Jordan Shapiro's #FREEPLAY is "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" for a new generation: part philosophy, part psychology, part spirituality, but ALL #VideoGames.
I'm originally from a rural town in middle Missouri but now call #SaintLouis my home. I have a love for the American southwest (my Mom is from New Mexico) and for the coastal city of #Savannah#Georgia.
I'm single, live alone with two #dachshunds (#dogs) named Amelia and Penelope. I'm a #progressive#liberal, can't stand money in #politics, and yearn for a day when the #Democrats improve their messaging and start fighting back.
My name is Sean and I am an American living in #Chicago. Grew up in the Adirondacks in upstate New York. First-gen college graduate with two degrees in religious studies . Lived in #India for five years helping establish one of its first Liberal Arts colleges. Currently working in higher ed in student services.
We are coming up on the nine-year anniversary of my first encounter with “The Zen of Python,” and I feel the same way about it today that I did then: the first eighteen lines are beautiful and timeless (yes, even the joke about the Dutch); the nineteenth, not so much.
Look, and it can’t be seen.
Listen, and it can’t be heard.
Reach, and it can’t be grasped.
Above, it isn’t bright.
Below, it isn’t dark.
Seamless, unnamable, it returns to the realm of nothing.
Form that includes all forms,
image without an image,
subtle, beyond all conception.
Approach it and there is no beginning;
follow it and there is no end.
You can’t know it, but you can be it, at ease in your own life.
Just realize where you come from:
this is the essence of wisdom.
Stop thinking, and end your problems.
What difference between yes and no?
What difference between success and failure?
Must you value what others value,
avoid what others avoid?
How ridiculous!
Other people are excited,
as though they were at a parade.
I alone don’t care,
I alone am expressionless,
like an infant before it can smile.
Other people have what they need;
I alone possess nothing.
I alone drift about,
like someone without a home.
I am like an idiot, my mind is so empty.
Other people are bright;
I alone am dark.
Other people are sharper;
I alone am dull.
Other people have a purpose;
I alone don’t know.
I drift like a wave on the ocean,
I blow as aimless as the wind.
I am different from ordinary people.
I drink from the Great Mother’s breasts.
If you want to become whole,
let yourself be partial.
If you want to become straight,
let yourself be crooked.
If you want to become full,
let yourself be empty.
If you want to be reborn,
let yourself die.
If you want to be given everything,
give everything up.
The Master, by residing in the Tao,
sets an example for all beings.
Because he doesn’t display himself,
people can see his light.
Because he has nothing to prove,
people can trust his words.
Because he doesn’t know who he is,
people recognize themselves in him.
Because he has no goad in mind,
everything he does succeeds.
When the ancient Masters said,
“If you want to be given everything,
give everything up,”
they weren’t using empty phrases.
Only in being lived by the Tao
can you be truly yourself.