{"id":1970,"date":"2011-03-12T21:38:23","date_gmt":"2011-03-13T02:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=1970"},"modified":"2011-03-13T19:08:13","modified_gmt":"2011-03-14T00:08:13","slug":"the-zen-of-duct-tape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=1970","title":{"rendered":"The Zen of Duct Tape"},"content":{"rendered":"<div align=\"center\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jimgworld.com\/beta\/dtape.jpg\"><\/div>\n<p>As mentioned before, I am a proud member of the sangha at the Clear Mountain Zendo in Montclair, NJ.  Our sensei (Dharma teacher), Carl, often emphasizes during his talks that the core theme of Zen is &#8220;this moment, right now&#8221;.  That reminds me of duct tape.  <\/p>\n<p>Duct tape is a &#8220;right now&#8221; kind of thing.  When you patch something up with duct tape, it&#8217;s <strong>today<\/strong> that you&#8217;re worried about; certainly not next year or next month, maybe not even next week.  Duct tape keeps you going for now, but it makes no guarantees whatsoever for the future.  It&#8217;s not built to last.  Duct tape reflects a Zen vision of reality, in a way.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not at all sure that Carl would agree with this.  And I can&#8217;t imagine the great temples of Kyoto using duct tape to patch up the sitting cushions or the paper and bamboo shoji screens.  But hey, Zen is becoming Americanized; and in the process, duct tape might eventually play a role in promoting awakening and awareness.  I&#8217;m sure there&#8217;s a koan in the making somewhere, regarding duct tape&#8217;s versatility and it&#8217;s &#8220;in the moment&#8221; character!<\/p>\n<p>PS &#8212; with all thoughts and intentions for the suffering happening now in the home of Zen, Japan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As mentioned before, I am a proud member of the sangha at the Clear Mountain Zendo in Montclair, NJ. Our sensei (Dharma teacher), Carl, often emphasizes during his talks that the core theme of Zen is &#8220;this moment, right now&#8221;. That reminds me of duct tape. Duct tape is a &#8220;right now&#8221; kind of thing. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1970"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1970"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1973,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1970\/revisions\/1973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}