I’m neither a Zen master nor a wise man, the best way to describe my preoccupation with Zen is a longtime student of Zen philosophy, and bungling Yoga and meditation practitioner, and both concerns are outside of any religious and spiritual institutes. My interest in Zen started about two decades back by accidentally coming across a pop-culture book “Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.” in an old book store.  The kind older man who found me on spiritual books Isle and showed up with this book and handed me, with a cryptic word of “it will change your life. This culture bearing book set me on my long journey of search, learn, and practice.  Over the last ten years, I wrote many musings about the Zen way of being in my Journals. Writing Journal is my favorite part of my everyday commute to NewYork city. I  thought of sharing my musings, wisdom notes I gathered over a long period. Always a bit of shilly-shally about the state of my practice, readiness to share with anyone. I reflected during the time of Pandemic induced pause. I saw that past many years of my life every time a complicated question, decision presented itself in life and business, and when I felt lost, I intuitively went back to the ethos of Zen and asked myself what would be a Zen way of being. It always guided me to the path of least resistance. I also thought about my experience of teaching and mentoring people; every time I teach, counseling someone, I also learned something insightful. 

Paradoxically Zen thinking is about not thinking, not knowing the mind. Zen is the ultimate representation of the most elegant simplification of all things in life, getting to the essence by cutting through the clutter. As the story goes, fifteen Hundred years back the first Zen patriarch, Bodhidharma’s answer of no answer to Emperor “wu” of China, created a great myth and mystery around Zen origin in China. This Zen origin might have thrust Buddha’s teaching to reach the broader world by simply cutting through the metaphysical, psychological conundrums to the heart of the matter.

Since the 19th century, Zen influenced Thinkers across the continents from French impressionist painters to English Philosophers to German quantum physicists to American writers and many facets of their life’s work. We speak about Zen in every walk of our modern life beyond its philosophical, spiritual, or religious traditions. Whether it is a Product innovation, software design, Home interiors, Gardening, Food we cook, Zen is now ubiquitous. Like every overused word, it is a cliché, lost its fundamental proposition of not-knowing mind. I attempt to express the Zen Way of living in Beginner’s mind. Cut through the cultural bondage of Zen language and reintroduce Zen’s way of being in plain English to everyday practitioners. Sometimes I use foreign words of Japanese, Pali or Sanskrit for cross-referencing plain English, certainly not to show my eruditeness or lack of it, but words that could act as a Key to unlock the more profound understanding. Language is the lens we see the world, often old words lose their meaning, and new words could offer a new lens.

As Dogen Zenji reaffirmed with confidence, “we all have the Innate Buddha Nature.” We have the potential to be a Jedi master of Zen Wisdom.  Zensaber is an invitation to bring out our inner Wisdom to live our life in Harmony.

Thank you for visiting, and I hope you enjoy the time you spend here.

JK