I'm learning that Zen isn't anything you can conceive.

It is not a particular state,
It is not ectsasy.
It is not numbeness,
It is not non-attachment,
It is not any term,
It is not any process,
It is not bound,
It is not free
It cannot be conceived in,
thoughts,
words,
ideas,
theories.
It is not 'it.'
It is not, not 'it.'

In the words of a Zen master, "Mu!"

A common mistake of mine is to turn Zen into an idea, and attempt to become that idea; to realize satori. Satori cannot be discovered! How do you start discovering yourself? The eye is just seeing. The bell is just ringing.

Enlightenment? No, really. To you? What's it mean? Or is between the meanings? Can it be defined, and if not, are words like fingers pointing toward it, or do they just hinder the recognition of it?

"What is, is what?"

"So, what is beauty? The same question put in different words is what are you?

What is the nature and structure of you, apart from the biological factor? That is very closely related to what is beauty. When you look at a mountain, snowcapped, deep valleys, blue, deep hills, what do you feel, what's your real response to all that? Aren't you, for a second or for a few minutes, absolutely shocked by it, by the greatness, the immensity of the green valley, the extraordinary light and the blue sky against the snowclad mountains? What happens to you at that moment when you look at that - the grandeur, the majesty of those mountains? What do you feel? Do you, for the moment, or for a few minutes, exist at all? You understand my question?

Please don't agree; look at it very closely. At that moment when you look at something grand, immense, majestic, for a second you don't exist - you've forgotten your worries, your wife and your children, your job, all the messiness of your life. At that moment you are stunned by it. For that second, the grandeur has wiped out all your memory, just for a second, and then you come back. What happens during that second when you are not there?

That is beauty - you understand? - when you are not there. "

-Jiddu Krishnamurti

And the river said to the tree,

"What keeps you here? The mountain of silver and darkness will soon be suffocating your leaves from all light, and your roots will be starved of all that gives life."

The tree replied,

"The weeds and insects keep me here. The birds and animals that crawl through my arms and hair keep me here. Without them I am nothing, without me they are nothing. We must hold out just as long as we can."

The river sighed,

"True. This is why I remain. Your roots need soaking and the creatures need my quenching stream. Without me you are nothing, without you I am but a meaningless flow."

Isn't it about time we start offering, to each other and to the world, integral media? News, stories, investigations, entertainment, novels and other forms of literature, music and films and who knows what else... ! Isn't it about time?

Evolutionary media. Something to spice up our lives, bring some depth to our communities and hopefully build stronger, better ones - to not merely progress for the sake of ambition, but for self-discovery and the capacity for awareness. Isn't it about time?

I look at TV these days, and it's just fluff. empty, pleasing, soft and comfy fluff. There's nothing lasting. It's like candy. Immediate taste - nothing after. Can't even call it "one taste", for I'm sure One-Taste doesn't eventually become numb.

It's about time for some new material,
How about it, bodhisattvas?

Between two pine trees. Their needles were glistening in the morning sun, the wind swayed each branch effortlessly, and I breathed it all in. In that moment, there was everything, and I mean everything, and it was sacred. I was speechless...