The Zen moment

, originally uploaded by naturewalker.

Walking out of a class that did not happen, with a head full of thoughts that could not be caught and headed for a corner that would not be defined- I had to figure things out for myself.
Not a very great place to be- some would say.
I say- It is a place of new beginnings. It is a place that allows me to leave behind whatever is not working for me- including myself!


What is it that I want from myself today? This s a question that has confused me enough and troubled me enough to make me want to rethink EVERYTHING in my life.

Why do I work? Why do I do the work I do? What makes me happy- truly happy? What would be my deepest regret were I to die today? Would there be anything powerful enough to hold me back to the life I live today?

What am I looking for? What do I want? WHY?

What is love? What is happiness? What is it that everyone is running for and after?

My mind is full of thoughts that are running at break neck speed- and are so hard to catch. It is a wonder that I have simply descended a flight of stairs and so much has already gone through my head!

I come back to the world. To Now.

I notice the black grill that fences the edge of the stairs in a school. Among the lines and breaking the linearity are tiny bead-like globes- two on each bar.

It sets me pondering..."Why did I not notice these earlier?"

And then, I realise why I notice them today is also not because they catch my eye in their own right but the man who is focussing all his attention on them!

He is young, but not too young. He may be in his mid forties. He has a white head band tied in a single knot across his forehead, quite like the Zen masters in folklore. The whiteness sharply contrasts with the dirty workclothes he is wearing. The workclothes are stained with grease and grime- and pigment, some black and some red. Aah! The colours of teh fence!!

He is wearing a pair of black plastic rimmed glasses that impart a definite aura of a great scientist at work. The work he is doing and the clothes he is wearing somehow are so incongruous with the assumed mundane nature of the job of painting a grill.

He holds a fine brush in his right hand and is focussing on one single globe. The brush is held lightly between the fingers and the thumb that expertly move the paint to coat the bead in precise and well marked out outstanding red colour.

The concentration is worthy and reminiscent of a Zen master or of the scientist. The job is that of a painter. He is defining a line that limits and defines the red from the black. The black bar was broken and punctuated by the red dot.

His attention was unwaveringly on teh red dot. It was as if the line from his eye to his shoulder through his arm and the brush fused the grill with the painter. And in a sense they were ONE.

He was a deeper than a Zen master in the moment- and the bandana emphasised the picture, heightened it.

How long has this Zen master been painting fences?! Is each fence a work of art? Does he even realise the power he wields in his hand?

How many of us feel the same feeling during a work day?

WHat are we willing to do to feel that way on an ongoing basis in our life?

Are we willing to come from that place of utter love and sheer force that makes everything else non-existent?

Are we even capable of that single ZEN moment each day- ONE moment that touches eternity and renders everything else unimportant?

I am going to give this a try- for the next thirty daysI am going to look for and try to find ONE Zen moment in my day- and I am going to write about my Zen moment EACH day.

It could be anything and last for a fleeting moment or for an hour- more or less- but I am looking for a moment of bliss and bless. A moment of fulfilment. One moment each day for the next thirty days.

My 30 day challenge.

I know I failed my last thirty day challenge. And I also know that Past is not equal to Future because there is a very important link of the present in between...

Even the longestlife lived on this planet by the turtles who live to a hundred and fifty years or more is but a figment , a fleeting moment or even less in the life of the Universe. What fills our experience and our heads is the feeling that WE define our Universe- which ofcourse, we do, but it is our Universe that transcends infinity and mystery.