Zen Focus

I found a blog today called Zen Habits. It is written by Leo, a man living in Guam that shares his experiences of improving his life as his way of 'paying it forward'. I highly recommend the blog.

Reading some of Zen Habits made me realize the difficulty I was having with this blog. I love to opine 'til the cows come home, but what good is it without purpose? I stopped trying to save the world a long time ago. It was not something little ol' me could actually do. Not all at once, at least. So, I Pay it Forward. That is the purpose of this blog: To share my views and opinions as a way of offering a different way of perceiving and understanding. Like Leo, I also have to say that I am not the most qualified. I'm just willing to share.

Leo mentioned something about the general aversion to organized religion, that he feels the church, any church, is a social gathering place that gives people the opportunity to be kind. As the opposite, he points out that we are all anonymous to each other as we all have to drive our car to get anywhere. Yes, we are more and more isolated every day, not only from each other, but from ourselves.

And yes, I am one of those with an aversion to organized religion, and my 'why' is probably pretty close to everyone's 'why' with the same aversion. Perhaps the balance has been tipped toward a complete destruction of the institution of organized religion. But, faith, beliefs, spirituality, ethics, morals, and values are being destroyed along with the institution of organized religion! Historically, is there anything to look back on to give us an idea what happens when so many no longer have religion? I can remember nothing like a time when people no longer searched for meaning, for purpose, for something more than the way life appeared to be. Add to this hollow existence the destruction of the social gathering place and yet another rung of Maslow's Hierarchy of Need is taken out of the natural, necessary quest for growth, individuation and actualization.

The concept of Zen, the emphasis on the "direct individual experience of one's own true nature", just may be the way to put the human back into humanity. What has been lost can be found and strengthened by meditating on 'true nature', and how that is spiritual, ethical, and moral. Define your own religion. In all of the earth's religions, there is a common truth:

From good comes good; from evil comes evil.