meta_aesthete

I bike everywhere, so boxing would be good to balance out my huge legs.

But more than that, boxing is a very immediate, intense experience. I’ve done some traditional Japanese arts before, but always found them a little too rigid, too focused on doing drills of questionable situations.

Boxing is spontaneous. You have to pay attention, and if you are the lesser fighter, you’ll know pretty soon. And that’s the appeal—I tend to let hesitation and fear get in the way too often in life, and I feel like learning how to think fast and instantly react with confidence and power would help with all this.

Plus, I just wanna hit stuff.

I always feel like if you’re of a certain disposition and mindset, you just are. I feel like was a Buddhist before I knew it.

I guess the big trap to avoid is fetishizing and/or romanticizing Buddhism. I’m a Zen guy, so we’re a little harsher in this respect than some other sects, but as a westerner it’s easy to think Buddhism is this easygoing, placid, fluffy religion that will make all your problems float away like lily pads down a gentle stream.

Nope. I did a 7 day Dai-sesshin last month. Up at 3, to bed at 9, meditating 18 hours a day. I cried for no reason. I got angry for no reason. I wanted to die. I thought I found God. I was elated. I hated myself. I came to amazing revelations that were complete bullshit, but seemed amazing at the time. I sat down with a 100 year old Japanese zen master and did koan work, and spent half the time completely missing the point because I was focusing on the 100 year old Japanese zen master instead of the koan work.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but for me Zen practice has been a very jarring experience that rips you out of your delusions and makes you stare attentively at reality. It’s not comfortable, it’s not relaxing. But you know it’s the right thing to do, so you do it.

And it makes your world better, because you realize that physical reality is not as boring as your imagination would have you believe.

If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha. Buddha can’t solve your problems for you. Instead, learn to really, really pay attention to your morning coffee.

$0.02

Taking on full responsibility for your transportation is a great feeling. I’m not a super-wrench, but I can do 90% of what comes at me, and can now not feel/sound like an clueless moron if I have to bring my bike to a shop to get work done.

The only problem is that once you get into bikes and how they work, you just want more and more. . .