Infinite Jest

Yes... this is my second time trying to tackle this titan of a book. David Foster Wallace was a very talented writer and his essays are still, now thinking about them, making me laugh.

Either way, I tried to tackle IJ last summer during the bandwagon event of "Infinite Summer." It failed, I lost track of where I was two-hundred pages into the book due to the start of my freshman year in college.

So I picked it up again and have succesfully gotten further into the book in record time and I must say that so far the book is a pleasant surprise. There is a 'slump' within the book that lasts a good chunk of pages but I am past that stage in development and have entered literary bliss so to speak.

I will post more after finishing... only five-hundred pages to go.

Adios

Published!?

Well it is official, I am now a published poet (on a small scale) one of my pieces was accepted at the following website: http://amphibi.us . Needless to say I am beyond pumped. This was my first attempt at submitting work and I was accepted right out of the gate. It is a really good feeling.

The site is really cool and I am impressed greatly with the fact that the staff responds personally to every submission. If you have some free time and want to read really cool work I recommend this site greatly.

Happy reading!

Adios.

GASP! Revamping?

Well. As you can tell, if you ever look at the old blog, I have revamped a bit. The feel of the blog might have changed a bit, but I assure you I have not. I am going to, however, add new stuff here instead of just Zen musings. This is a blog after all and I am going to use it as such. Here will be a place of a mixture of things that I wish to write about or wish to post.

I will update more often with poetry, music (not my own), flash fiction, recommendations of movies, music, and literature, the Zen flash of fun that was included in the last reincarnated blog, as well as anything else that catches fancy.

So I leave you for now my dear reader. Enjoy the rest of your day/night/afternoon.

Adios!

Fallen off the ox

With school work and some personal issues (which is not really an excuse) but I stopped sitting. Which is kinda large no no. More so when I took the precepts this January. So I am going to step it up. I am looking to sit everyday for as long as I can at the same time of the day regardless of if I want to or not.

What happens when we fall of the ox?

Well I get my ass back on the cushion and brush off and try again.

Which brings me to a point. Falling off is almost expected. Not every Buddha out there was really crazy on sitting all the blasted time. They, like everyone else, fell down. They just got back up again.

So here is to falling off the ox and getting back on.

Ciao.

#1 God

I do not know how interested you all will be, but I feel like I could take some time and address some things that come up in my Zen practice.

Bear with me now. I am not a master nor claim to be, but I am simply posting my personal views on a few subjects.


First one that I want to try to explain is God.

First off. I am no Atheist. Many people that I have spoken with, or who ask me about what I do question if I believe in a God. I most certainly do, but I am willing to place money down it is not the same God you are thinking about. My God does not have a white beard, or a vengeance to kill or go against all non-believers. One of my favorite quotes on God that seems to both sum up my beliefs and confuse the shit out of others is: “There is no God and he created you.”

Whoa, deep.

Now hold on a sec. If there is no God how in the hell did he create you? I know, paradox , but hear me out. The God I think about is not watching everything, is not willing to help you win the lottery, pay the rent or have that sexy looking barista take you in the back room and give you that extra treatment. The God that I believe in is everything and nothing. He/She/It is the universe. Not the controller, just the unnamed creator. I take comfort in the fact that this universe is not just scientific chance. Do I believe in heaven, not really. Do I believe in Hell, not really. I like to think of my life as a bubble in a river. I came to be through cause and effect and eventually I will pop, but I will not really die I will just go back to being the river not just an extension of a river. The only reason I came to be a bubble is the fact that the river churned me up. God is the river. God is you, me, the dog shit on your shoe when you are late for work and everything else.

Does this mean I have any beef with anyone else’s belief, nope. I think Jesus, Mohammad, Ra, and all the others are perfectly cool, but they just do not suit me.

Okay now, step two… just a little thing that ‘grinds my gears.’

I do not, will not, ever worship Buddha. Buddha is not a God. Gautama Buddha (The historical Buddha) is nothing but a teacher, not a deity, though some may think so. Dear ol’ Gautama just sat under a tree and taught the way he thought things worked. Sure we, in practice, bow to Buddha but that is out of respect of his teachings, not him. If you wish to get technical if we worshiped Buddha, we would in turn be bowing to everything last thing including the remnants of those fifty hot wings that are now melting away your plumbing; because like every living thing, he was part of the river. He was human. He had a child, a wife, and he got old and died like all of us will do. Do I think the man deserves respect, hell yeah, but do I think he is my God? Nope. Just a man, like every other man out there, he just had a really cool teaching.

Well, this is only the first thing that I am going to post… feel free to comment or ask a question or two but I am just doing this out of curiosity not for confrontation or massive arguments.Take it as you will.

Adios.