0 miles

About 300 metres.

ca. 800km

can't answer until i have grown up.

well it doesn't let me drill down to teeny tiny kalamazoo, michigan but i can get close. as the crow flies:

Distance is 1025 kilometers or 637 miles or 553 nautical miles

2 km

i drew a line with google earth's ruler: 607km.


fascinating that. (to me)

aprox. 1905 mi.

3,279 mi – about 3 days away by car if I avoid the highways. However, I'm still in the same latitude, and the landscape is remarkably similar. But the culture is as different as the West Coast is from the East Coast.

(It hasn't occurred to me before now to look at my childhood neighborhood by google satillite and retrace trails in the woods that I used to take. My house is still there, with a new addition added where the porch used to be, but my elementary school has been torn down. It wasn't as far away as I remember having to walk. I could stretch the walk home to a full hour if I wanted to, but most of the time I hurried so I could catch the beginning of "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.")

Yesterday a friend and me came upon Zen while we talked and I learned of an aquaintance of her who uses it as an excuse for his ego trip and other strange behaviour patterns (but imo that's just the wrong way to use this teaching :confused:).
As I have never went in much for that philosophy I thought I'd ask me Zemonkeys :)

New question:

¿ Is Zen important in your life and what is/means Zen for you ?

the answer is in the ¿question?

I think the idea of being as present and mindful as possible is helpful. Dying to one's own selfish desires in order to end suffering in the world is not incompatible with being a follower of Jesus, so I don't have a problem with it. It can be a lovely, awake way to go through the world. Um... Nirvana was a good band. :) - I'm often amused by Americans who dabble in it without really committing to it, and it's easy for some to lose their sense of humor in the process, but that's a complaint anyone can have about any religious practice.

The oak tree in the yard grows into the wind.

i'm not familiar with zen so i looked it up, even though i'm not physically able to sit in lotus and do not think about koans, i do seem to live this way, yes. which sucks because i promised not to commit to anything religious. something to ponder, i guess.