Living Zen Life

The sacred writings of Buddhism are many and commentaries on them more so. My deficiency is a lack of patience in reading and understanding many of them. Too many obstructing questions arise. For instance, when the topic of emptiness arises, and explanations are offered, I feel myself drawn back to the Japanese and Chinese poets. They may mention emptiness but, to the best of my knowledge, did not attempt to explain it other than by their living example. I picked up a copy of the Lotus sutra but, to my dismay, found it to be over 300 pages long. Now, I have little doubt that there are gems of wisdom on each page, but I’m rich enough and more gems would only weigh me down, so, I’ll leave them for others to pick up. In time, when poorer, I’ll heft it up to my chair and give it a go.

I don’t mean to be facetious. I believe what I wrote about my riches, meaning my life. My own life is a jewel – imperfect, yet, a treasure indeed! I think it well possible to live a Zen life without complicating it with much reading or theorizing about it’s meaning. It is, at least, what I am trying to do.