Zen and the Art of Doing 'Nothing' - How to Apply This Secret in Everyday Life

When one possess Zen, the whole world looks very different.
This heightened awareness could mean enjoying at a deeper level, the innocent laughter of your child, the balmy, soft breeze at your porch or the park, being seduced by the exquisite beauty of a wild flower, as it's caressed by the wind and sun or pausing to marvel at the silent strength and majesty of an old oak tree on your way to the train station.
Whether your job is driving a truck, repairing cars, teaching school children, editing a newspaper, ministering to the medical needs of patients, prosecuting/defending legal cases, running an advertising/political campaign or operating a company, it means being fully involved and fully focused (mindfulness) on what you are supposed to be doing at the moment, to the extent that you and your work become one and indistinguishable.
If you are a sports buff, it could mean the joy over your triumph over fatigue and pain, as you fully involve your self at a higher and higher level. Doing things that are difficult strengthens your will power and self-control. It also strengthens your "mental muscles". And like any other muscles, the more you exercise them, the stronger they become.
It's all about achieving an ideal symmetry and unity of mind and body. The idea is to blur the distinction between object (your work or 'doing') and subject (you) so that thought and action blend into a unified, harmonic whole. By doing so, you become a more alert, resilient, motivated and superior person.
The high quality of your work is the product of that single minded engagement. In every human activity, at work or at play, a calm, clear, focused mind will always have an edge over one that is cluttered, tentative, and tense. That is quintessential Zen.
We are all familiar with stories about athletes being "in the zone" when they are so "locked-in" they can't seem to do anything wrong. The brilliant performances of great athletes like Michael Jordan, Roger Federer, Kim Yu-Na, and Alex Rodriguez during memorable, high stakes games highlight an effortless combination of grace and power; the doer and the 'doing' being in flawless unison.
We see the same unison and blurring of the 'doer' and the 'doing' in the art of ballet, when the dancers and the dance become an indistinguishable flow and patterns of movement.
HUNTER AND PREY
Zen is also present in the test of wills between a good hunter and a worthy prey, whether the chase is in a jungle in Brazil, a Savannah in Africa, or deep waters in the Pacific, when the hunter must enter the mind of his prey, identify with it, and 'become' the very object of his hunt in order to track it down, catch or kill it. Such deep identification with an object leads invariably to a kindred respect and empathy with it. That's why hunters always pay tribute to their fallen prey, silently and overtly, after defeating it.
At an institutional (combat) level, what stands out are the Samurai swordsmen of 17th century Japan who embraced Zen to calm and strengthen their minds for lethal combat, to the extent that whether in training or actual combat, the Samurai's sword seemed to be a natural extension of their bodies as they moved with powerful yet effortless grace, as if in a perfectly-choreographed dance.
Zen, like all Buddhism, frowns on violence and war, except as a self-defensive measure. Some Samurai, it could be argued, exploited Zen's hidden power to wage clearly offensive battles for personal gain.
'doing nothing' but engaging life fully as it comes, making it one organic unity of experience. Nothing more, nothing less.
It applies to countless aspects of human experience. What's more, harnessing and partaking of these gifts from life and nature come, in many instances, virtually free of charge. Most of us have taken for granted these priceless bounties, most of which are available for the taking practically throughout the year.
Those of us who are aware of nature's bountiful gifts and have made them a nourishing, healing balm in their lives are inevitably more focused, energetic, happier and healthier.

The author is a keen student of Zen Buddhism. A former journalist and diplomat, he lives in New York and travels to the Philippines where he is engaged in humanitarian work. He received an M.A. from Georgetown University, focusing in International and Strategic Affairs. His book, "The God in Einstein and Zen" is now available through Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com, Trafford.com, and in E-book. Article Source:

The Blind Climber, Enlightenment, and Zen

No one has a monopoly on truth. It is available to any determined seeker, even a novice, who will not be discouraged by the height of the mountain and the difficulty of the climb.
I think man's indomitable spirit is best expressed by Erik Weihenmayer a 42 year old American who refused to be defeated by his physical handicap. Blind since age 13, Erick climbed seven - not one but SEVEN -- of the world's tallest mountains, including Mount Everest, armed only with his tremendous fighting heart.
True there was a team of men with normal sight to aid him. But Erik had to climb like the rest. As if he had sight!
It was an exhilarating triumph of will and hope that spread around the world like a refreshing wind.
Not content with scaling tall mountains, Erik is also an accomplished skydiver, skier, long distance biker, para glider, marathoner and rock climber. He is also the author of best selling books, a sought-after motivational speaker and film maker.
In a very real sense, Erik is BLIND TO FAILURE.
On a lesser scale, there are many people with handicaps like Erick who rise daily to engage in activities once reserved only for the physically-able; faceless, unsung individuals who silently and stoically faced life's challenges with strength and grace.
We see them occasionally in the course of our work and travels. Not asking for pity or patronizing dole outs but just the right to live like the rest of us.
Enlightenment is Up to Us
Those of us who are fazed by life's unfairness, unpredictability and danger would do well to remember the hurdles faced by Erik and his kind. That those hurdles begin and end in the mind. Without a strong mind, physical barriers would be insurmountable. Unscalable.
It is the same with Zen, where practitioners will have to discipline and fortify their minds in order to find true wisdom and enlightenment. Developing inner strength calls for unwavering commitment. A long term commitment based on the belief that only a disciplined life can cope with its adversities and challenges.
Zen, which comes from the Chinese word, Cha'n, meaning "meditation," teaches that enlightenment is gained through the profound realization that one is born an enlightened person. Survival instincts, genetic factors, social conditioning, stress, and the demands of life, however, prevent us from seeing this important and obvious fact.
This awakening can occur gradually in deep silent meditation, shikantaza-zazen, favored by the Soto Zen school or in a sudden burst of pure awareness (satori) induced by koans ( advocated by the Rinzai Zen school).Whichever the case, it is the outcome of one's own transformative action. There is no God and deities in Zen. Books, teachers and scriptures can only partially guide us by providing some light along the road to wisdom and enlightenment. The rest is really up to us. There is no room and tolerance for mimicking in Zen.
Shikantaza is the deepest form of zazen meditation, a bare-bones kind, eschewing mantras, breath counting and koans, to calm body and mind by sitting in an erect lotus position; an alert, non-attached, non-clinging and non-interactive condition aimed at ushering enlightenment.
It is a demanding discipline that calls for serious, long-term commitment, unsuitable for seekers who lack inordinate patience and will.
Today, moving variations of meditation for the average seeker include popular meditation exercises such as yoga, tai chi, and qigong that are gaining popularity world-wide. Even Zen masters of both persuasions practice (Hatha) yoga and tai chi (including calisthenics, jogging, ping pong and other exercises) to strengthen their minds and bodies.
Rinzai's koans are terse conundrums or paradoxical questions that are deliberately illogical and must be answered correctly to have the desired effect: liberate our inherent intuitive or spiritual power by assaulting and stunning briefly our hyper-intellectualizing part of the mind.
"What is the sound of one hand clapping? " goes one koan. "What would the Buddha have said if there was no one to hear, and no one to teach? " goes another.
Through long years of interaction between the two schools, a kind of synthesis has developed that permits practitioners to combine and integrate zazen, shikantaza, and koans for better results. It's really up to one's predisposition and temperament. Some practitioners are more comfortable with long, sitting meditation while others prefer the relatively shorter path to enlightenment.
Is the quest worth it? It depends on the seeker and how much he or she is willing to go the extra mile to possess Zen. Because when one possess Zen, everything looks different. To cite an ancient saying, "flowers that looked mundane become prettier and the ordinary mountain stream is suddenly clearer and cooler."
This new power of heightened awareness of everything around us makes the journey of the search worth it.

This and similar articles and insights are expanded and elaborated upon in my book, "The God in Einstein and Zen" now available at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, E-book (nook and kindle), and Trafford Publishing

Masters of Rhythm and The Only Question

Masters of rhythm
Riding on sound
Vibrations of being
Pulsations surround
Flashes of brilliance
Amidst the destruction
Dimensions dissolving
The end of seduction
This chaos and fear
Somehow it's alright
The old ways are dying
Dispersed by great light
Shape-shifting all form
So bold is this mission
Creating reality
With instant precision
O', masters of rhythm
You see beyond light
Where all is so dark
Yet incredibly bright
Masters of rhythm
Finally you're home
The past is complete
The secret is known
The old ways let go
Fear is transcended
Light's taken over
The insanity ended
The Only Question
When the only question of
What to have and how much to have
Is how much is there,
Or how much can one afford,
There will be too much of everything for some
And not enough for the rest.
When the question is
How much does one really need,
There will be less for some
And just enough for all.
When we see how to live as if
We need only enough to be enlightened,
And not to be engorged,
There will be less for the engorged
And enough for the enlightened.
When comes the time when there's only
Enough to feed and clothe and support
Each of those here
In a normal and desirable way,
There will be just enough for all.
You may see this now,
Or you may still believe
You need to have much
To cover up the loss you feel
At not being able to see the truth.
Come to the light and you'll begin
To see what's important,
And know that all the rest is
Virtually useless.
Coming to this light reveals a path
Which goes far beyond the ordinary world;
Where you see more and more
Light each moment,
And need less and less
Of what isn't light.

Class Discussion: Worldviews and Dilemmas - We Are the Same, Yet We Are Not the Same

In my Personal Ethics in Organizations class this week, we are discussing worldviews and dilemmas using the characters of the play "Doubt: A Parable" by John Patrick Shanley. We had to read the play, and then respond to thought-provoking questions presented by our instructor.
The part of the question that I thought was most interesting:
"Each of the characters in Shanley's play, DOUBT, a parable, is involved in a moral dilemma. Presumably, each of these characters shares a Christian worldview. Do they define their dilemmas differently? Do they choose different relevant facts based on their Worldviews? What is a "Worldview?" Describe some key aspects of your own Worldview."
My response:
"One of the first classes I took was about inter-cultural communication, and how values and norms affect an individuals' perception of the world; otherwise known as their, "worldview." Even when two individuals share the same religious backgrounds, there can still be cultural clashes because every family has their own unique traditions and beliefs that come from more than just their spiritual background. The worldviews of each character in the play were very different and evident in the way they behaved, and responded to circumstances.
What kind of person would create lies to support their assumption of the truth without making certain that what they are assuming is true? What kind of person would stand there knowing full well that the other person was lying to justify their suspicion and assumptions. How does a man respond to one who blatantly slanders him? How people respond comes from their sense of right and wrong, which comes from their belief of how things should be. This perception of life comes from experiential conditioning since birth. We are all products of familiy traditions and beliefs passed down through the generations, as well as the good and bad we experience in life. It would make sense that a dilemma occurs when a person encounters a situation that does not align with their established worldviews, values, and norms. Therefore, there is a moment of not knowing what to think. Some may begin to doubt and question their beliefs; perhaps use critical thinking to take the situation apart and make sense of each element within the situation.
However, there are those who never learn from their mistakes and who are not open to questioning the "way things should be." For me, doubt is the beginning of new knowledge because without doubt, there would be no inclination to search for the truth."
Now, here are a couple of questions for you--my valued readers:
What worldviews do you have that are holding you back from achieving the transformation you so desire and deserve in your life?
What do you intend to do in order to close the gap that keeps you from realizing your full potential and personal fulfillment?
Things do not happen by themselves. It takes a dedicated and determined effort to figure out and take the necessary steps towards your desired destination in life. Someone will not deliver it to you on a silver platter. However, you can find people who will support you in your quest. Your vision of life will not happen until you first know what you want, figure out what it will take to get there, take that very first step, and then follow through all the way.
Take destiny into your hands and be the co-creator of your own future and vision of life. Go to the grave knowing that you did all you could do to detect and accomplish your mission and purpose in life--for when you do, you will have lived your life to its fullest potential with NO regrets.

Suzette West, ABR, EBA is an exclusive buyer's agent in Seattle and the surrounding areas of Western Washington who supports real estate buyers and investors through every step of their real estate investment journey. As an exclusive buyer's agent, she turns down listings in order to give buyers total loyalty and dedication in the spirit of partnership. Her mission to help her clients build wealth and achieve financial independence through real estate investing and through the creation of a supportive environment that comes from her vesting in their success, abundance, and prosperity. Her business, World West Investments serves the following areas in Washington State: Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma, Port Orchard, Silverdale, Bainbridge Island, Poulsbo, Capitol Hill, Fremont, Phinney Ridge, and Olympia, as well as other areas within the South Puget Sound. Sign up to receive Suzette's free e-course, "Three Steps to Building Wealth Responsibly with Real Estate" at

Philosophy Of Plato

Plato is renowned as one of the world's greatest philosophers. Born in 429 BC around the time of the death of Pericles, he lived for nearly eighty years up until the period that began with the birth of Alexander the Great. He belonged to an aristocratic Athenian family who were by the standards of those days relatively rich. A large number of Plato's relatives played an active role in Athenian politics, but this was an activity that Plato himself shied away from.
During his youth he became fascinated by the teachings and thoughts of Socrates, so much so that he attended the academy that Socrates set up. Plato was only thirty years old when Socrates was killed in prison for committing crimes against the gods.
Though incredibly distressed by the death of Socrates, Plato set about writing down the conversations he had held with his teacher. Today, most of what we know about Socrates, the man and his thinking, comes from the texts created by Plato.
Over time, he began to develop his own concepts and ideas relating to philosophy. One of his most famous works is "The Republic". This is a text that describes his thoughts on how a better government could be formed than that what was in power in Athens at the time.
As was common amongst the ancient philosophers of that age he was not a fan of democracy. It was his impression that uneducated people should not have a say in electing officials that were to govern. He put forward a suggestion that the most intellectually accomplished in society should be those that hold power and make decisions. A cynic may say that due to his upbringing amongst the aristocracy he would always suggest that the elite class should govern.
Plato had a passion for the natural world and how biological systems interact and develop. He believed that all matter and thoughts had a perfect form. One of the most famous methods he used to explain his concepts was a metaphor relating to a cave.
He suggested that if there was a cave inside which there were a group of men chained up against a wall and they could only see the back of the cave and no more, all that would be visible to them would be shadows, and these shadows encompassed all reality. He proposed that if one of these cave prisoners was to escape and take in the beauty of the outside world, if he then returned to visit the remaining captives and tell them what existed outside, it is likely that he would be told that he was crazy and perhaps even hallucinating.
Plato suggested that we are all very similar to those men stuck in a cave. We believe that we know everything about the world and existence, but we are trapped in our bodies just as the men in the story were trapped on a cave. It was his mission to help people make more sense of the real world, both in practical and theoretical ways.

Philosophy Of Aristotle

Aristotle was born in northern Greece in the village of Stagira. He became the most accomplished product of Plato's educational system, spending twenty years of his life at Plato's academy. Upon the death of his own teacher, Aristotle travelled to Macedonia where he played a role in the teaching of the young Alexander the Great. With Alexander's approval he returned to Athens in 335 BC, where he set up his own school in the Lyceum. It was here that he lived out his days, writing, teaching, and researching.
The surviving works of this great man are perhaps only a small number of his total output. They include his opinions and thoughts on a wide variety of subjects; these include philosophy, logic, ethics, biology, physics, politics, psychology, as well as rhetoric. The style of his compositions points to the fact that he was thinking and developing his ideas constantly as he wrote. Because of this, it is often said that his work is not easy to read due to the lack of flow and consistency, nevertheless it is still an impressive body of knowledge that has played an important role in the development of modern society.
His logical treatises (referred to as the Organon) had the aim of developing a universal method of reasoning to understand all that is possible about the meaning of reality. For example, in the "Categories" treatise, Aristotle put forward a concept that would describe matter in terms of state, activity, and property.
Another famous work is the text "On Interpretation, Prior Analytics, and Posterior Analytics", in which he examines the real nature of deduction and inference, outlining a system that eventually became known as categorical logic.
Aristotle had a stronger fascination for science then either Plato or Socrates perhaps because of the fact that his own father was a reputed doctor. He integrated the logical methods taught by Socrates to develop an understanding of the way in which the physical world worked.
It is often said that he is the father of modern science. He had a special interest in biology, and actually worked on classifying hundreds of plant and animal species in a way that could be easily understood. In fact, when Alexander the great was travelling extensively through west Asia, he ordered his messengers to carry plants back to his teacher for his study.
Making order out of what initially appeared as chaos was one of the tenets of ancient Greek philosophy. Aristotle played an important role in the development of government. The system he created is still in use today, as is apparent when we analyze modern democracies, tyrannies, republics, monarchies, and oligarchs.
Upon the death of Alexander in 323 BC, Athens revolted against the Macedonians in a bloody slaughter. Anger was turned towards Aristotle due to his heritage and connections. He left his beloved school and fled Athens with a small retinue of followers. The last years of his life where spent in the north of the country close to where he had been born.

The Holocaust That Never Was - And Why Nobody Died When the Titanic Sank

The holocaust, that terrible carnage that claimed the lives of an estimated six million Jews in Hitler's oven's and concentration camps never really took place; and nobody perished in the nuclear blasts over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Likewise, nobody actually died when the Titanic sank after striking a glacier. Similarly, the huge human toll exacted by natural disasters like the 2004 Tsunami in Southeast Asia, and the more recent earthquake in Haiti, never happened. All that really occurred were insignificant energy conversions.
The same applies to all deaths on Earth since the emergence of man.
Indeed, in the mind-boggling vastness of the universe, even the death of our solar system or even the entire Milky Way galaxy would be less than an energy flicker. Going further, in a multiverse of endless universes science now boldly thinks of, the very death of our particular cosmos would also be an unnoticeable and meaningless event.
These and other insights are all children of Albert Einstein's famed equation, E=mc2. It is a turbulent, bewildering universe of ceaseless energy movements and transformations from you and me, to the stars. It is also a universe without a personal God that is moved by prayer and intervenes in human affairs.
Why did the greatest mind the human race ever produced think this way? Let us turn back the pages of history to get a clearer picture.
Einstein's views on God could be briefly summarized in his memorable, often-quoted words: "God does not play dice with the universe."
Einstein believed that the dynamics of the universe, from the large bodies of Newton to the sub-atomic realm of quantum mechanics are governed by the deterministic laws of causality. That our tendency to perceive of 'uncertainty' and randomness' in quantum particles is due to our lack of predictive knowledge (epistemological) and does not invalidate causality at that level (ontological). In short, "God does not play dice with the universe."
The great scientist also publicly stated his agreement with 17th century philosopher Baruch Spinoza's ideas about God, nature, and reality. Einstein named Spinoza as the philosopher who had the deepest influence on his world view. In a widely reported telegram response, to a query, whether he believed in God, his answer was that he believed in "Spinoza's God, who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings."
Spinoza had a pantheistic, deterministic view of God, equating God with Nature, that bore a family likeness with Einstein's belief in an impersonal God.
Furthermore, Einstein thought man's limited intellect could never comprehend God but could only have glimpses of the universe' master architect through the prism and language of science.
He could not imagine a God who rewards and punishes the children of his creation, whose morality and purposes are modeled after our own--a God, who is but a mirror of human weakness. Neither could he I believe that the individual survives bodily death, "although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotisms."
When Einstein came up with his astonishing view of the workings of nature in special theory of relativity in 1905, physics was in clueless, disarray. For two centuries, the world had been mesmerized and content with Newton's static, unchanging universe. But the mechanistic, clock-like universe of Newton had a major drawback. It had no answer to the mysterious movements of radioactive, x-ray, and electron particles scientists began to observe in nature at the start of the 20th century.
Into this daunting, bewildering realm of invisible matter that flustered the greatest physicists of that era entered a brash, ingenious young man who saw nature through powerful, radically different eyes. When he was done with his work, our astounded world was changed forever.
LIFE AND THE UNIVERSE COMES FROM E=mc2
Einstein's profound, breakthrough insight about the workings of the universe was the key that opened the door to a true understanding of nature, existence, and reality. It was 'mystical,' born of intuition--but within the ambit of reason and therefore verifiable by empirical means.
His elegant equation E=mc2 (energy equals mass times the speed of light squared), meant that mass and energy throughout the universe are interchanging forms of the same thing: energy is transformed mass; mass is potential energy. Einstein's view that mass can be converted into pure energy was a huge boost to our understanding of the tremendous and enduring power of stars, like our Sun. It also led to the harnessing of the mighty atom in countless applications the modern world cannot do without.
In thermodynamic perspective, this formula meant the sum total of energy in the universe always remained constant and can be altered or transformed but never created or destroyed.
The simple, elegant formula distills in four figures the workings of radioactivity in the entire universe. Nowadays we know radioactivity to be a property harbored by some unstable elements, such as isotopes of plutonium or uranium of spontaneously radiating particles as their atomic nuclei crumble. They are utilizing and transforming mass into energy all the time, governed by Einstein's equation.
Einstein's equation is so familiar in modern times that High School students are routinely taught that stars (like our Sun) and all elements they bestowed on the Earth, including all life forms such as us, are virtually inexhaustible energy sources or endless E=mc2 wombs.
Everything using nuclear energy, such as modern submarines, aircraft carriers, nuclear plants and atomic weapons are products of Einstein's equation. E=mc2 explains the invisible electromagnetic radioactivity in cell phones, radio, television, personal computers, x-ray scanners at airports, PET/CT scans in hospitals and our very origin, the Big Bang.
We modern humans are all immensely indebted to Einstein for explaining how all things in the universe work. Of course there are critics. There always are.
When a good friend warned Einstein that his deterministic universe brought down humankind's carefully built moral edifice that was premised on free will, Einstein purportedly winked and said although he deeply believes in determinism, he must be practical because he must function in world that does not.

This article and similar insights are expanded and elaborated upon in my book, "E=mc2, The God in Einstein and Zen," now available at Trafford.com, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and E-books (kindle and nook). The author is a retired diplomat and journalist and regularly travels to the Philippines where he is involved in humanitarian work. He received an M.A. from Georgetown University, focusing on International and Strategic Affairs.