OMG, is riding season over?!! Unless I climb Mt. Diablo tomorrow, it just might be. Daylight Savings ends this weekend and that has traditionally signaled the end of my running season, now riding season, and heralded the start of my smoking season (mm, cloves). No ride on Saturday, even though it's supposed to be hot, because I'm leaving Friday morning to go to San Diego, Escondido to be exact, to . . . visit friends. Um. Visit "friends". Oh what the hell, I'm going to a monastery for a week to get a taste of the monastic thing. OK, you and you, stop laughing, and you close your mouth please, we are not a codfish! That should cover my readership.

It's something I've always wanted to try out, and I feel I need to do it now before I lose my car, and the reality of dwindling finances forces a dusting off of ye ol' resume. It's a branch Zen monastery of a famous Vietnamese Zen "master", whose name I won't try to cold spell. That will have to do. American Zen and American Buddhism drives me absolutely crazy. Ever peruse the hokey, new agey titles in the Zen section at your local Borders? *sticks finger down throat*. I don't know, it's a double standard. Pauline Christianity is criticized for depicting God, Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the whole cast of characters as being white, but then Western Buddhism is criticized for adopting Asian cultural affects and consider it a substantial part of the religious doctrine. But Western Buddhism is still young and looks like it will become sophisticated and develop its own character in due time. But it'll probably be the Germans who lead the charge. Wha...?

My major influence has been Japanese Zen, and I view Japanese Zen as being suspect as well. Maybe it isn't a coincidence that Japanese Zen has been the major influence on American Buddhism. But Japanese Zen, Korean Zen, Chinese Zen, Vietnamese Zen, ZEN . . . is just a tool. A practical tool. I think the hardcore stuff is Tibetan, the closest to what Shakyamuni Buddha touched and preached. Zen is nothing but a new age, feel good philosophy without thorough study of the sutras and doctrine, and it seems a lot of Americans, myself included way back when, get drawn to Zen and think that's it, when it's only just a tool. It's like learning to use a hammer and becoming an expert in hammering nails into boards, but never building anything to realization. I don't know. I'm writing this like I know, but I really don't know. But that's why I'm more optimistic about this place in Escondido, which has an international monastic order, over local Bay Area "Zen Centers" which I think of, without basis no doubt, as stereotypical liberal, white, bleeding heart NIMBY types.

Anyway, hopefully the week I spend there will open me up more. Like just about everything else I do, I'm self-trained, and that's not always a good thing. I really could have used guitar lessons. No doubt I'd learn a lot from group rides. Guidance is not a bad thing! Maybe I'll even be more open to the local places. Whatever.