Armchair Zen

Zen mind is satisfied with a sunset and a thimble full of tea.

That simple line is one of the greatest treasures my zen quest has bestowed upon me.

It made me realize that all I need is air and liberty.

I feel it deep in my soul now. I could be abandoned in a frozen wasteland or starving in a desert. I am at peace always.

The trappings of this human world are largely unnatural, manufactured, invented.

Who decided lawyers were better off than farmers?

My friend the lawyer is paying over $2000 a month on her daughter’s Manhattan apartment while she goes to med school.

Her other daughter is a heroin addict. Life is a thread.

My daughter is a farmer, and I couldn’t be happier for her. If it wasn’t against my grain I’d say I was envious. Okay, I am.

She wakes at home and stays there to work. How’s that for a commute? She spends the day with her beau and her dogs, moving through fields of flowers, working in the summer sun.
She is a beautiful thing in a beautiful life. How much money do they make? I don’t care, and neither do they.

A definition of success? For a trained racing greyhound, it’s going all the way around an oval, quickly. Fastest is best.
Run around in a circle and return to the place you started. Repeat this over and over, day in and day out. Not running through fields or woods, not stopping to smell everything that has a scent. Not chasing real rabbits, and never catching one.

For the trainers, and maybe even for brainwashed & rewarded dogs, they call this success. I fear there are many brainwashed & rewarded people in this world, going in circles.

From my perspective, the poor animal is deprived of the experience of this real world. Good, bad, beautiful or ugly.

I strive to make my dog’s life a…well, a dog’s life. We walk together, without a leash, without speaking, through our fields and woods. He is free to run and chase and smell as he pleases, as is his nature.

Flying low

When he wants to go out, we open the door and let him. When he wants to come in, he knocks on the door or barks.

  Go long

I dare you

“Don’t you worry about the road?” folks ask. “Don’t you worry he could be struck by a car and killed?”

Of course I do. I’m not an idiot!

But life on a chain? In a pen? Going ’round in circles?

Either one of us may be struck and killed, y’know.

It is the price of liberty.

Life is a leaf pile

Be at peace,

Paz

This is a reply posted to “A case of the ‘I wants'” on Senior Samurai. Please visit http://www.seniorsamurai.wordpress.com for the original post and query.