...So close but yet so far apart

Two arms, two legs, two eyes,
a mouth, two ears a beating heart.
You grow, you play, you learn.
And everything is fine.
(For the most part)
Time flies
Another year.
First day of school
The start of something wonderful.
First love, first date, first kiss.
First doubts and then a broken promise
The dreams, the love, the lies
...So close but yet so far apart.
A lesson learned.
New rules
An oath, a thought:
Be smart and play it cool
Another spring, another school
Another style, a new disguise
Still trying to look cool and wise.
Still acting like a fool
The job, the work and the commute
Long hours, politics, promotion
The finer things in life and all the loot
you ever dreamed of getting
The modern life in constant motion
That inner voice disturbing and unsetting
A new attempt, another start
...So close but yet so far apart
The loneliness.
A desperate act.
Another lonely stranger or a spouse?
The social contract
New drapes, the kids, a bigger house.
Still wondering: What if...?
The shorter years in hyper speed
The thinning hair, the body getting stiff
So rich, so wise but still in need
Still looking for the perfect deed
The wining hand, the highest prize
You keep on saying:
“Everything is fine”
But coming fast at you the finish line
No arms, no legs, no eyes,
no mouth, no ears, no beating heart.
...So close but yet so far apart

Waiting for Godot

About a year and a half ago I started this blog as a way to vent out my frustration with the way the political and economical situation in US was affecting my personal life.
Since then the blog has changed, becoming a way of personal therapy, self reflection and a forum for spirituality ideas debates.
It all comes down to basic Buddhist doctrine that a person is a continuously growing, evolving entity and that proper, positive growth ( enlightenment ), can be learned and applied in real life.

It is this practical spiritual approach that has attracted me in the first place to Buddhism.
(The idea that you have to live miserable in this life and get to heaven in the after life never seemed very fair to me.)
So after about a year and a half I went from frustration to meditation, from rage to understanding, from despair to hope.

Now it seems a new direction in my life is developing.
Hope is gone – at least the hope that some how “they” will get things straightened up.
I realize that “waiting” for things to change in better will not take me very far.
It is time for action.

I guess the lesson I have learned in the past couple of month is that if you are not in control of your life, somebody else is.
It is up to me, and of course up to you to ascertain and take back that control.
It is time to turn wisdom into action, dreams into reality.

… So if I am not spending that much time posting on my blog is because I am spending a lot of time taking care of the things I have neglected in the past.
I have shifted my priorities from a reflective, waiting mode to a clean up my life and start new directions, mode.

I hope you all are well and I thank you for being my friends and sharing your ideas and POVs with me.
I will see you on the blogosphere from time to time and keep you informed of the latest developments.
And of course I wish all of you good luck in all your endeavors.

PS: If anybody has any questions or subjects you want to talk about just drop me a comment and I will be more than glad to answer you.

Peace!

Vacation

As you can see I am back from my vacation and ready to pick up my “blogging” experiment.
But first let me thank you for allowing me this departure and for keeping the “flame” burning while I was away.

I love vacations.
Not only for allowing me to recharge my batteries after months and months of continuous work, but also because a vacation in a far away place is truly a spiritual experience.

When you go on a vacation you get removed from the “known”, the mundane and predictable, and in a matter of hours you are completely immerse in the “unknown”.
Your mind opens and expands instantly.
The further and more exotic the destination the more shocking and profound the transformation.

That is of course if you are the “adventurous” type.
If you like to explore the place and meet and talk to the people.
If you just want to stay into a nice resort far away from the “natives” you will get only the relaxing and recharging part of the vacation :)

Four years ago I took a ship cruise to Alaska.
The departure was from Seattle Washington so we had to fly to Seattle to catch the boat.
It was my first ship cruise so I did not know what to expect.

The whole trip was an extremely frustrating experience for me.
As one of the “mates” on the ship put it:
“Ship cruises are for the newly wed and the nearly dead”
My adventurous spirit was crushed by the tight schedule imposed by the ship.
We spend too much time on the ship and very little off shore.

I vouch I would come back one day, and explore the North West coast on my own terms.
So this year I took my family back to Seattle WA for one week and further north to Vancouver BC Canada for another week.
Next summer – hopefully – I will go up to Alaska for a week or two.

That is the only way to do it.
I mean ship cruises are nice if you want a convenient all you can eat buffet open 24/7 but at the same time they too big to get close to the glaciers and to slow to get close to the wild life.
They are more interested of you spending your money on the ship’s casinos and restaurants than to explore the shores.
So if you really want an adventure with no strings attached you have to do it yourself.

The Devil's Advocate

This picture is provided by: Derick








Any student of Zen Buddhism knows about the “middle way” path and would not adventure into any extreme positions.
No respectable practitioner would make any of the outrageous statements that are littering my posts.

I have to confess: I am a trouble maker.
I am taking the most extreme paths not because I am ignorant but because I hate ignorance.
I’ve been playing the Devil’s advocate and if any serious challenger to my positions would appear, I would have little chances of defending them.

As I started writing my blog about my spiritual quest, I came to the realization that the best thing about blogging is its great potential for social, human interaction.
I love people and their stories and as much as I love telling stories I also love to hear them.
I decided this blog should be a forum for people and ideas and it looks like my wish is slowly turning into reality.
I have met a group of wonderful people and I can say that all the people you see in this little group are highly intelligent, open minded and tolerant.
Who else would have put up with my shenanigans?

I have met Lydia – one of my oldest friends.
She is the one that have pierced through my disguise and realized that Buddha of Hollywood is just a high wire act not the person behind it.
She has given me her unconditional friendship and I have given her mine.
If you want to meet an extraordinary human being you have to visit her blog.
Writerquake.
She is amazing! I just wish I was that good.

I have also met the Clandestine Samurai.
A fierce free spirit with a mind sharp as a katana, that doesn’t mind to speak his mind.
A rare quality that I admire greatly. He is also one of the people with amazing writing talent. Just take a look at his work!
Life: The Dynamic
Literary Memento

Finally I have met Ted Bagley, another student of Zen.
See: D’AUTRE
He is the first to give me trouble with my philosophy – so I had to write this post to straighten up some things.
There are no masters only students in this blog.
I am not a leader or looking to be one. I don’t want people to follow me and I am not following anyone.
I am writing this blog as a journal to my spiritual search.
The road is long and treacherous and I would like some friends to come along.
So, anyone who would like to be my companion and friend to this journey is welcome.

This blog is and will remain an open forum for all people their ideas, stories and experiences and hopefully this will be a place for open dialog and spirited debates.
I thank you all my friends for being part of this blog and remember:
“If you meet Buddha along the road, kill him with stones!”