http://www.nineoutofzen.com Just another WordPress weblog Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:13:52 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Re-upped the domain for another year. In other news, my practice has been going strong for a little over a half-year now. Since January 1st, I've missed only three days. One because I plum forgot, one because it was 2am, I'd just driven 4 hours, and the next day ... http://www.nineoutofzen.com/2008/07/07/day-189/ I've been sitting regularly for the last six months and decided it was time to try a slightly more intensive session with a group of people.  It's difficult where I live, because the closest group of zen practitioners that I can find is over an hour away (odd considering how ... http://www.nineoutofzen.com/2008/06/30/my-visit-to-pine-wind/ Gift of Gab from "4000 Miles" (Blackalicious featuring Jurassic 5 and Latyrx): The final destination used to be my main question But then I looked and all that I was searchin for was present http://www.nineoutofzen.com/2008/05/10/4000-miles/ Last night, I was a few minutes into my zazen when my 19-month-old daughter walked up to me. She doesn't usually see me when I'm meditating (I usually save it for when she's asleep), but she didn't find it particularly strange that I was sitting and staring at a ... http://www.nineoutofzen.com/2008/04/29/joined-in-sitting/ Sometimes my teapot's spout gets clogged with leaves, causing the tea to pour out slowly. Without fail, I find myself tipping it further in an attempt to increase the speed, but instead, tea just starts seeping out of the top, spilling onto my desk. I try to take ... http://www.nineoutofzen.com/2008/04/07/tea-2/ Every day priests minutelyexamine the Dharmaand endlessly chantcomplicated sutras.They should learnhow to read the love letterssent by the wind and rain,the snow and moon. - Ikkyu (1394-1491) (via Daily Zen) http://www.nineoutofzen.com/2008/03/24/love-letters/ After a year of a terribly inconsistent zazen regimen (Regimen? Not the right word. "Routine," perhaps?), one of my new year's resolutions for 2008 was to sit at least 10 minutes every day, with the intention of gradually increasing to 20 minutes and then to twice a day ... http://www.nineoutofzen.com/2008/02/20/50-days/ There's a great piece titled "In Praise of Melancholy" (from a book that comes out tomorrow titled Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy) in The Chronicle Review.  It's a well-reasoned piece arguing that in all the new agey search for eternal happiness and contentment, our souls are being sucked from ... http://www.nineoutofzen.com/2008/01/21/in-praise-of-in-praise-of-melancholy/ This may be the only time zombies (well, cannibals) and zen have been mentioned together: Because when the cannibals come to the door, your chanting and your bells and your visualizations, your Secret and your gods and your mumbo-jumbo, your politics or your philosophy and ethics, all that will ... http://www.nineoutofzen.com/2008/01/10/zombie-zen/ One of this blog's two (or am I being too generous?) readers mentioned that I need to write more.  So here goes. I've started off 2008 with an invigorated practice.  I have to admit that for the last three months of 2007, my practice was practically non-existent.  But I've sat ... http://www.nineoutofzen.com/2008/01/09/in-search-of-a-sangha/