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Zen And The Art Of (Fill In The Blank)

I'll begin by stating that Zen is not a religion. There, my Christian friends, your excuse for not reading further has been removed.

While Zen derives from a school of Bhuddism, it has been descrived as "a total state of focus that incorporates a total togetherness of body and mind. Zen is a way of being." It is also a manner of perception, in which the viewer is tasked to see the subject (whatever that may be) for what it is, and not merely the viewer's biased projection reflected for the sake of the viewer's egocentric perception. Remove Self from your perception, and suddenly the world and all that is in it takes on a whole new patina.

An excercise: the next time you catch a cold, don't think of it as "I'm sick," observe it from an outside point of view. Note the host and the invader(s), how the two intertwine and compete for control for the several days you'll be affected by the cold. Note how the balance of power shifts and changes. Only after overcoming the virus should you recall that all this drama took place inside your body. And you'll have a mountain of facial tissues to prove it.


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