Zen Throw Down: Top 10 Posts

Here are the top 10 Zen Throw Down posts, measured by page views. The titles are links to the posts. I'm happy to see that the most popular posts are those related to Zen Buddhism since that has become the core of the blog.

1. Do Zen Buddhists Believe in God? 
Number one by a big margin, this post arose from having been asked this question (or asking it of myself, I can't remember which). What struck me most about the question the first time it was posed was how odd it seemed to me that I had never given it any thought, despite having been practicing zazen and identifying as a Zen Buddhist for many years at that time. As I thought through my answer aloud, I was surprised at where I was led...and how quickly and easily I got there. The fact that I had not needed to answer the question before was part of what made the answer fairly obvious!

In the aftermath of coming up with my answer, I was not sure which is worse to deists: being an atheist or saying that the question of God's existence is not relevant. I will say that atheists may place more importance on the god/no-god question than I do, which seems a bit strange. Atheists may have dismissed god philosophically but enthroned him politically.

Of course, I understand why the issue is important for atheists (and others) from a social and legal (and political) perspective. In the United States, which is founded on the concepts of separation of church and state and freedom of religion, we unfortunately find ourselves more often than ever having to tangle with the Christian god in the secular realm. I believe that this flare-up of activist Christianity is a sign that religion - at least the dogmatic, repressive kind - is losing it's grip on United States citizens. And I think the dogmatists know it.

If this question (or my post about it) is interesting, make sure you also check out the follow-up post: Do Zen Buddhists Believe in God? (Part 2). This one is my attempt to apply the ideas of the first post to some of the "big issues" in life. Both posts received excellent (albeit anonymous) comments and input from visitors to the blog.

2. Zen Buddhism and Existentialism
Wherein I propose that Existentialists are depressed Zen Buddhists.

3. Concrete Poetry
Includes Pedro Xisto's Ephitalamiun. (I'm sure the hits to this page are due entirely to that fact!)

the edition of the Mumonkan that I use

4. Mumonkan, Koan 14: Nansen Cuts the Cat in Two
Happy to see so many posts related to my working through the Mumonkan are receiving hits. I don't think I ever got over my doubts abut the wisdom of posting my 'solutions' to these koans on Zen Throw Down, but I'm obviously not as worried about it as I was at the outset.

5. Mumonkan, Koan 18: Tozan's 'Masagin'

6. Mumonkan, Koan 13: Tokusan Holds His Bowls

7. Mumonkan, Koan 12: Zuigan Calls His Master
This one contained - for me - some valuable cautions for the solo practitioner.

8. Jean-Paul Sartre - 'The Wall'
Excellent short story and introduction to Sartre and his philosophy.

9. Mumonkan, Koan 6: The Buddha Holds Out a Flower

10. Mumonkan, Koan 12 (continued): Loose Marble
We can make great progress when we fail to progress. The original koan post is #7 in this list, and the haiku I wrote and reference is here.

Zen Throw Down Turns Five!

Selfie in my study, where Zen Throw Down is created

It's been almost five years since I started Zen Throw Down. I started it as a kind of experiment, but it soon came to be a journal. The interesting thing about blog-as-journal is that it has a very different dynamic than a journal I would keep privately. A blog is in an open forum on the Internet, which means that there are things which are not wise to post, too personal to post, etc.

As a result, I've found that the blog format encourages a different kind of journaling, one that is focused on events rather than navel gazing. While I have to admit there's been a fair amount of navel gazing on Zen Throw Down, I do think the blog ends up being more about living life than thinking/feeling about it. In some ways this makes it a better record of the trajectory of life, because it's always better to judge people by what they do and not what they say.

So here's a look back at the past five years:

The whirlwind of progress in gay rights was so unexpected, and allowed Jim and I to have a civil union ceremony and then get married.

Lots of athletics: I tried parasailing, deep sea fishing, kayaking, rock wall climbing, hiking, and yoga for the first time. And there was continued biking, bowling, lifting, and martial arts.

Travel: Las Vegas, Mineral Point, California, Bristol Renaissance Faire, Panama City Beach, St. John, Grand Cayman, London, Paris, and even a 'vacation to Chicago'.

Creativity: After a long period of low/no activity, there has been a resurgence. I got back into piano (for a while anyway) and flirted with art. I shared some old writing projects (The Real Egypt and The Ancient Elm cycle) but also began new ones (Haiku Thursdays and getting back into writing poetry).

Spiritually, Zen Thrown Down has lived up to its name with entries relating to a moment or two of kensho, various Zen exercises I've invented, and celebrating the writing and legacy of Bodhidharma. My sitting has become more frequent, I joined a sangha, and then there is my ongoing study of the Mumonkan.

Getting back into reading has been a very positive outcome of keeping this blog: I read (most of) Melville's novels in the order he wrote them, devoured a bunch of obscure works by early Twentieth Century novelists, and am closing in on completing Zola's Rougon-Macquart cycle.

Beyond all this, there has been plenty of miscellanea (or errata, depending on how you take it): my martial arts movie obsession, music reviews of all kinds, learning to love sushi, making my first serious art purchase, robins hatching in a nest outside my study window, amped-up activism/giving, loads of op-ed pieces (some less crazy than others), and just records of time with friends.

Christmas parties...

...and - of course - Halloween!

It's been a great five years...Here's to the next five!

My First Follower!

I recently set up this blog up so there can be followers. Today I got my first one. I suppose I shouldn't say a name or anything in a post (I clearly know nothing about this blogging stuff). 

I have a follower! My blog is officially not a self-absorbed waste of time!

5,000 Hits For Zen Throw Down!

I started this blog at the very end of May 2009, so I'm approaching two years of blogging. 5,000 hits in two years is not going to make earn any records, but I have to say I'm so excited that anyone is reading the blog that having that many people stop by feels great! So here's some Zen Throw Down factoids to celebrate 5,000 visits!

Top 10 Postings

Looks like the Mumonkan postings have really taken off in the last couple months to become the main draw of the blog. This pleases me, because the blog is Zen Throw Down, so I guess the key content ought to be about Zen. Of course, I must also have the Throw Down part take care of too. I hope the Mumonkan postings are interesting or useful to people, as I was a bit leery about posting my koan musings at first.

1. Mumonkan, Koan 12: Zuigan Calls His Master (Feb 2011) - 146 pageviews
2. Concrete Poetry (May 2010) - 138 pageviews
3. Mumonkan, Koan 6: The Buddha Holds Out A Flower (Oct 2010) - 76 pageviews
4. Mumonkan, Koan 12 (continued): Loose Marble (Feb 2011) - 66 pageviews
5. Mumonkan, Koan 10: Seizei Is Utterly Destitute (Jan 2011) - 47 pageviews
6. Delayed Halloween Post (Nov 2010) - 23 pageviews
7. DROID X (Aug 2010) - 21 pageviews
8. Sinus Issues Continue (Jan 2011) - 18 pageviews
9. Beset By Owls! (Nov 2010) - 18 pageviews
10. Ip Man (Dec 2010) - 18 pageviews

Audience

Another thing that encourages me is the diversity of people who end up on the site through search results. This makes me think that there's something of value in my ramblings...at least in so far as the topics are things other people are bothering to do Google searches on!  ; )  Here's where visitors are coming from:

• United States - 3,314 hits
• France - 340 hits (I'm half French, so welcome!)
• United Kingdom - 140 hits
• Canada - 131 hits
• Brazil - 97 hits
• Germany - 71 hits
• Poland - 42 hits (I'm half Polish, so welcome to my visitors from Polska!)
• Netherlands - 41 hits
• China - 34 hits
• India - 34 hits

 Thanks for visiting, even if it's only to read one post!

Hits From Around The World

According to the stats page on my blog, which I've just now discovered, Zen Throw Down has received almost 2,500 hits so far. While that figure isn't going to get anyone to pay me for ad space, I'm very pleased I've been read by that many people. Clearly people other than my friends are dropping by, and I've checked to see if me visiting a page is counted as a hit (it's not). Here's my top 6 posts in terms of number of visits.

1. Concrete Poetry (5/6/10) - 95 visits
2. Delayed Halloween Post (11/2/10) - 23 visits
3. Droid X (8/8/10) - 21 visits
4. Bliss, Quiet Letters (7/2/10) - 16 visits
5. Emilie Autumn's Victorian Asylum (7/26/10) - 15 visits
6. Beset By Owls! (11/21/10) - 15 visits

Some of the hits are from surfers drawn via searches (for images or music). However, not all of them are, and I've had hits from Canada, Brazil, the UK, Poland, India, France, Hungary, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, and much more. I find this incredibly encouraging.

Hey all of you! If you stop by, drop me a note and say "hi!". I'm curious about the people I'm making a momentary connection with and what they read on here.

The First Post - Why Zen Throw Down?

Okay, this is really the second post, but it's the first post where I'm actually writing something. The first post is my poem 'Zen Throw Down' (from 1995 or so), and I picked it because it sort of deals with what I want my blog to convey about me.

I guess I object to blogging because much of it seems so random. I'd like my blog to be about something, to have a plot (even if it's non-linear). I suppose day-to-day entries will seem pretty random but I hope that, looked at over a long period of time, they will document some sort of growth or trajectory for me as a person. That's what life's supposed to be, right?

When I was about thirteen, I started keeping journals with all my thoughts, activities, experiences, etc. It's incredible to go through them sometimes and see what I was doing or worrying about when I was fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty, or thirty-five. There's a transformation over the years that I can read, and that makes me glad I kept them. I've stopped keeping journals in recent years, so maybe this blog can take the place of that.

Why Zen Throw Down? I often shy away from telling people I meditate or practice Zen. I feel it makes me seem like some new age wussy playing with rain sticks and listening to Enya while drawing pictures of fairies and dragons, and I'm so not like that. For me, Zen has been about finding the core of myself and learning how to ignore or eliminate everything in my life that is not tied to that. Zen is powerful stuff. For example, it's driving me to get back into martial arts again.

That's kind of what the poem is about. Being enlightened is not about being a narcoleptic om-chanting zombie, and most stuff I've read from ancient Zen Masters seems to confirm that. Enlightenment makes you an invincible bad ass, because there's nothing more powerful than knowing yourself. It gives you the courage and strength to shape the world and your life into what you want them to be and not get side-tracked by foolishness, things, or people that will never make you happy.

Zen Throw Down

Yesterday I was alley air,
but today I'm an express bus.

In a world of gutter messiahs
and take-me-to-your-leader drug dealers,
you gotta create your own stride.
Realign your soul
so your manifesto flows
like an open fire hydrant
to a hip hop sound surround soundtrack.

Streetwise and spaced-out
is what I'm all about,
and I nuke all substitutes
cuz ya gotta be a brute
to find serenity.
So I'm a soul that throws down,
like Leroy Brown
I'm the baddest ass in this muthafuckin' town.

Now, let me show you how
to come correct to a Zen Throw Down:
you need the inner peace
of a shaman from the concrete
if you wanna create a collage of life
where each day is a feather
in the wings of an angel
seeking beatitude.

Seeker, you better recognize.