0 Zen and the Inquiry of Values

Values are, uhm, valuable. And we value them. I'm sorry I can't just start it.

No one is born with values. You're born a blank sheet and your life is filling that sheet in with whatever design you want your life to be. You decide on those designs by how you are raised, the enviroment you're in, the experiences you experience, the life you learn shapes what you value.

I've learned a lot from reading and from experiencing second hand other people's experiences.

• Flexibility/Adaptability: Because seriously, it is in our nature to change and evolve and if you can't handle it, life will not be fun for you.
• Independence: Same. There's nothing wrong with depending on others. in some cases, you're even required to. However, it's seriously going to hold you back in life if you're always waiting on someone or for someone. The same thing goes for living. You can't just life for someone else.
• Growth: Growth=evolution, innovation, all of those good things that enable our world to continue to change and improve.
• Leadership: Because if everyone's a follower, we're only going to be going round and round in miserable little unimaginiative circles.
• Helpfulness: This goes along with my duty to not be a douchebag rule.
• Knowledge: A lot of my values pertain to advancement. Knowledge is no exception.
• Logic: Being objective is the best way to act most of the time, not matter how subjectively you feel. Can I use subjective in that way? Is that correct?
• Perceptiveness: I believe understand others is how we improve our life. Not understanding is like a recipe for disaster.
• Practicality: This just make sense.
• Nonconformity: Because a world with only the same thing doesn't leave room for black nor white nor the complicated shades of gray and that's just a shame.

0 Zen and the Art of Watching Highways

Zen is defined by wikipedia as being a round-about translation of the word "absorption". I'd agree with that. I feel like zen is the state of taking everything in and just allowing the world to happen. Absorption is actually a good way to put it. When one truly lets things be and takes in the world around them, only then will they have a full understanding. 

I guess absorption is the best way of defining it because of where I find zen myself. Zen for me is when I stop thinking and just take things in. Because of circumstances I cannot control, I usually end up getting rides from others whenever I want to go somewhere. Those drivers are always taking the expressway because why wouldn't they it's convenient and accessible and I leave on the south side so going anywhere is a pain. 

When I'm not sleeping on drives to anywhere, I'm staring out the window at nothing in particular. Those stretches of time when we're flying down the highway are some of the best moments of my week. In the car, I am nearly cut off from the outside world of commitments and homework. I am alone in the silence in my head, only able to reflect. Highways don't have much landscaping, minimizing the visual distractions that would bring my mind out of its neutral state. Watching highways allows me reflect on the world around me. Watching highways allows me to find zen.