Travels Into Zen: Part One

Change is difficult to take and lately a lot has come my way in the past month. As part of trying to learn about myself I am learning the practice of Zen meditation. For those of you that do not know about it, Zen is simply learning to live now, to be aware of the present rather than worry about the past or to fear the future. It is learning to be able to quiet the constant chatter of the mind, to focus thoughts and attention and not be distracted by the ebb and flow of things you cannot change. What I like about Zen is that it isn't religion and in fact it can be integrated into whatever religious tendencies you have. Saturday I attended my first meditation session at the neighborhood Dharma Center. A few of the things said I let go past me (some of the Buddhist aspects of the teaching) but the Zen aspects were very enlightening. Jenna (the teacher) spoke about learning to be responsible for the things we have control over and gave a good example about driving in our "lovely" San Diego traffic and getting cut off in traffic. We cannot be held responsible for the actions of the jerk who cuts us off in traffic but we can be responsible for how we deal with it. Another section of the talk during the session was dealing with work. What we need be concerned about is just doing the best job we can do and not be so worried about how much the boss likes it. To do this we have to be mindful of our actions, to be aware of what we think and what we do. This is the beginning of Zen. It will be a long, long journey but one that I think will be worth it.