" Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment. If you can't meditate in a boiler room, you can't meditate. When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point. And exactly the same thing is true in meditation." - Alan Watts
I discovered Alan Watts at the same time I discovered J.Krishnamurti, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Carlos Castaneda, Ram Dass, among others. This happened when I was working as a librarian at the University of Wisconsin, in Green Bay and my stumbling upon these characters I must admit changed my perspective about life. I was hooked upon reading their works and began putting what I had understood into my daily thoughts and practice.
'The Way of Zen is a 1957 non-fiction book on Zen Buddhism and Eastern philosophy by philosopher and religious scholar Alan Watts. It was a bestseller and played a major role in introducing Buddhism to a mostly young, Western audience.' Wikipedia
The Way of Zen was how I was introduced to Zen Buddhism and it became my Bible for quite sometime while in college. The 'Cheeseburger Buddha' is the result of my 'Satori' experience one warm winter day while working a security guard for J&J Security and posted at a McDonald outlet on Main Street in East Side Green Bay. My job was to keep an eye on the place when the high school kids stop by after their Basketball games; I was to stop them from tearing the place down. It was my break time and the place was still calm just before the kids came, I sat in one corner by the window eating a cheeseburger in one hand and holding the Way of Zen in the other. I was sweating on the inside as I had extra layers of winter cloths underneath my security uniform and the place was well heated. Outside the window were piles of snow and needless to say was cold although not as bad as a Wisconsin winter could be. It happened quite out of the blue, this feeling like I was drifting in a vacuum of peaceful silence and the thought ran through my head," You are nothing but a Cheeseburger Buddha!"
A deep sense of realization hit me as I took in the whole situation I was in, the uniform, the heat and the cold, the cheeseburger (meat) and the Buddhist literature I was reading and I laughed! Fortunately there was not too many customers just yet and the girls behind the counter were friendly and used to my presence. From that day on I became the Cheeseburger Buddha and started sketching an image of this character when I wanted to express my feelings.This was sometime in 1979-80. In a way I experienced a sense of spiritual liberation a my mind came to a standstill for a split second and it all fell apart and into place all at the same time.
The works by Alan Watts continued to trigger my spiritual quest from a Muslim, a Buddhist, a lost soul, a mixed up kid towards becoming a spiritual seeker, I saw the rascal in me as Alan Watts saw it in himself. The Way of Zen was a text book on Zen Buddhism while it was also a way of looking at life with sense of humor in the Buddhist way. In my later years I came across Alan Watts in the from of visiting his house boat parked at Sausalito, California when I stayed there for a few days while waiting for my first Zen Teacher, Dennis Junpo Kelly.
The Vallejo - A decommissioned ferry boat, converted to a houseboat and art studio, became the scene of one of the Beat Generation's most fertile social gathering spots – and the location of a seminal summit on LSD with Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder and Alan Watts
Later on when I was doing my Zen Practice at Green Gulch Farm a few of us would trek up the hillside to Alan Watts's memorial site during the summer soltice and drank Japanese Sake in his memory. It is to me a blessing to have stumbled upon this great spiritual mind who not only knew what he was talking about but lived the life that it was preaching. I must have written this similar post many times in the past simply because it was a cornerstone in my own self development as one who was seeking for answers.
Influenced by: Carl Jung, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Joseph Campbell, MORE - #alanwatts,#josephcambell,#thewayofzen,#buddhism,#advaitavedanta,#cheeseburgerbuddha
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