Zen: why all the fuss?
Posted on Jan 31st, 2008
by 
Angela
Angela
I was sitting zazen the other day, and an image came to mind. Actually, it was more like a whole story, but it only lasted a second, I swear! :-)
Anyway, I was thinking of a piano player who'd been playing by ear for years, and doing fine. She'd created beautiful music by listening to and studying much more serious musicians (like Beethoven, Scott Joplin and Billy Joel). Then, after a few decades of this, she realized that something was missing, that maybe she had something really *important* yet to learn. And that day, she started doing scales, for the first time in her life.
That's what I thought. It's like doing scales. Boring, and vital.
Anyway, I was thinking of a piano player who'd been playing by ear for years, and doing fine. She'd created beautiful music by listening to and studying much more serious musicians (like Beethoven, Scott Joplin and Billy Joel). Then, after a few decades of this, she realized that something was missing, that maybe she had something really *important* yet to learn. And that day, she started doing scales, for the first time in her life.
That's what I thought. It's like doing scales. Boring, and vital.
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buddhism
May 2008 
sweet, the theory does inform the practice, like a beautiful pairing.
modern life is so outward directed; we so often forget the inner being, the resident life that is always with us
as an amateur paino player I fully appreciate your example.
love and light