Eat Breakfast, Pet Cat

On Zen Enlightenment

“Chop wood, carry water.”  - Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Master

“Make Love, drive freeway.” - Charlotte Joko Beck, Zen Master

"Eat breakfast, pet cat." - Chris Claborne, Padawan, (12/2/2012)

The Canvas of Suffering

Suffering is the canvas upon which we live.  No matter who wins, the election, how much money,  power, etc., that you have, there will always be suffering.  Once a human accepts this, every moment in life is fantastic.  Anyone that tells you they can end your suffering is only offering up a fantasy or selling a cult.

Shunryu Suzuki who (I think) expounded that when you see a beauty, it is visible because of the contrast to the canvas of suffering.  Without the canvas or the 18% gray of a B&W photo, you wouldn't be able to experience the beauty of the moment, visual or otherwise.   

Hmmm, where does this leave country music?

- Chris Claborne

I went to the Moon with Neil Armstrong

by Chris Claborne
In July 1969, mankind started their trek to the moon and I was with them.  I watched them blast off and then as they traveled to the moon, I was with them.  When I went to bed at night, I pretended I was there, riding in that small little capsule to the moon.

My mom bought me a small plastic box about the size of a lunch-box.  When it unfolded, it was the inside of the lunar lander and command module.  On July 20th, 1969 my imagination was running at full tilt.  I sat next to my mom and dad in front of the TV and was totally and completely immersed in what it must be like.  I lived through each second of descent and landing with the crew.  I was there, my imagination that is.  The moment of touchdown and the elation of the world, I was there.  

After the landing on the moon came the wait.  I remember it taking forever but listening to the journalists on TV (I can still hear Walter Cronkite in my head), I continued to watch until the shadow of Armstrong became visible in the dodgy B&W transmission.  After the first step on the moon, I took a breath.  

I’ve always thought the words that he spoke, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” were as perfect as they come.  But more than this, I felt proud to be an American because we weren’t saying this was an American step, this was a step made for all people of the earth.  I remember reading an interview by one of the astronauts while on tour around the world and he said that people were chanting “we did it” or some incantation thereof.  

Neil Armstrong died yesterday but my recollection of the events that unfolded on July 20th haven’t dimmed.  These events added to our confidence as a people.  Statements like “If we can put a man on the moon, we can  <fill in the blank>”.  It certainly expanded the envelope of what I thought possible.  

Godspeed Neil.

Being Alone

This quote from "Sit Down and Shut Up" is interesting. It's in reference to the explanation to an old zen monk story where the student realizes he's not only alone in the universe, but no one else even knows he's here.

Other people may be able to get some rough idea of what we think and feel.  But no one else can ever be "aware" of you in the truest sense.  Only you can know what you really think, feel, and experience.  Yet a lot -- perhaps even all -- our conflicts are based on the assumption that whoever we've disagreed with thoroughly understands what it is we're trying to tell her.

You are are freaking out, fret not, it's all good (as usual there are two apposing points of view in zen).  We are the universe and the universe is you. 

Do we have Too Much Processing Power?

OK, you would expect a title like that from a geek like me but I’m applying the geek computer stuff to the human brain stuff. While reading Everyday Zen by Charlotte Beck, it occurred to me that maybe we humans have too much processing power upstairs. All that extra processing power gets us into trouble and at times can make us miserable. But at the same time it’s responsible for propelling humanity forward, allowing us to walk on the moon. Much time is spent in Beck’s book and other Zen books trying to explain “zazen”, Zen meditation, with the goal being no real goal other than non thinking. This is harder than it sounds. Brad Warner explains it best in “Sit Down and Shut Up” as grabbing onto those spaces between thoughts (this is simplified, just read his book). To me, it helps to quiet the brain down and discard some of this extra processing that’s always going on.

More to Come

No this BLOG is NOT dead.  I plan on posting more thoughts.  Look for new ones on Zen, and my upcoming article, 1000 conversations.

Finding The Right Pace

Sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised that when I take the time to slow down just a little, and smell the roses, how right it feels.  With today's American tech work environment with its tight schedules, deadlines, etc, we start to build a routine that is a very fast pace for everything we do.  I think because of that, we are missing out on more than we know, missing out on important stuff.  The following were great reminder to find that pace.

The Yearly Throb

Definition of the "Throb".

When I contemplate of the “Throb of Life”, I am forced to somehow define "throb". The meaning to me is the rhythm, the hum, the continual cycle of hour to hour, day to day or year to year. If you will allow, there are rhythms inside rhythms. There is the slow and powerful throb of year to year and the fast paced hum of the daily grind. Think about this, have a glass of wine and contemplate the meaning, the implications.

Let's party and start the next throb

An important throb to us all is the beat that signals the beginning of the year. It's a time when that giant piston of life starts it's next stroke. It's important to my family because we host an all day party at my house to renew friendships, catch up with friends, make new friends and eat some of the best Mexican food in the county.

My Personal Mission Statement

"Exercise my Skills and creativity in a way that gives me joy."

I will confess I snagged this from someone else but it really brings things into acute focus doesn't it?  

I actually created a collection of thoughts for myself as I congitated what I wanted as I look my career, life and other choices I have. I felt that I needed to have a starting point, something to evaluate all the rungs in the ladder of career, family, living and other choices that I have to make. I took my mission statement and then build on that by adding a couple of starter philosophical statements;

1. Don't be evil
2. Send positive energy to generate enjoyment in others.
3. More to come

YouTUBE adding to the THROB

Although I said I wouldn’t write about technology and save it for my Cyberthoughts, blog, I do have to comment on the role that YouTUBE brings to the planet and our society. It reinforces my wonder of the complete diversity and what’s beautiful about humanity. This technolog is second to the Internet in how it has affected so many people by allowing shared experience. It is the world-wide-TV. I’m thinking about things like Susan Boyle, and Jackie Evancho as well as the shared experiences of people all over the planet. YouTUBE allows us to have a shared experience of the throb of life.

The sound of Ottmar Liebert is as Timeless as 501 Jeans

Every Friday and sometimes Saturday, I fire up the grill and listen to Pandora radio on my iPhone connected to my little Logitech boombox. When it’s time to sit down for dinner to eat, drink and enjoy my friends I point Pandora to my Ottmar Liebert station that was given to me by a friend. It hit me one evening that somehow, someway, the style of Ottmar Liebert’s music (and others like him) is as timeless as 501 Jeans. Corny maybe, but when sitting outside having dinner and consuming mass quantities of wine, it adds to the throb of life.