from the Low-Country

Here are a few pictures from our vacation last week.


Panoramic Marsh Photo (yeah, that's 3 photos put together!)


A Local Resident


One of the docks


Mossy Tree


Bridge and Grasses


Keeping Guard

On a related note, we also had the incredible opportunity to meet fellow blogger Isaiah/Tommy and his wife, Cathy. What a turn of fate to find out that he lives minutes from my mother-in-law in South Carolina! Amy and I had a great time getting to know them and look forward to future visits and a continued relationship.

I'll get caught up on everyone's blog in the next day or two. Namaste.

We're Off!

The family will be on vacation from Aug 7 through Aug 14th at Amy's mom's in Okatie, SC (between Savannah and Hilton Head). See you all the week of the 14th!

BTW - I've just loaded Ken Wilber's 10-disc "Kosmic Consciousness" teaching CDs into my MP3 player and am thoroughly enjoying them. They come highly recommended! The guy is way less rigid than most of his writings portray. This is great stuff.

Shanti - Peace!

Bigger Than My Body

Try this. See what happens:

Who am I? Who am I? I have thoughts, but I am not my thoughts. Thoughts pop like popcorn in front of my mind's eye, but I am simply the watcher. I am not my thoughts.

I have a body, and am aware of my body, but I am not my body. The body is born and dies but there is something that is not born and does not die.

I also have emotions and desires. But I am not those emotions and desires.

Because I am aware of these things, I am not these things. I am something deeper than that. I am the awareness that is aware of these things.

But what is this awareness? Who is it? Who am I?

______________________________________

"I'm bigger than my body gives me credit for"

-from "Bigger Than My Body," John Mayer-

Everyone's Sleeping in the Blogosphere

Things are quiet in Blog-land... this site included. I guess summer is a full and busy time of year!

I'll return to some "real" posts in the next few days, but until then... here's a lightning-flash update:

• We took our almost-one-year-old daughter Kalli to the Indianapolis Zoo with the grandparents on Sunday. It was so fun to observe her seeing the animals for the first time. The penguins were a hit!
• I traded my Terry McInturff guitar for a Sunburst American Standard V-Neck Deluxe Strat. Now, I realize that in many people's books that would be a HUGE downgrade, but I hated the feel of that McInturff and ... you know, sometimes simplier is better. I love the feel and sound of that strat. Can't beat a classic.
• I'm trying to observe ora et labora - the maxim of Benedictine rule. I've set four "hours" throughout my work day to step aside for 15 minutes for meditation, reading and prayer.
• I'm currently reading "Inner Christianity: A Guide to the Esoteric Tradition" by Richard Smoley and have ordered a book on nondualism called "Silence of the Heart" by Robert Adams - a disciple of Ramana Maharshi.
• And finally, I have secured studio time for October 1 and 2 at a studio for the initial stages of a professionally recorded Trev Diesel cd. (Darrell, you'll finally get to hear the full verison of Parachute!)

Rock

So I've been asked to be the unofficial 5th member of "Waltz for Venus" - a hard-rock band consisting of a few of my really good friends. The group is starting to make some serious headway: they just recorded an album, are getting played on college radio, and are booking some really serious shows and so they asked me to join the group as the "Acoustic/Keyboard/Background-Vocals" guy to help fill out the sound during live performances.

We have a very important show at the Midwest Music Summit tomorrow (Saturday). The MMS is chock-full of industry people and networking opportunities.

Go to Waltz for Venus' website to listen to some of their music. The jukebox player is on the home page about halfway down on the right side. Be sure to check out the song "Movie Star" ... methinks you'll like it.

Test: Not a real post

Getting the itch...

From a fantastic book I'm reading called "The Barn at the End of the World" by Mary Rose O'Reilley:

"I love city life, its ruthless push of body on soul, the exacerbation, the grinding down. Sometimes. Often. And I love deep country, lakes lit like white fire. But nothing in my soul responds to suburbs, from which life has been sucked through a stellar straw. As though we were an experiment in the making of black holes."

Amen. Give me downtown and coffeehouses. Give me a quaint, friendly small town. Give me quiet, contemplative country. Just get me out of Blahworld. My wife and I are getting the itch to move. Bad.

The Mustard Seed

Our church is currently studying the parable of the mustard seed, which goes like this:

"Jesus said, 'What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade.'"

I've been thinking about this parable quite a bit. The usual interpretations (such as it being about God using our small efforts to grow into grand outcomes) are no doubt correct. But all of the traditional interpretations haven't been able to fully satisfy what I think a deeper understanding of this passage would unveil.

So I emailed Jon, our online community's resident Christian mystic, asking him what his interpretation was. And like any true teacher, he tossed it right back to me with a Yoda-esque email that simply said:

"Mmmmmm, Master Jesus a koan has given you, yes? Work with it you will, mmm?"

So I did.

And here's what I've come up with at this point (not saying I've got it all figured out):

Jesus' disciples and the people of that time expected the Messiah to set up a new social Kingdom... where they would find happiness, fulfillment, and release from suffering under an unjust government. Jesus, in reality, flipped this around by telling them that the happiness, fulfillment, and release they were looking for was not in social structures but rather in a separate reality - which he called the "Kingdom" of God.

This Kingdom is two-fold. (1) In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus says the Kingdom is already "spread out upon the earth, though men don't see it." Since all of creation is a manifestation of God, then the exterior world/universe is currently the Kingdom of God as well. The people were looking for salvation in the future, and Jesus was saying "Look around... the perfection and peace of God is now!" (2) Not only is the Kingdom of God all around, perhaps more importantly the Kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21). It is an interior reality, where God dwells not out there somewhere but is the very Eye of your eye, Breath of your breath, Mind of your mind.

In this light, the mustard seed is the tiny, insignificant, personal self. The self is planted into God (through meditation, prayer or any other yoga, or method of Union with God), where the seed dies - then grows and expands into the grandest thing imaginable. As Meister Eckhart said many years ago:

"The seed of God is in us. Given an intelligent and hard-working farmer, it will thrive and grow up to God, whose seed it is; and accordingly its fruits will be God-nature. Pear seeds grow into pear trees, nut seeds into nut trees, and God-seed into God."

No words can describe it...

I'm not 100% certain about this, but...

I'm pretty sure that the universe was created - and life has gone through billions of years of evolution - so that we could experience Yoplait 'Harvest Peach' Yogurt.

It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.

The Bible talks about Jesus coming back. I think it will most likely be soon because I'm pretty sure the reason for his return is so he can have some of this stuff.

An Amusing Exchange

Disciple: How is one to realize the Self?
Ramana Maharshi: Whose Self? Find out.
D. I don't know how.
M. Just think over the question. Who is it that says "I don't know?" Who is the 'I' in your statement? What is not known?
D: Somebody or something in me.
M: Who is that somebody? In whom?
D: Perhaps some power.
M: Find out.
D: Why was I born?
M: Who was born? The answer is the same to all your questions.
D: Who am I, then?
M: (smiling) You have come to examine me? You must say who you are.
D: However much I may try, I do not seem to catch the 'I'. It is not even clearly discernible.
M: Who is it that say that the 'I' is not discernible? Are there two 'I's in you that one is not discernible by the other?
D: Instead of enquiring 'Who am I?', can I put the question to myself 'Who are You?" . . .
M: Whatever form your enquiry may take, you must finally come to the one I, the Self.

YOGA: Frankie Says Relax (Part 2 of 2)

...with the great, grand secret being: to Relax.

It seems so simple, but of course it is. It should be so simple.

If an urge or desire arises, if I'm suffering through a bout of restlessness, if thoughts come in meditation - the answer is NOT to fight it off. Pushing away is another form of negativity and is not being the "watcher." Observe the restlessness, the suffering, the desire and then just ... well, relax. Don't allow the thought(s) to seed. Don't act on every whim that crosses your consciousness.

Ken Wilber calls it CONTRACTION anytime we live from the level of Ego. It's like a muscle tightening up when we desire something or get caught up in ourselves. It's relaxing that contraction that allows us to spread out, surrender, release, and return to our Original State: a single Pure Awareness that is the core of everything that is.

"Relax - don't do it. When you want to go to it."

(from the 80's classic "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood)