The blog as spiritual practice

Everyday I read a blog called jack/zen (www.jackzen.com), written by a corporate-coach/corporate-facilitator in Cleveland, OH. I've met Jack; a calm, interested and interesting man, his quiet demeanor may speak of his introspective interior. I really respect his work, his thoughts and his blog.

So many people blog. It's so typical today, that everybody dumps their thoughts: some good, some personal, some only that their friends need to hear so they don't write the same things to every friend.

I asked Jack why he blogs. His answer: "It's part of my practice". I fully understood... and made it part of my practice to read his words.

Jack is a Buddhist, so the term "practice" is used quite frequently in Buddhist traditions; it means that to create (and re-create) ourselves, we must practice good things. (The word "good" here is relative; I only use it to distinguish from evil). We cannot be perfect all the time, yet to purposely set about to "practice" our intentions to improve. Within the intention of practicing, we might slip; practicing does not mean perfection, as practicing a piano lesson might improve upon last week's playing but might not make us worthy for Carnegie Hall.

We all "practice". In my coaching, I don't demand fitness "boot-camp" perfectionsim; nor do I ask it of myself. I have a general set of guidelines for health and/or leanness, yet without stringency. I know deeply that straying from healthful eating would bring me physical ramifications (for example, a sugar product would get me ill!) So I practice healthy eating.

For Jack, his practice of blogging sets him on the 'right' path for the day: thinking deeply about the world around him, considering compassion for himself and others, and, with those thoughts, growing.

I too, grow when I get outside myself... and practice.

Mirrors of ourselves... man as island, or continent?

There is an old quote, "No man is an island"*. The implication is that we are all interconnected. . . yet, we are also reminded, sometimes admonished, not to be affected by anyone else's value of us.

When is it right to be our own island, to go our own way, and not give a fig what anyone else cares of us? This island says that our view is the right view, and damn all others who see differently, for our drummer is only our own.

And when it is right for us to use the mirror of our peer group, of our loved ones, as a guiding rein for our offsides actions or mistaken movements? This mirror says that we use the reflection as an indication of the veracity of our ideas. When the mirror feels hurt, we have obviously made a mistake...and must correct the sailing course?

Is life a series of dances, where we learn sometimes to make mistakes on our own, and sometimes to seek the mirrors? This is so very hard, knowing whether we are right in our perceptions.

No matter what, we are not islands, no matter how much we pretend we are. We are all interconnected; our actions do affect others. It is only self-involved people who think otherwise. Look at them all: people who think that their behavior affects no one else.

* No man is an island, entire of itself
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main
if a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were
any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls
it tolls for thee.
-- John Donne