Zen 16 3 19 (19) 25 1 20

No, well maybe not because I have only this week started to read this book entitled Zen and Japanese Culture...

But I didn't get very far before it occurred to me this might just be the kind of belief for me? When I say this it is because it appears to avoid a simple explanation of what it is all about, as if to deny simple definition, giving rise to all these Zen scholars, or Masters dating back 2000 years or so, passing on their teachings via their disciples: first originating in India from where it was passed onto to the Chinese, and then to the Japanese in the first half of the first millennium AD.

"All these emanate from one central perception of the truth of Zen, which is `the One is in the Many and the Many in the One´" which may illustrate my point but which may not..?

Well, given the fact that I have only read a few chapters and put the book down I got to thinking so much of what this thing is about describes the kind of life I have lead... like when I was a kid in school I never read a single work of fiction from start to finish though from the age of 13 I pulled my socks up and knuckled down to learning in let's say a new way: from age 11 in a class of 32 being 2nd from the bottom with my bosom friend Brian 32nd, to passing an exam aged 13 to go to a Technical School and becoming head boy in the spring term of the final year aged 15, scoring highly in all these subjects which didn't require such highly developed language skills, the latter developing last of all in my case, gaining my GCE (General Certificate of Education) O-level in English Language, a pre-requisite for University Entrance only after several failed attempts in my mid-20s... but shining at subjects like free-hand drawing, draughtsmanship, metalwork, physics and mathematics etc etc etc...

Similarly when it came to outdoor pursuits I didn't seek any that required an enormous expenditure of money, thereby ruling out fast cars or even fast motor-bikes, and shunned going off on those French or Spanish Riviera holidays with a crowd of young people living it up: choosing instead more solitary cycling tours which I organized first for my elder brother and I, then after 3 such took to hitch-hiking round Europe during the next 3 summers in search of excitement, seeing new places communing with nature and climbing mountains for examples, the kinds of occupations anyone could do without a pile of money in their pockets. 

Now I am reading how all these sorts of pursuits are attractive to the Zen Buddhists who shun any kind of ostentation in favour of the simpler life... When it came to my job I worked in different branches of the same chemical industries and rather than learn a vast knowledge of chemical formulae and reactions always felt more comfortable learning why they were so, thereafter using the principles to work out how reactions could be predicted to proceed...  To one of my protégés I always used to quip: my trouble when I studied the sciences was not to include a study of the Politics of Getting On… though now when I look back at my career I am proud of the fact that despite this deficiency I managed to continue working beyond normal retirement age a further 4 years for the same company as a Consultant… and in my leisure hours each day I still prefer getting back to nature as the primary source of my enjoyment…

So maybe I’ll continue with my study of Zen and Japanese Culture for having a Japanese person living in my family, comprising 1 of the 4 cultures including my own introduced by each of the 3 males, maybe only so long as I can read something edifying about the Cultural aspects..? hahaha. Have a good day everyone how does Zen fit with your ideas of how to behave?