It's All Zen

Hello, all. It's one-fifteen in the morning and I'm on my third glass of wine. My head is pleasantly thrumming, and, as I download songs onto my iPod, I thought I'd give you a quick post.

The title of this blog is "Zensense", and the first few posts pertained pretty directly to Buddhism. After those, the Buddhist references and topics became staggered, until, recently, everything is current events or politics. Most of you out there are probably more interested in current events and politics than you are in Buddhism. However, I'm not pandering to your needs and wants.

Perhaps you're thinking that, as I look towards school, and my Major/Minor combo of Journalism and PolySci, I'm trending towards that. This is also not the case.

In fact, no matter what I write about on this poor, misguided blog, it's all Zen. Zen isn't a religion, or a spirituality. It's a method of looking at the world based on the Buddha's instructions for waking up. Well, actually that's a bit erroneous. Saying it's a "method" of looking at the world implies that it's subjective; one of many, equally valid "methods". In fact, there are no other, equally valid methods compared to Buddhism because Buddhism studies what IS, not what COULD BE.

Buddhism is not based on beliefs. It is not structured around the conjecture surrounding life and death. It's astronomy compared to astrology. If we use telescopes to observe the actual life of stars, then we use Buddhism to observe the actual truth of life. Religions use the astrology approach, the mystic unfolding of layers of omen and purported meaning and symbolism to try to point to the inherent holiness of man. Well, man is no more holy than dogshit drying in the sun. What this means is, that instead of rejecting man's holiness, it's time to accept the holiness of dogshit.

Zen is not everything in the way that Jesus is everywhere. Zen is not present in all things, nor does it have gods watching over all of you. It will not grant you wishes or show you the higher purpose of suffering. It will not throw you a lifeline from the heavens that you may grasp in times of peril. What it will do is equip you to see this life for what it is. It will remove your blinders and, rather than prepare you for this world, it will strip you down and send you out.

Saying that Zen is beauty as well as ugliness, or ecstasy as well as pain accords it a duality that it doesn't possess. Zen is not above duality, nor is it beyond duality. There is neither above nor beyond, and there is no duality. Would you seperate breathing from biology? Can you remove the sun from sunshine, or the cold from death?

I say this to you in all seriousness, with no hint of hippie philosophy or metaphorical jousting: ALL IS ONE. This is not a slogan. It's not something designed to make you feel better. I don't give a fuck if you makes you feel WORSE. This is how shit works, and you can spend your life fighting against it, or you can observe it at an everyday level. Don't worry about some god, or some metaphysical argument for the existence of a soul. Live like you are your neighbor. Live like the refrigerator handle is the most sacred object in your house. Touch your car tire and know it's made of the same stuff as your wife. Have an orgasm and think of death, just next door.

Nothing is apart from Zen; there is nothing without Zen; Zen is our eyes and ears and tongues and brains. Every day, every subject here is Zen. Tom Delay and George Bush and Jesus and yo Mama; they're all Zen.

Enjoy.