"The Little Zen Companion"

The Little Zen Companion is a 1994 anthology compiled by David Schiller containing over 300 quotations. In the Introduction, Schiller explains, "This book doesn't presume to define Zen, but instead to offer a taste of Zen's way of looking at the world: where the best moment is now, where things are what they seem to be, where we see with the refreshing directness of a child and not through eyes grown stale from routine." The quotations are not all by Zen masters and many do not even explicitly pertain to Zen, but they all provoke thought about what it means to be human, and how to strive toward living in the now as opposed to dwelling on what was or what might never be.

Here are a few quotations that resonated deeply with me; in some instances, I have added my own brief comments (in italics, after the pertinent quotation):

• "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few." Shunryu Suzuki. Studies have shown that the best chess players look at fewer moves than weaker players, but the best players look at those moves more deeply and more accurately. The expert chess player understands that there are only a few optimal ways--and, sometimes, only one optimal way--to play a given position. 
• "Before a person studies Zen, mountains are mountains, and waters are waters; after a first glimpse into the truth of Zen, mountains are no longer mountains and waters are not waters; after enlightenment, mountains are once again mountains and waters once again waters." Zen saying.
• "Ring the bells that can still ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." Leonard Cohen.
• "The raindrops patter on the basho leaf, but these are not tears of grief; this is only the anguish of him who is listening to them." Zen saying.
• "If you seek, how is that different from pursuing sound and form? If you don't seek, how are you different from earth, wood, or stone? You must seek without seeking." Wu-men.
• "Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?" Gauguin, inscription on one of his paintings. This quotation reminds me of Prince's song "The Ladder," which has the following lyrics: 
  "Everybody's looking for the answers
  How the story started and how it will end
  What's the use in half a story, half a dream
  You have to climb all of the steps in between (yeah, we ride)
  Everybody's looking for the ladder
  Everybody wants salvation of the soul
  The steps you take are no easy road
  But the reward is great
  For those who want to go (I do)" 
  
• "In walking, just walk. In sitting, just sit. Above all, don't wobble. " Yun-men.
• "If you wish to drown, do not torture yourself with shallow water." Bulgarian saying. After breaking Joe Theismann's leg during a tackle on Monday Night Football, Lawrence Taylor visited Theismann in the hospital. "Did you know you broke my leg in two places?" Theismann asked. "I never do anything halfway," Taylor replied. For better or worse, halfway is nowhere; commit 100% to an action, or don't take action at all. This also brings to mind Sheriff Buck's conversation on "American Gothic" with the bungling criminal he dismissed as "Half-Ted"; Buck declared that if "Half-Ted" were a real criminal he would have killed all witnesses and escaped and if he were not a criminal at all then he would have never ended up in that particular predicament, so he was not really Ted but just "Half-Ted."
• "One cannot step twice into the same river." Herakleitos.
• "To set up what you like against what you dislike--this is the disease of the mind." Seng-T'San.
• "How shall I grasp it? Do not grasp it. That which remains when there is no more grasping is the Self." Panchadasi.
• "In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don't try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present." Tao Te Ching.
• "When hungry, eat your rice; when tired, close your eyes. Fools may laugh at me, but wise men will know what I mean." Lin-Chi.
• "Sit, rest, work. Alone with yourself, never weary. On the edge of the forest, live joyfully, without desire." The Buddha.
• "This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God..." Walt Whitman.
• "Barn's burnt down--now I can see the Moon." Masahide. The ability to see hope in crisis and the faith/optimism to look to the future with confidence represent a very rare and special form of grace.
• "We walk, and our religion is shown (even to the dullest and most insensitive person) in how we walk. Or to put it more accurately, living in this world means choosing, choosing to walk, and the way we choose to walk is infallibly and perfectly expressed in the walk itself. Nothing can disguise it. The walk of an ordinary man and of an enlightened man are as different as that of a snake and a giraffe." R. H. Blyth.
• "Things derive their being and nature by mutual dependence and are nothing in themselves." Nagarjuna, second century Buddhist philosopher.
• "An elementary particle is not an independently existing, unanalyzable entity. It is, in essence, a set of relationships that reach outward to other things." H.P. Stapp, twentieth century physicist. 
• "The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely." Carl Jung.
• "If you gaze for long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you." Nietzsche.
• "He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened." Tao Te Ching.
• "1. Out of clutter, find simplicity. 2. From discord, find harmony. 3. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity." Albert Einstein, three rules of work. 
• "If you study Japanese art, you see a man who is undoubtedly wise, philosophic, and intelligent, who spends his time how? In studying the distance between the earth and the moon? No. In studying the policy of Bismarck? No. He studies a single blade of grass. But this blade of grass leads him to draw every plant and then the seasons, the wide aspects of the countryside, then animals, then the human figure. So he passes his life, and life is too short to do the whole." Vincent Van Gogh. Van Gogh is speaking the truth that an artist's greatness is not only in his hands but also in his eyes, and his mind's eye--in his ability to truly see, and to intensely focus with a calm gaze.

Ray Bradbury's "Zen in the Art of Writing" Exudes Joy and Wonder

Ray Bradbury's Zen in the Art of Writing is a collection of essays published between 1961 and 1986. He was 41 when the first essay was published and 66 when the last one was published. Zen is only explicitly mentioned in the title essay, but the entire book is filled with joy and wonder about not only the writing process but life itself.

The title of Bradbury's Preface captures the book's spirit: "How to climb the tree of life, throw rocks at yourself, and get down again without breaking your bones or your spirit. A preface with a title not much longer than the book."

In the Preface, Bradbury recalls that in 1929, when he was nine years old, he tore up all of his Buck Rogers comic strips because his fourth grade classmates made fun of Buck Rogers. A month later, he determined that his friends were "idiots" and he resumed collecting Buck Rogers comic strips. He declares, "Where did I find the courage to rebel, to change my life, to live alone? I don't want to over-estimate this, but damn it, I love that nine-year-old, whoever in hell he was. Without him, I could not have survived to introduce these essays."

Bradbury asserts that writing teaches us two very important lessons: (1) Life is a "gift and a privilege" that "asks for rewards back because it has favored us with animation." He acknowledges that art cannot by itself save us from the myriad forms of suffering in the world but nevertheless it "can revitalize us amidst it all"; (2) Writing is "survival. Any art, any good work, of course, is that. Not to write, for many of us, is to die."

It is hard to conceive of a better writer's creed than those brief, eloquent statements.

Bradbury says that writers must work at their craft every single day and he uses the analogy of a pianist who stated that if he missed one day of practice he would know, if he missed two days of practice his critics would know and if he missed three days of practice his audiences would know. The point is to rely on your own individual high standards and not to be satisfied to fool the audiences or the critics.

Bradbury summarizes the necessary attitude/approach: "You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you." Life is often filled with suffering and inequities but writing enables us to "use the grand and beautiful facts of existence in order to put up with the horrors that afflict us directly in our families and friends, or through the newspapers and TV."

So how do you develop your writing talents? In the essay "How to Keep and Feed a Muse," Bradbury offers simple advice: "Read poetry every day of your life. Poetry is good because it flexes muscles you don't use often enough. Poetry expands the senses and keeps them in prime condition."

Reading poetry helped inspire many of Bradbury's stories and helped sharpen his writing skills. Bradbury also believes that the best stories reveal themselves to you: "My stories have led me through my life. They shout, I follow. They run up and bite me on the leg--I respond by writing down everything that goes on during the bite. When I finish, the idea lets go and runs off. That is the kind of life I've had. Drunk and in charge of a bicycle, as an Irish police report once put it" (from the essay "Drunk, and in Charge of a Bicycle"). 

Bradbury laments, "By the time many people are fourteen or fifteen, they have been divested of their loves, their ancient and intuitive tastes, one by one, until when they reach maturity there is no fun left, no zest, no gusto, no flavor. Others have criticized, and they have criticized themselves, into embarrassment. When the circus pulls in at five of a dark cold summer morn, and the calliope sounds, they do not rise and run, they turn in their sleep, and life passes by" ("Drunk, and in Charge of a Bicycle").

It is important to never lose that spirit to "rise and run." Recall the line from Cummings' poem "Since Feeling is First": "In even the laziest creature among us, a wisdom no knowledge can kill is astir."

In the title essay, Bradbury lists three keys to incorporate Zen into your writing and he put each of them in all caps: WORK, RELAXATION and DON'T THINK!

Bradbury extols the virtue of work in its purest form, work with the purpose of honing your craft; work that is made with an eye primarily on profit and/or reputation "is a form of lying." You must instead be "curious about creativity" and seek to "make contact with that thing in yourself that is truly original. You want fame and fortune, yes, but only as rewards for work well and truly done."

When you work in that mode, you will achieve RELAXATION and that will enable you to follow Bradbury's third precept, DON'T THINK! Bradbury describes how athletes, painters, mountain climbers and Zen Buddhists become so absorbed in the purity of their work that they stop thinking and just do (Bradbury does not mention explicitly the concept of "flow" but that applies here).

It all starts with WORK--not drudgery, not busy work, but work that flows from your passion for your art. WORK that way and, Bradbury suggests, you may discover a new definition for WORK: "LOVE."