Not the kind mixed with fear, but pure sadness.

#Personal #Hapiness #ZenBuddhism

More precisely, some unordered and incomprehensible personal notes somehow glued up rather than a full-fledge theory.

Do not expect succinctness in this post. It is going to expand, wildly, and then, somehow, converge to the initial topic.

Most likely you won't find any life-changing ideas here, so, keep your expectations in check—or simply skip the whole thing.

Tags: #Personal #Love #Music

The kind of music I like is loaded with feelings. I have no idea about the canonical taxonomy in music. For me, there are only two categories, either the musician feel the world or think the world. I prefer the former, simply because I am the same (or I believe I am, not completely sure).

Tags: #Personal #Music

I used to play the (classical and electric) guitar when I was young(er?).

Which started with coffee in the Koffiehuisje. Black (no sugar, thanks) for me, cappuccino for him (don't judge, please).

A ceremony celebrating Sunim's legacy took place yesterday. It was beautiful. People shared stories, there were no shortage of them.

Sunim flew from Japan to NYC in the late 60s. He left Korea to avoid serving in the military. An unknown US army official in Japan paid for the one-flight ticket, saying: “Americans need to learn about Zen, do you want to teach there?”. Sunim was 27 years old when he arrived to the US.

Last Saturday, my Zen teacher passed away. The night is thick with sadness.

Calling Sunim my teacher is, perhaps, imprecise. I never spent long periods under his guidance, as I've done with my training teacher. Sunim was more like a grandfather I visited once a year. A wise elder and great storyteller that I met when his strong character had already softened. Within the Sangha, however, Sunim was everyone's teacher, directly or indirectly, to our fortune and/or disgrace, intentionally or otherwise.

I took fasting seriously after watching Dr. Pradip Jamnadas lectures. He outlines the health benefits of fasting in a simple way, and his advice is supported by clinical evidence. The main reason why I looked into this in the first place was because I used to get hangry quite easily. As I wanted to get rid of this aspect of my personality that I refused to see as immutable, I've been experimenting with fasting for the last year.

I've reduced my alcohol consumption over the last couple of years. One of the reasons is that now it takes me more time to recover after having some drinks. Not sure if it affects me more, or I'm more conscious about my body now, probably both. I wonder if reducing alcohol consumption is enough, or if I should cut it out completely.

Sore throat, nasal congestion, headache, body ache. The day before yesterday, same symptoms, only milder. I took the rapid COVID-19 test then, it came out negative. If we trust these test, so far, I haven't caught this virus, or I have been completely asymptomatic.