Zen

Looking out my window...not towards the sea, but just a little to the left, I see a rainbow and snow floating along with yellow and red leaves as part of a carrousel made out of trees and clouds, pink and grey, fluffy...

You all ask if I like it here. I answer yes to all, but add that I would not live here if I was given the chance.


A long vacation of 4 months is enough of Norway for me...
Painted landscapes, changing weather, interesting faces to engage in conversation, to go from smiles to laughs, from hand shake to hug...but not all of these people want a smile, not all want a hug.

I want everything that reminds me of you, and I find it sometimes, but it's still so cold here.

Today, in my Beat Culture class we had a guest, a Buddhist monk. It seemed as though a tree covered in autumn colors: shades of brown and yellow walked into our class room. He began to speak about how Buddhism spread across the world...of course with migration; about how in America “strict monks were expected to eat their rice and shave their heads” and not to be an influence to the rebels, to the beatniks in other words.

These two separate worlds did collide and...I think ultimately the hippie generation was born.

He explained what Zen might mean...after some of us gave our humble words to describe it....I said a state of mind...but could not continue to describe everything I thought I had learned from Hesse’s Siddhartha.
So to him it means: “the perception of every phenomenon from here and now just before it hits the intellectual part of the brain” in other words...a state of mind :)) that can vary in length in which you break from the dull routine of thinking and feeling, and just drift away or you just let the world drift around you.

He works with disabled children by day and he underlined that being sane and healthy enables you to change, to evolve, to not need a hand to carry you through your own life.

Two Zen quotes made my day seem even more meaningfuly weird...with everything that happened these last days in my mind, in my subconscious, things I could, but won’t tell you of course :)

Mu ga mu shin = no object disturbing your tranquil mind

Ichi go ichi e = one opportunity, one meeting; or one chance, one life...or each person you meet might turn out to be the most important of your life, can be life itself...

Then of course we went to discuss the meaning of being one with something or someone.
What does that mean? Putting all the differences beside, tearing down the walls that separate you...or maybe just giving each other a chance. Dare to win, dare to risk :)

Ok...so this guy is Norwegian. He went to Japan a lot of years ago to start his journey. He was there, in a monastery for 13 years, and he returned here to give some tranquility guidance to other people...so it seems.
He took his brush, he put black ink in a special object, he took a moment of silence, and he interrupted it by saying that was the Zen moment...

He was playful, he was loud and he clapped a lot...he wanted us to be awake before we drifted of....
So he put the brush filled with ink on the paper and stroke it powerfully, quickly as from his mouth came sounds of great pain, concentration and basically the stuff you hear from a martial arts master when his fingers clutch air as if it were a thorny rose.

He finished with an AAAAA...and he added that the AAAAA was Zen as well...
A fun man...not what you might expect...so why expect anything...
That one meeting, one opportunity I think is al about not passing judgment, about considering the other as important as yourself, just for a moment.

So...what do YOU think?