The Art of Zen Living

Something happened last Friday morning that got me to thinking, and I thought I’d share it with you.

If you’ll indulge me for a moment, I’ll set the stage.  I have a birthday coming up, and mom got my car’s windows tinted for me.  For those of you that don’t live in the tropics, down here tinted windows something you really do want to have.

While the car was at the shop, we had some time to spend so we went and got breakfast.

She was telling me that the night before she’d been watching an old home movie from 1986.  My grandparents were in it, and they’re now both gone.  We were also a family then - my sister and I have grown up and moved out, my parents are divorced, and my sister has a family of her own now - the newest member of which is pictured to the left.  Specifically, that’s her “Enough with the pictures Uncle Dan - come and play!” look.  She was right, so that’s exactly what I did!

Mom said it was a little sad to watch it.  There were parts that made her laugh, but it was sad that it was all gone now.  Lost in time.  My mother and I have, in the past, had conversations like this, about the past, and what Once Was.  This time I had a different perspective.  I thought to myself “Yes, life is ultimately unsatisfactory - and the reason is impermanence and change…”

The Buddha told us about this long ago.  So what else did he have to say about it?

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The days are long, but the years are short.

Over at The Happiness Project, Gretchin is talking about the third splendid truth.  Which I’ve quoted above.  I should also clarify that when I say All Things Mulch, I’m not talking about garden supplies.  Mulch is my male cat, pictured to the left.

Yoda, of course, is the little green jedi guy that chided Luke:

“All his life has he looked away—to the horizon, to the sky, to the future. Never his mind on where he was, on what he was doing….”

Wow.

What is the Present Moment, anyway?  To my mind, it’s the unchanging now.  Time is something that we have invented to help up make sense of the ever changing flux and flow that happens inside the unchanging Present Moment.

I know, right?  Makes my head hurt a little just thinking through that sentence.  Let me put it a different way.  Right now, in the present moment, I am writing this blog post.  Also in the Present Moment the Buddha attained enlightenment.  Also in the Present Moment, Jesus Christ hangs on the cross.  Truman gives the order to drop the first atomic bomb.  The first atomic bomb detonates.  The Spartans defend the pass at Thermopylae.  Babylon falls.  Rome rises.  All happening in the unchanging Present Moment.

So why do we spend so little time there?  Why do we always look away - to the future and to the past?

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“Happiness arises from the timely company of friends.
Happiness arises from having few needs.
Happiness arises from accumulated virtue at life’s end.
Happiness arises from seeing beyond suffering.”
- Dhammapada verse 331

I have been both fortunate and challenged as I’ve started trying to learn about Buddhism.

Fortunate, because about a week into it, I came across the Urban Dharma website, and found a series of wonderful podcasts from Ven. Kusala Bhikshu.

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