ED,
Wow, I'm sooooo behind with my replies!
>Good to hear that you are safe and well. Has has your Zen practice benefitted
>you in this stressful situation?
Thanks ED. Being so close to so much death and destruction does have a way of
concentrating the mind (as someone more famous than me once said).
However, that's still a pretty difficult question to answer. I don't see Zen as
a technique to be employed in particular adverse situations to ease a troubled
mind. In fact, it's not a 'technique' in any sense of the word (I understand
that you didn't imply any of this in your question). Although I'll probably get
chewed out by the orthodoxy here, I'd even go so far as to say 'practice' is
problematic for me. You can practice zazen and mindfulness, and at a push you
can say there is Zen practice, but I'm all the way with Bill when he
differentiates between small 'z' zen and the Buddhist expression of zen we know
as... Zen. Small 'z' zen just is - there are no qualities to it that can be
talked about. There is, however, a way to express zen and this would be thru
equanimity, compassion and wisdom. I have no concerns for myself regarding the
situation in Japan, but my heart feels pain for the people here who are
suffering from having lost the things in life they hold dear (family members,
friends, community, possessions etc.).
Mike
