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Thread: nothing zen

  1. #1
    Member roky's Avatar
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    Jul 2008
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    silver city, new mexico, usa

    nothing zen

    things get pretty strange sometimes in the desert:

    was having dinner the other nite over at another trailer here at coyote howls, in why?, arizona -- and my friends started to talk about the "geezer" they used to have -- apparently, when this place was a lot bigger, about the size of a small village, they had a quaint custom of "adopting" a qeezer -- these were old, like 80s, single men, living alone, who people felt needed some looking after -- apparently they'd find my friends geezer lying in the middle of the park road, quite frequently -- when asked what he was doing, he'd say, not surprizingly, "nothing"

    sure beats the welfare department

    for those who don't know, most of the land west of denver, the beautiful undeveloped land, is public -- that means, usually, that you can live on it, for free, or close to free -- its called "boondocking" -- in addition, for those folks who want a bit more, there are, for a minimal fee, a couple of places like coyote howls, a place where you get a fair size chunk of desert, all the sun you need to run solar panels, and most importantly, a source of water

    some folks, like me, come here at retirement, age 55, and stay, literally, til they die -- and so the "adopt-a-geezer" came about, as a way to help folks to live, and die, a life they choose -- i suppose its an alternative to senior citizen housing -- its "supported living", but not supported by professional care-givers, instead, by neighbors

    gassho, bob

  2. #2

    Re: nothing zen

    i am wistfully thinking u r leading the life of a dharma bum aka jack kerouc. Any mountains that way where u can go and meditate.

  3. #3

    Re: nothing zen

    Hmmm where do i sign up Bob?
    Gassho, Dirk

  4. #4
    Member roky's Avatar
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    silver city, new mexico, usa

    Re: nothing zen

    always room for more treeleafers -- just no room for the developments they build near places like phoenix -- no chance of those here, cause we're surrounded by public land for at least 100 miles in all directions, meaning that there's no walmart, lowe's, etc. for at least that difference

    so here's the deal, as i did it anyway: quit your job(hell, let the kids starve!), get a sailboat to live on for $1500, for the summer, and for the winter, get a trailer for 2000, move it here and pay 500/year rent(yes, thats 500/yr, not month) -- one solar panel will do the laptop and lights, and you can switch it back and forth from boat to trailer -- anchoring in a boat is free, as is the wind

    mucho mountains here, the tinajas altas, poso redondos -- i hike mt. ajo tomorrow morning

    theres hope guys -- my wife and i live on 1200/month, we live well

    gassho, geezer bob

  5. #5

    Re: nothing zen

    Just packing my rucksack see you soon :wink:

    I wish :!:

  6. #6
    Member roky's Avatar
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    Re: nothing zen

    i wish too -- that is, if i could materialize you guys here right now, i would, and i bet we'd have a hell of a good time -- of course, we'd have to bring jundo too

  7. #7
    Yugen
    Guest

    Re: nothing zen

    ...To deliver oneself up, to hand oneself over, entrust oneself completely to the landscape of woods and hills, or sea, or desert; to sit still while the sun comes up over that land and fills its silences with light. To pray and work in the morning and and to labor and rest in the afternoon, and to sit still again in meditation in the evening when night falls again upon that land and when the silence fills itself with darkness and with stars... There are few who are willing to belong completely to such silence, to let it soak into their bones, to breathe nothing but silence, and to turn the very substance of their life into a living and vigilant silence...

    - Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude (XI)

    Bob, Thank you for sharing the wide expanse with us!

    Gassho,
    Alex

  8. #8

    Re: nothing zen

    Quote Originally Posted by roky
    i wish too -- that is, if i could materialize you guys here right now, i would, and i bet we'd have a hell of a good time -- of course, we'd have to bring jundo too
    I would appear late each night as a talking cactus named HUEHUEPOCHTLIMECOATL


  9. #9

    Re: nothing zen

    looks like I have my 30 year plan. what do you guys do about water?


    Sorry Jundo, I passed on "talking" cactii 12 years ago.

  10. #10

    Re: nothing zen

    Sounds lovely. Count me in!

    I like the "adopt a geezer" concept. When you are out in the wilderness, you really have a sense that you need to depend on each other. I wish we could bring that into the cities (and maybe more importantly the suburbs).

    Gassho,

    Linda

  11. #11
    Member roky's Avatar
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    Re: nothing zen

    thanks for the quote, alex, and i was so fortunate yesterday as to be doing just that -- hiking this incredible canyon, to the top of mt. ajo -- was another one of those days where it was made so clear to me that all those things that happened in the desert when i took lsd,were not the lsd -- and, i suspect, the increased sitting i've done with treeleaf had a lot to do with it -- just incredible scenes, all day long -- speechless -- its not why we sit zazen, but one hell of a bonus!

    jundo -- so that was you? -- i will admit that the guy i was with kept saying, "did you hear that?" "what?" "someone talking" -- and this was daytime -- i knew better than to look too closely

    rev -- the reason we stay, mostly, at coyote howls, is the people, but also the water -- there are occasional aquifiers in the desert, this is one of them, a very reliable one, though with a bit of arsenic -- the community built a well, and so was born "why"

    was i "sober" yesterday? -- yes, in the sense that i had injested nothing other than fig newtons -- but so as to not be a hypocrite, or more of one, i must say that i would not be against some peyote -- its just the illegality of it that makes it not worth the effort -- and i know after i was done with it, i'd say "why did i bother doing that?" -- i'm not forcing myself to follow the precept, its just so true that sober zazen is superior to chemicals

    i read that the only indian subgroup for whom alchoholism is not epidemic is the native american church, who use peyote, but in a ritual fashion, not abusively -- or so i'm told

    linda -- you hit the nail exactly on the head

    gassho, bob

  12. #12
    Yugen
    Guest

    Re: nothing zen

    Bob,
    Thanks for sharing the hike, and the view...

    Gassho,
    Alex

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