I had a very disappointing Sesshin at the City Center location of the San Francisco Zen Center during my visit on July 14-15. Before you feel sorry for me, know that disappointment is really good material for working on one's practice if it is approached with the right frame of mind. Don't worry, difficult and painful as it was, the Sesshin was very good for my practic

I am beginning to notice a pattern of emotional reactions to this work. It begins with resistance. I just don't want to do it. I push forward and begin the work.

Next, I become intensely mindful. Today I was working with a file cabinet I have had for more than ten years. It contained my most ancient of paper files, dating back to graduation from college in 1991, in my possession in New York City. Well, that was the top drawer.

I tried the Ubuntu (african for "can't install Debian") Live CD on my PowerPC iBook G4 over the weekend and I sorta liked it. I mostly use OSS apps which all have ports in GNU/Linux so there's not much of an issue there WITH THE EXCEPTION of iTunes. A couple of Google searches reveals that I am not the only one with this concern. Hmmm, this might be the crack in the Apple veneer of geek-coo

I haven't cried like I cried when I watched this in a long time. I completely forgot how much I miss him, hell, both of them.

Then there's this and I'm reminded how much he loved to sing.

This is a really fine example of how much he loved to just play--giving it everything he could bring.

My machine: IBM X40 ultra-portable
Distro: Damn Small Linux
Installation: Extract Zip File
Boot procedure: Run the batch file in the root of the zip file, no reboot needed, no other intervention needed. A window is created with an X desktop and a variety of applications. I posted this JE from it with the native copy of Firefox.

Coolness: 8/10.

For the sake of clarity, when I use the term "greed" I am referring to the deeper understanding I have of it from my Zen practice. I use the term greed to refer to both the urge to pull in more of things that are pleasurable and the urge to push away things that are displeasurable.

On one level it is sort of ridiculously obvious how greed and the uncontrolled urge to consume fit into the problem of obesity. Duh.

I did not want to do this project today. It started off poorly, I spilled some shredded paper. Great, now I have 2000 items right in the middle of the floor to throw away again.

So, I stopped, took a deep breath and made a deal with myself. I had downloaded the new Bruce Springsteen CD from iTMS, why not just fire it up on the iPod-boombox and hang with the project at least through until the end of the album.

[IMDB Fu]

I attended Bruce Springsteen's concert in Holmdel, NJ at the PNC Amphitheatre (exit 116 off The Garden State parkway). This date had a lot going against it, it rained all day, sometimes in sheets of rain, and I had lawn seats.

Sometimes I really feel naive and innocent in NYC.

There's an article in my paper today entitiled "Woman Have Seen It All on Subways." A reporter seemingly randomly talks to women on the 6 line and discovers that they all have a story to tell about being groped or flashed on the subway. I spend a lot of time on the New York Subway system, it caused me to reflect on my experience.

People. Your grasping minds are leading you into battle. It's not the word, it's the manner in which it is used that matters. It is the intention that hurts, not the acoustic encoding. Wake up. Let go. Pay attention. Be kind.

First, I've said this before, but I don't think I've really given it the attention it deserves before. A story on the front page (remember the front page? [insert JImmy Page riff here]) touches on it, but I'm going to make one last screaming rant.

(What's cool about Maron is he's really very much an ordinary guy. Listening to his show is like hanging out with your politically-tuned, funny, next-door neighbor tell you about what he's been seeing in the news. Jim Earle is funny, too.)

I am going to undertake a major life project today. I expect to have it completed by the end of the summer. The goal is simple: I am going to discard/donate/sell-off my possessions until there are only six hundred of them. This, of course, implies that I will be making an inventory (at the end). I plan to exempt consumable items like food, toilet paper, toothpaste, soap, etc, but a fork will be an item just like my air conditioner. I have yet to make decisions like whether my right ster

I have been tossing and turning in bed for the last hour and a half thinking about my group therapy session this evening. Since I can't seem to get to sleep I thought maybe I'd try to tire myself about writing about it.