Me and Zen

When I was in High School I was in English 11 revisited. It was a class for all us 12th graders who failed out of English the year before. (In my case I failed English in 9th and was always one year behind.) We had a really cool, young teacher named Mr. Kennedy. For one of our assignments we had to read a book and write a book report. We could pick any book we wanted, as long it came out of a box full of books the teacher had.

There were about a dozen of us in the class and we gathered around the box looking for the coolest title. Mr. Kennedy called me over. He was holding a book in his hand and he said, "I want you to read this one" and handed it to me. I just stared at the cover, the book was called Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse. I must have seemed a little bit reluctant, but he assured me that I would really like it so I said "ok". I figured if he singled me out for this book there must be something really good in it that he wanted me to read.

I read the story and loved it! It was a great story and I thought about it often throughout my life. Siddhartha and Beowulf, which I first read in the 7th grade, were now my two favorite stories. Beowulf became a sort of bible for me and I made Norse Paganism a part of my life, but I never really gave Zen Buddhism much thought past the story of Siddhartha. Years later I read a lot of Aikido books. I wasn't really concerned with Aikido as a martial art as much as the spiritual side of the art. Morihi Ueshiba became a hero of mine, along with Beowulf, Siddhartha and Manfred Von Richtoffen. (Talk about diversity!)

What really appealed to me about Zen is that it doesn't ask you to denounce the gods of your chosen faith. I could add Zen to my life, without changing my religion. After reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Persig is when I really decided to take Zen more seriously. But I didn’t really get a full understanding of Zen until my anger issues and steroid abuse almost caused me to lose my wife and my little girls. Zen helped me change my life for the better. I’m in the middle of writing a book about my change called, The Broken Buddha. (Which was the inspiration for this blog.)

A lot of people might interpret Zen in a different way than I do. A lot of people who feel they have achieved Satori might say I’m on the wrong path. That’s ok because I never got interested in Zen for Satori or Enlightenment. I practice Zen in my own way, I meditate while I’m working, doing a tattoo, building a tattoo machine, welding a garden ornament or painting with oil paints. After all, the Buddha did say, “Be a light unto yourself”