The Art of Zen Living

“Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.”

- Shunryu Suzuki

We set goals every day.  Some small (I’ve got to run to the store and get milk today) and some big (I’m going to go back to school and learn how to write).  I’ve read a lot about how to set goals, how to achieve goals, and the importance of setting specific goals.  I’ve seen very little written on the topic of setting good goals.  What is a good goal, anyway?  Goals are as different as the people that set them.  If you want to be rich, then your goals are likely to be very different from the goals set by someone that wants to be raise a large family.  But what is a “good” goal?  From a Buddhist view, a “good” or skillful goal would be one that, when achieved, reduced the suffering (or, if you prefer, enhanced the happiness) in the world.  The tricky part is in looking at all the ways we’re connected, and making sure that you aren’t enhancing your happiness at the expense of enhancing someone else’s suffering. So how do you do that?

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This has got to be one of the best, tastiest and easiest recipes I’ve had in a long time.

1 pound dry black beans

1 Pound carrots

6 Stalks celery

1 green pepper

1 medium onion

6 roma tomatoes (medium size)

2 cloves garlic

2 Tbsp chili powder

1 Tbsp cumin

Pepper and season salt to taste

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People must realize that even with all these comforts, all this money and a GNP that increases every year, they are still not happy. They need to understand that the real culprits are our unceasing desires. Our wants have no end.

-His Holiness the Dalai Lama

If you turn your light inwardly, you will find what is esoteric within you.

-The Sutra of Hui Neng
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There’s something very satisfying about making a loaf of bread.  It’s almost as if home made bread is the ultimate in domestic achievement.  You tell someone you’re baking home made bread and their eyes light up.  It’s a very pleasing experience, heavy on the senses - the contrasting colors of the ingredients, the firm but pliant feel of the dough, the heady scent of the yeast as the bread rises, the sound of the whisk in the liquid before you add the flour, and the clank of the spoon against the bowl as you mix the dough, the pounding of the dough being kneaded.  Finally, the wonderful aroma of the bread baking, and the taste of the fresh, still warm bread with butter melting into it.  Yummy!

Somewhere along the line, we’ve been tricked into thinking that bread is hard to make (it isn’t - if I can do it, then believe me YOU can!), that it’s cheaper to buy at the store (not by a long shot - but that’s another post in the frugality category), or just that you don’t have the time to make bread.  Let me walk you through the steps, and you’ll see that it takes very little time and effort, and is extremely rewarding!

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A while back, I asked for suggestions - I was looking for a name for the category about my adventures in bread making.  I want to thank everyone that made suggestions, there were a lot of great ones.  I settled on the one in the title - “Dough!”.

I describe the category this way:

Bread, mindfully made by a beginner. The “Dough!” is a reference to the famous quote by Homer J. Simpson: “Doh!”, which is sure to be uttered numerous times during my bread making adventures.

I’m still working on the first post - I’ll have it up later today!

Side note: I just noticed that the title of this post is an unintentional play on the word “Zendo”, which roughly translates to “meditation hall”.

I think one of the skills that we’ve pushed out of western society is patience. At first, I thought what we’d lost was “delayed gratification”, but upon reflection, the skill that’s missing is required for, but more basic than, simply delaying gratification.

The only time we seem to be in the now is when we’re insisting on getting some material thing now. E-Z Terms, Instant Credit, no payments until next year - whatever the marketing buzz is it’s about parting us from our money, often before we’ve even earned it! We’ve traded in our citizenship in the community to be consumers in the capitalism. Our choices are no longer between “right” and “wrong” or “good” and “bad” - our choice is between “red” and “blue”. So how do we change that?

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Today’s post was going to be a fantastic journey through the ever changing flux and flow we find within the eternal and unchanging present moment.  I know that sounds flippant, but I can’t think about it too hard or my brain seems to want to turn itself inside out.

That cute little baby?  Her name is Grace, and she’s my niece.  She really knows how to stay in the now.  She’s my little Zen Baby for sure!

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My loving kindness mantra gets good usage on any average day, but today was something special.  You’d think that perhaps I did a lot of driving in rush hour, or had a difference of opinion with a friend, or waited in line at a government service only to be told I had to go do something else first and come back.

My friend, it was nothing of the sort.  I went shopping with the intention to eat moderately healthy.  I wanted to see what the average shopper was up against in sorting through it all.  I went to WalMart - both because the prices there, according to my grocery guide, were likely to be lowest on the things I wanted, and because it was somewhere that a significant percentage of America shops.  Frugal and educational (for me) and relevant.

I wasn’t annoyed at Walmart.  The store was clean, and not too crowded.  The shelves looked a little picked over (for instance, I didn’t get the spaghetti squash that was on my list) but the things I wanted there was no problem finding.  Well, sort of.

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I just got back from a short walk, and man do I feel good.  In the past 2 weeks, between being sick and then moving, I’ve not gotten to take my walk on as regular a basis as I’d have liked.  Looking back at my chart, it looks like I only got to walk 4 of the last 14 days.  Ouch.

Even tonight I didn’t get to do my normal walk, but just getting out there again was just what I needed to clear my head and elevate my mood.  Every time I stop walking for a few days, whatever the reason, I always enjoy getting back out there again.  It’s me time, and I’m doing something I enjoy, and something good for me.  I highly recommend exercise as an expression of self love - because that really is what it is.

It looks like my new routine will be slightly farther at 2.4 miles a day (with weights) and 1.2 miles a day without.  That’s about .2 miles more than what I was doing at my old apartment.  The 1.2 miles is less for exercise and more of a walking meditation.  That shorter walk is one I will still do, even if I make a change.  Now why would he mention a change?

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Back in March, I spent a few weekends on reducing the amount of stuff that owns me. Yes, you read that right. The further along in this project I get, the more I feel like I was the one that was owned.

The first part of this journey came to be when I decided I wanted to know if I could live in a one bedroom apartment, or if I need a 2 bedroom.  I’d been living in a one bedroom only because I have a garage I paid extra for.  Lots of my stuff lived in that garage so that I could have room to live in the apartment.

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