The Art of Zen Living

I was down at my local “scratch and dent” grocery shop, and came across a few packages of organic Buckwheat flour.  It was past it’s “good til” date, but since there were no additives to go bad and the package seemed intact, I decided to take a chance - as you can see, I got a great price on it.  When I opened it up, it still smelled fresh and the batch of buckwheat pancakes I made with it came out great, so I decided to give buckwheat bread a shot.

I used my basic honey whole wheat bread recipe, and started with 2 cups buckwheat flour and a cup and a half of unbleached, unenriched white flour.  I was overboard on the amount of buckwheat flour - it’s very flavorful, but it’s also a very fine texture, which means it doesn’t absorb the wet ingredients very well.  I ended up having to add another cup or more of white flour and another three quarters cup of the buckwheat flour to get it to the right consistency.  Kneading was also an issue because the dough kept getting stickier than it should have been.

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There’s an old proverb, it goes something like this.  A Zen Master was asked how his life changed when he became enlightened.  He replied “Well, before enlightenment, I would carry water and chop wood.  After I became enlightened, I carry water, and chop wood.”

It’s an interesting statement to meditate upon.  What I’m going to write next is just my take on this, I don’t claim that I’m right or wrong, just that my conclusions means something to me.

The subtle subtext is that before he became enlightened, he did those things because he was told to, without understanding why.  Once he became enlightened, he understood that those were the things that needed to be done.  Buddhism is both straight forward and convoluted.  It’s this duality, perhaps, that I find appealing.  Buddhism asks us to accept and embrace our own duality in order to transcend our duality.  The irony is that once we do transcend our duality, what we do is what we’ve always done.  We just do it differently.  I think I’m more confused now than when I started writing this, so I hope I’m not being too convoluted.

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Recently, I mixed up a batch of laundry soap.  This isn’t really a “how to” post - Trent has already done an excellent one of those over at The Simple Dollar, as has Crystal over at The Family Homestead.  My method was kind of between what they did, and it gave me some ideas to try next time.  Based on what I’ve seen and read about making home made laundry soap, it’s a bit on the bulky side of things, and sort of a noodle soup consistency.  This was my experience as well.  As long as you stir it around a bit before scooping it out to use, this isn’t a problem.  Still, I wonder if there isn’t a way to improve the recipe a little, and end up with a smoother mix that could be packaged back into old laundry bottles for easier storage?

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Have a nice day!  How many times do we hear that each day?  I hear it enough to know that no one really means it.  Heck, it normally sounds like a demand, as if I don’t have a choice.  Makes me wonder why we even bother.

What if we really did mean it?  The past few months, I’ve started to really feel like I wished everyone around me would have nice days.  I wondered if there was anything I could do, other than demand they have one, to brighten the day of people I see around me.  I’ve come up with 3 things that seem to have the most positive impact - and they’re all free!

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Welcome to the second edition of Dough!  I really enjoy doing these articles, because I get to play with the camera and I get to eat the results.  This week I made what is not a traditional Irish soda bread.  It’s more of an American St. Paddy’s Day Traditional Irish soda cake.  It’s also delightful.

I was going to make an honest to goodness Irish soda bread, but the recipe on the Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread’s website had a warning that a fluid cup contains 8 ounces of liquid. A dry ingredient cup contains around 4 ounces by weight. It threw me a bit, and I don’t have a kitchen scale. I think I’ve worked out the conversion, so I’ll try the “real deal” traditional soda bread next time. For now, let’s take a look at what we’re going to be snacking on this Memorial Day Weekend at The Art of Zen Living!

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For a Buddhist, one of the things we have to consider is the concept of “right livelihood”.  It’s part of the eight fold path.  I think it applies to most people, not just Buddhists.  How many times have you heard someone say “How do they sleep at night?”?  At least a few.  That’s really what “right livelihood” is all about - making sure that you choose a way to make a living that lets you sleep at night.  Well, as a start, anyway.  What you really want is a way to earn a living that both lets you live comfortably, and also allows you to reduce the suffering in the world.  Or, if you prefer the “glass half full” version, then you want a way to earn a living that both lets you live comfortably and also allows you to increase the happiness in the world.  I don’t think many westerners make the connection that reduce suffering means the same as increase happiness.

Now I’ve gone and wandered off topic - what I really want to know is are you a bee, or are you a mosquito?

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As the philosopher Jagger once said, you can’t always get what you want.  He did, however, go on to point out that if you try, sometimes, you get what you need.

The problem, as I see it, is that these days, Americans not only get what they need, they get what they want, but they think they need what they want.  We live in an economy created by marketing where items are designed to wear out, break or just become unusable due to the design of this year’s products being different.  We cash in for credit cards, look to our home equity as a “free money ATM”, and constantly chase The Next Big Thing.  We’re conditioned to react this way, pretty much since birth.  We accumulate more and more stuff, rent out rooms for our stuff, buy special storage containers to keep it nice, hire consultants or purchase special shelving units to turn closest into stuff-o-rama storage.

Let me put that last part a different way: we buy stuff FOR our stuff, so that our stuff will have a place to live.

I just got tired of living that way.

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There’s an interesting article up over at Zen Habits, and the discussion in the comments has been really interesting.  As a result, I wanted to share it with you.  With no further introduction:

Questions and Answers on Compassion with the Dalai Lama.

One of the things I’ve been excited about since I moved into the new place what that I would be able to plant a garden.  We put a small strawberry patch in out front, and I’ve been working semi-diligently to get an area in the back cleared of grass, edged and free of rocks.  I’m sure we’ll be talking more about some of the details of the garden as I learn more about it.  A good example is the dirt.  I know it looks nice and dark and fertile, but it isn’t.  Today I just want to talk a little about the benefits of having a garden, and tell you a little about what I’m doing with mine.  I promise, no more bold, colored words in this post - I just wanted to get a little color into the front page.

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On January first this year, I put “quit smoking” on my list of goals for this year.  Yesterday was my 100th day smoke free.  I have a mixture of emotions about it.  I expected to be ecstatic when I hit 100 days.  I wasn’t.  In fact, I almost didn’t notice.  A friend of mine asked me 2 days before when my 100th day was coming up.  I said I wasn’t sure, but thought it was a few weeks or so.  I pulled up my trusty Excel spreadsheet and discovered that it was yesterday.  “Oh, it’s this Sunday.” I said.

“What?  You need to blog about that!” She replied.

“Really?  I mean, do you really think so?”

I can’t exactly describe the look she gave me at this point.  It was somewhere between “what, are you stupid?” and “you’ve GOT to be kidding me!”.  All she said was “Yes.  I think you should blog about it.”.

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