Why “Zen-ish”

Why Zen:

Zen is a remarkable thing – Not really a religion, more a tool that certain religious folk happen to be a fan of; A belief system that encourages skepticism, independence and self-care; A serious yet welcomingly light-hearted perspective on life… Zen is something that we can all benefit from. In the same way that you don’t have to be Christian to pray, people all over the world now are doing Zazen (sitting meditation) and all sorts of other Zen-ish practices like mindfulness in order to pursue wellness, good mental health, a bit of calm for just a flippin’ second and to cure indigestion. When we do these things, we’re actually doing a version of Zen practice.

Sort of.

Why -ish:

Because Zen is hard as fork to talk about – basically any description of Zen or explanation of ‘The Way’ destroys Zen itself. If at any point you think you understand what Zen is or that you could explain it to someone succinctly, you don’t know it. In other words, if I call it Zen, I cannot in good faith say a thing about it, but if I keep things loose then I can write freely about my explorations and experiences, and maybe in doing so help others discover something closer to true Zen practice. Zen’s very paradoxical like that, so maybe the Zen-ish way is actually MORE Zen…?

The Zen that can be blogged is not the true Zen.

Not-quite Lao Tzu

That’s also why when you do guided meditations and mindfulness and so on, chances are you’re not ‘doing Zen’ at all, but some bastardized version that’s easier for us to comprehend. A version which, while nice and calming and that, sort of misses the point. It’s fine for those who just want a quick fix, but if you’ve ever been frustrated that the calm doesn’t last or that you expected deeper changes, this is probably kind of why.

Because to be relevant to our lives, it HAS to be transformed – I am not a monk living in a monastery, learning in the language and lands that birthed Zen with nothing else to distract me in the search for enlightenment. I am a young Western woman living in a complicated Western world trying to make enough money to live on whilst maintaining my sanity. They are very different worlds with very different goals!

And because the study of Zen (et al.) has powerfully changed my life for the better. I want to help other people get to know it too without being deterred by the difficulties of ‘genuinely Zen’ sources, or mislead by Western reinventions.

This may not be someone else’s idea of ‘The Way’, but it is My Way, and that is a very Zen-ish thing indeed.