Zen-fest

I am not a religious person. When I say that I mean that I don't believe in the organized version of spirituality- the checklist of things you can do to get to heaven or the black list of things guaranteed to earn you a straight shot to hell. I don't believe that the number of times you go to church or whether you don't eat meat on Fridays during Lent or whether you pray the rosary each day while reading the bible means anything when it comes to what type of person you are.


This belief may have been a by-product of the 12 years of catholic school that I was subjected to in my formative years. It may be because the more I research the religions of the world as an adult the more I find they are just as fallible and hypocritical as any atheist or agnostic. This belief may be due to the fact that organized religion seems to bring about more war than peace, more death than relief from suffering, more ignorance and inflexibility than wisdom. There is just as much violence in the bible as in any new television show or video game.

But, I digress.
The point of this entry is not to dwell on the merits of religion, because as useless as it is to me I am sure it is not only useful but life-changing and good for some people in the world. I am also sure that being involved in religion at an early age helped me define my own morals. Perspective and relativity should apply in any discussion of something as personal as religion.
Me?
I pick ideas from different theisms that are useful to me. The yin-yang concept from Taoism (and also the duality Zoroastrianism) helps me understand that good & evil are rooted in the same place and co-dependent; cyclical and mutual. For myself it is about placing the chaos of life in context so that it never seems too good, or too bad. Life just is.

This is why I enjoy reading and writing haiku. Haiku is my meditation. Haiku is a way to place things where they should reside. I wrote these the other night:
***
love's limits unknown
walking barefoot in lush green
evil here unseen.
***
small inspiration
like jelly for arms and legs
bricks are becoming.
***
smiling without teeth
the earth is just as hollow
emblazoned with love.
***
fishnet lust is trust
that creation continued
unbound, sexy, free.
***
take a break stallion
pause the panting hyper breath
see the sun rise pink.
***
(I didn't say they were any good, just that they are theraputic.)