a little zen action

[falloutboy]

Here's a couple of stories from Zen Stories to tell your neighbors and another zen page that I think are the most appropriate for yall Djs. I take no credit for the stories, but read them cause they're awesome. I recommend all of the stories on those sites, if you ever need something to do.

Masterpiece:

A master calligrapher was writing some characters onto a piece of paper. One of his especially perceptive students was watching him. When the calligrapher was finished, he asked for the student's opinion - who immediately told him that it wasn't any good. The master tried again, but the student criticized the work again. Over and over, the calligrapher carefully redrew the same characters, and each time the student rejected it. Finally, when the student had turned his attention away to something else and wasn't watching, the master seized the opportunity to quickly dash off the characters. "There! How's that?," he asked the student. The student turned to look. "THAT.... is a masterpiece!" he exclaimed.

Learning the Hard Way

Noticing that his father was growing old, the son of a burglar asked his father to teach him the trade so that he could carry on the family business after his father had retired.

The father agreed, and that night they broke into a house together.
Opening a large chest the father told his son to go in and pick out the clothing. As soon as the boy was inside, the father locked the chest and then made a lot of noise so that the whole house was aroused. Then he slipped quietly away.

Locked inside the chest the boy was angry, terrified, and puzzled as to how he was going to get out. Then an idea flashed to him- he made a noise like a cat. The family told a maid to take a candle and examine the chest. When the lid was unlocked the boy jumped out, blew the candle, pushed his way past the astonished maid, and ran out. The people ran after him. Noticing a well by the side of the road the boy threw in a large stone, then hid in the darkness. The pursuers gathered around the well trying to see the burglar drowning himself.

When the boy got home he was very angry at his father and he tried to tell him the story; but the father said: 'Don't bother to tell me the details, you are here- you have learned the art.'

why did I pick these? think about what they're getting at. in terms of DJing, if you are in a position in which you are able to monitor what you are doing ("should i go over to her?"; "she's really hot! what does she want to do with a guy like me?!") you will not get anywhere. You've got to dive into the pool instead of inching slowly in the shallow end. The best and truest learn happens when you bring yourself to the extreme with no way out, a 'make or break you' situation where things happen so fast you can't even THINK about what you're doing. Even if you can't force yourself to approach hot girls, tell a friend to literally push you into any girl you're afraid of talking to, no matter what you say.


By now, you've probably already made the connection that this is basically the 3 second rule for Buddhist Monks