![\"Hotai](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/81\/2018\/01\/Hotai-2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not long ago on one of my Facebook groups where people gather to gas about Buddhism<\/a> someone posted the question \u201chow can a fat person be a Zen teacher?\u201d I admit I didn\u2019t feel like following the thread so I can\u2019t report back on that little subset of people who like Facebook, think about fat and human beings, while also\u00a0having an interest in Buddhism and Zen, came down on the subject.<\/p>\n Me, I\u2019d suggest don\u2019t trust a fat person.<\/p>\n But, also, thinking of the thin, I find myself recalling Shakespeare\u2019s Julius Caesar warning us:<\/p>\n Let me have men about me that are fat; I also have my doubts about people who are of average size.<\/p>\n Maybe the\u00a0real\u00a0challenge is to not put another person\u2019s head on top of your own. Some smart person said that once. While I believe guides are important, I think\u00a0making the final call yourself makes a lot of sense.<\/p>\n But, digging a little bit more into questions of\u00a0purity and Zen teachers, it might be helpful to visit the literature surrounding Zen\u2019s famous Fox koan<\/a>. It\u2019s just possible a person looking for a teacher whose poop no longer smells is not looking in the right direction.<\/p>\n That all noted, here in the moment I find myself reflecting on\u00a0my own spiritual path. Which is, I notice, an equally messy conglomerations of several things. Zen is a central thread to my life. Deeply. Profoundly. Pretty much the principal focus of all I do. Yes, modified in some ways by a rationalist, but to my heart clearly Buddhist<\/a> universalism. Something for another conversation.<\/p>\n And, what captures my notice in the moment, since about April of 2016, I\u2019ve also been with Weight Watchers. Since that time I lost about forty-five pounds. Felt pretty good. However. Then starting in November there was a serious lapse, or a sequence of small lapses and a couple of bigger ones that rather quickly became a gain of about fifteen pounds. And. It sure seemed a lot easier to gain than to lose\u2026<\/p>\n However, I kept going to meetings. And, after wobbling some, I managed to reclaim the critical WW discipline of recording everything I ate. And, as I write this, with some hesitation, I seem to have been able to correct course. as of this Thursday\u2019s weigh in, I have both stabilized and lost a couple of pounds.<\/p>\n Of course, it can all change on a dime. Or, with a cookie\u2026<\/p>\n My take away from this rough patch?<\/p>\n It really is all one continuous mistake.<\/p>\n I continue to find the Zen path and Weight Watchers are rather comfortable fellow travelers, not unlike for my friends who are both Zen practitioners and members of AA. I would say this particularly as how in my Zen life I\u2019ve become the teacher, and while I have peers, and I do use them, I am for the most part the teacher. So, having somewhere to go with a genuine accountability and people who don\u2019t care about my Zen titles is probably an amazing gift. If one I\u2019d just as soon pass on. If I could.<\/p>\n If I could. However, it seems to me there really are two kinds of people: those who eat to live and those who live to eat. I\u2019ve never understood those who only eat to live. And like Caesar I\u2019m a bit suspicious of them. Me, I\u2019m full on a person who lives to eat.<\/p>\n I love food. I prefer good food, well prepared food. But, it turns out I\u2019ll settle.<\/p>\n What I actually find helpful about WW as opposed to AA is that with alcohol the working solution is to not touch the stuff. Now there\u2019s a lot to be said about abstinence as a spiritual discipline. But, this is a practice of a different kind. With food not eating just isn\u2019t an option.<\/p>\n So, in Weight Watchers consciousness becomes the secret sauce.\u00a0There are ways consciousness is brought to the project. Number one is counting points. Points are numerical units applied to foods, based on a number of things, but mostly calories. Number two is attending meetings.<\/p>\n Throughout consciousness as the secret sauce. And that\u2019s where the Zen thing comes in.<\/p>\n Zen is the ultimate path of consciousness. It\u2019s always about noticing. Zen is all about just being present.<\/p>\n And with it, with zazen<\/a>, and koans<\/a>, and retreats<\/a>, and vows<\/a>, that other Zen saying. Fall down nine times, get up ten.<\/p>\n
\nSleek-headed men and such as sleep o\u2019 nights:
\nYond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
\nHe thinks too much: such men are dangerous<\/em><\/p>\n