It stinks of Zen

I haven't written much about Buddhism or Taoism lately, and that's by intent. There were times when my posts stunk of Zen, or at least of what I perceive Zen to be. My beliefs should apply to and enhance my daily life – otherwise, they're just a hobby, and I could write about them the way I might write about stamp collecting or model railroading.

It occurs to me that if my beliefs are really applied to my daily life, then I should be writing about my daily life in that context, rather than just talking about my beliefs as an end to themselves.

Years ago, I became fascinated by personal computers. I swapped out video cards, replaced memory, added hard drives and built one PC from scratch. I spent more time fiddling with the computers than using them. At one point, I had five Linux and Windows PC networked in my house, plus a few webcams.

But ss time went by, I became less interested in the mechanics of the computers and more interested in using them get other things done.

That's where I am, I think, with Buddhism and Taoism.

How complete and correct are my beliefs? I don't know. And I realize part of the reason I've avoided any organized activity here is that I'm afraid to find out. What I feel inside, in terms of calm and serenity and contentment, is working very well for me. I don't want to find out I'm 'doing it wrong,' and then be saddled with some new 'correct' practice that makes me neurotic and stressed out.

I can write now about my every day life, but of course there's not much to say. My daily life continues to be excruciatingly dull by most people's standards, although fine by me. I could probably create some sort of macro that writes "I went to the Red Cup this morning, then went for a walk" every day and then just let it run by itself.

So I don't know what I'll write about now. We'll just have to see where the blog takes itself.