Not Zen

Stories on life, death, enlightenment, zen buddhism, religion, philosophy, stoicism, meditation, daoism, kindness but not meekness, and samsara.

Sunday, October 5, 2025

Not Even Not Zen 413: Biomythography - Note 127: Laundry Chutes

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Laundry Chutes My parents didn't have a laundry chute in their house. We experienced our indoor slides through the grace of my Aunt Jenn...
Sunday, September 28, 2025

Not Even Not Zen 412: Biomythography - Note 126: Lightning Bugs

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wikimedia,  Claudeverett Lightning Bugs When I was two, my mother flew with me from her army base in Germany to my grandmother's home in...
Sunday, September 21, 2025

Not Even Not Zen 411: Biomythography - Note 125, Internal Mapping, Pt. II

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Internal Mapping, Pt. II     College:  I'm driving home in a caravan with friends, all of us bound for the DC area. Partway there, we gr...
Sunday, September 14, 2025

Not Even Not Zen 410: Biomythography - Note 125, Internal Mapping, Pt. I

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Internal Mapping As a child and a teen, my world was more visual than it is for me now, a more sensual place in general, full of smells, int...
Sunday, September 7, 2025

Not Even Not Zen 409: Frenemy

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Frenemy I'll pick you up, you stupid bastard You can depend on me (sing ska background music)  If you win yourself a Darwin prize I'...
Sunday, August 31, 2025

Not Zen 206: The Ranch Hand

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wikimedia - Byeznhpyxeuztibuo The Ranch Hand The youngest hand at the ranch was assigned the job of doing ground work each morning with the ...
Sunday, August 24, 2025

Not Zen 205: A Parent Way

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A Parent Way Across from a busy road, in the shade of peach and poplar trees, park planners made a clearing and planted grass. They built pl...
Sunday, August 17, 2025

Not Even Not Zen 408: Worst in the Field

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Worst in the Field Worst in the field, Worst in the field, I’m the worst soul in the field. Verse 1: My super power is  making things awkwar...
Sunday, August 10, 2025

Not Even Not Traveling 64: Alaska, the Complete Visit

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Coastal Alaska A cruise ship seems too removed and too upper-class a method to use for visiting a U.S. state. It wasn't. I came around t...
Wednesday, August 6, 2025

Not Even Not Traveling 63: Alaska, Entry 10

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  Final observations and lessons from life aboard a cruise ship: The Return On the Friday we turned toward home, we woke to discover we had ...
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Secret Hippie

Why Zen?

When I was eight, I sat down in my father's library, got out a book called 'Zen Flesh, Zen Bones' by Paul Reps and read it. When I was nine, I read it again. When I was ten, my father caught me laughing as I flipped to my favorite stories. He questioned me at length - irritated at first but then pleased that I'd moved on to other translations of Buddhist and Zen Buddhist texts by Alan Watts. He said he'd rather I stuck to classical Greek philosophers and so he tried to lure me over to Herodotus. That might have worked if there were any works of note left of the pre-Socratic philosophers. As it was, the Zen and Daoist texts proved superior.

Why Not Zen?

In some ways, I grew up with Eastern philosophies but in most ways I'm traditionally Western. I don't think Zen has gotten it all right or is even the best form of Buddhism. I don't agree with anyone entirely. I haven't received transmission from any religious figure except maybe from everyone, all the time, and only occasionally with intention.

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