Beyond Non-Blogging

I haven't had much to say lately.

"You don't have to tell everything! This is ZEN! It's about keeping your mouth shut!"

Evan was expressing the best of Lao Tsu in his own inimitable style:

Those who know, do not speak. Those who speak, do not know.
-Tao Te Ching

(Which is not to say that silence implies some sort of deep knowledge. Although many have risen to prominence in the estimation of others merely by keeping their ignorance to themselves.)

But maybe that's it. I don't have anything to say. And I feel less qualified than ever to make observations about anything.

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I signed up for an online writing course. In spite of my tendency to silence, I have written a couple of little paragraph-stories. In which the man getting off the bus turns out to be wearing a chicken costume. In the ghetto, at night. Not realizing the woman he's about to stumble into and injure with his beak is, in fact, his former....

I guess that qualifies as creativity. I'm not sure. But let's assume the creative juices are there. And yet I do not blog.

Perhaps nothing has been happening in my life of late. That would be a reason not to blog. (Although many do not find this a deterrent.)

But a sudden rediscovery of Yoga has torn me open and sweated me down to nothing but a stinky slick on the mat. And the High Anglican midnight mass I attended on Christmas Eve left me with plenty to say about ceremony, the Eastern heritage of Christianity, and the palpable power of their communion.

I have visited with friends. I have written a damn good haiku. I have told the truth and kept a secret. But I don't feel like writing about any of it here.

Stories about Zen, too; observations about practice; ideas about what it all means--these aren't interesting anymore. The experience of these is more compelling than ever. But talking about them? Reading a book about them? Please.

I started this blog to keep family and friends apprised of the details of my life while I lived in a Zen Buddhist training monastery. I barely had time to keep my nails trimmed, let alone keep in touch with people individually. But those days are over. I am a denizen of the world, and I received a slew of Christmas cards that proves I am at least minimally "in touch" with someone. And with you, still, my fourteen loyal readers in Corvallis, Fife, Dublin, DC, Portland, Redmond, Gualala &c.

When you're not reading this blog (which should be most of the time!) check out my current favorite, Power, Seduction and War. It's worth putting your squeamishness on hold for. I promise. The blogs he partners with are pretty awesome too, from what I can tell.

See, there are LOTS of people in this world eager to talk and talk, even if I'm not. Enjoy.