Installment Three

I figure step one on the road to Zen would be to figure out what exactly Zen was. So I did what any self-respecting graduate student would do – I looked it up on dictionary.com. I found two definitions, neither of which could give me a concise answer to my question.

Zen
Noun, Chinese, Buddhism
1.) A school of Mahayana Buddhism that asserts that enlightenment can be attained through meditation, self-contemplation, and intuition rather than through faith and devotion and that is practiced mainly in China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam.
2.) The discipline and practice of this sect. See also, Zen Buddhism.
Zen Buddhism
Noun
1.) Zen.

Well that was helpful.

I decided to put my $40K graduate school education to good use and dissect the dictionary definition as much as possible to figure out where exactly I’m headed on this expedition. Enlightenment, meditation, self-contemplation and intuition. Hm. Enlightenment of what? Meditate how? This finding Zen thing is a lot harder without a road map. Which intuition exit do I take? Is that a left down self-contemplation, or a right? Enlightenment highway South bound or North bound?

During this quest of defining Zen I became tired and thirsty, so I broke down and paid the $5 my office immorally charges to use the water cooler (which by the way, is outrageous and very un-Zen). And maybe that’s the key. Maybe I can’t find the definition of Zen in a dictionary because there is no exact definition. Maybe it’s something that must be discovered on a more personal level. Self-contemplation and intuition are two buzzwords when it comes to all things Zen, maybe my answer lays in there. Or maybe I need a new question: What is my Zen?

*Me versus The*

I think the road to Zen needs to be personal. Therefore from now on, when referring to all things Zen, I shall use first person. MY way, MY enlightenment, MY meditation, MY self-contemplation. MY choice, MY lifestyle, MY peace, MY journey, MY road. After all, it is MY Zen, right?

So what exactly is MY Zen? I think it’s time for a little word association, don’t you? Hey if it worked for Freud…

Zen:
Balance
Peace
Calm
Serenity
Monk
Dahli Lamma
Karma
Ooh! Those cute little Zen gardens they sell at Target! With the sand and the rocks and that little rake (Okay, this is getting out of hand)

My road to Zen shall include stops at Balance Junction, Peace City, Calm Town, and Serenity Lake (Oh dear.) Okay that was cheesy. But it’s something to think about, to consider, to mull over if you will. Embarking on a journey without knowing exactly what or where the destination is putting all faith in yourself. What the word Zen means to me, or brings to my agile mind, is what I need to achieve/experience/attain/endure (Whatever!) in order to reach Zen. Maybe my difficulty in defining Zen is due to its shifting definition for each person. And defining MY Zen can be done in four little words: Balance, Peace, Calm and Serenity.