Zen and Walking

Just as water finds the best way in the river bed, the wise man/woman follows the way of the world and thus finds his/her own way.

"Wie das Wasser im Flussbett den besten Weg findet, so folgt der Weise dem Lauf der Dinge und findet so seinen Weg."
- Ermin Döll & Marcus Hillinger "Das Zen des glücklichen Wanderns"

An Evening with Thomas Quasthoff

Linz, July 15 2016.
Thomas Quasthoff is singing My funny Valentine.
Silence is like an envelope around this brilliant piece of music, of performance.
It was Quasthoff's first show in Linz after many years.
It was my return to Linz, too.
Not far from places where I used to walk my dog, not far from places where I saw and feared the Bauernbergpark Man, not far from my old bedroom window, we met.
The famous and the unknown.
The watcher and the watched.
The singer and the listener.
The star and the fan.
In a closely packed and seated crowd I listened to Georgia, to I Got You Under my Skin and to My Way. Jocelyn B. Smith was brilliant, too. But I was there for the man.
The band and the piano player were excellent. But I was there to see Quasthoff.
I saw him for the third time, after an evening in the Musikverein and after his Amfortas performance in Wagners Parsifal. 
I have no words for this man.
For me he is an extraterrestrial and the most human of all human beings at the same time.
He is one of my ultimate super heroes.
Still, in spite of all this lack of symmetry in our relation between star and fan, I'd like to be his next door neighbor, have a drink with him occasionally, talk about the world with him.
The show is over...
No.
Mr. Quasthoff and band come back to the stage, make a joke about the FPÖ and perform New York, New York.
It was an evening for Frank Sinatra.
Wherever Franky Boy was hanging around, he would surely be proud of himself and proud that he has given life to such a legacy.
I was part of it somehow. Passively. It was GREAT.

...Has Its Ouroboros

Every Beginning...

Digital Factory 1

How Thoughts Develop

Hexeneinmaleins (The Witch's Multiplication Tables)

I have understood
that I have to count from one to ten in my Zen practice
after two telephone calls
and after clipping three of my fingernails
I'll be rich, OK
I lost four teeth to the dentist a long time ago
Five and six are my favourite numbers.
And also the witch's
who makes seven and eight
and it is done
Nine is one
and ten is none
These are my personal multiplication tables.

Inspired by J.W. Goethe 

Lawnmower Time

Today my father in law made an interesting observation.
He mentioned, that every time that he is involved in an absolutely dull activity as for instance cutting the grass with the lawnmower, he starts to have thoughts about weird things, the past, his children and so on.
When I heard this I was actually cutting some remaining leaves of grass after operating the lawnmower. I said that as a practitioner of Zen you should avoid such thoughts and be completely absorbed with what you are doing, no matter how dull it seems to be.
For me it was easy this time, because I worked with the lawnmower for the second time in my life after an abstinence from cutting grass of about 30 years. So I had to concentrate and let the rotation of the blades, that one time hit a stone at the edge of the lawn, become the pulse of my heart. Yes.
However, I try to do that with the vacuum cleaner as well.
It is all Gary Thorp's fault.
His book Sweeping Changes (Zen oder die Kunst den Mond abzustauben/German title) is a nice inspiration for making Zen a constant presence.
One day I will have a little space in the garden, where the grass is allowed to grow, without being threatened by the lawnmower.
One day in the future.
One day.
And I will own a scythe and a sickle and a lawnmower, too.