I like meditating and reading Zen books, but I am uncomfortable with the formality of Zen monastaries because I can't help feeling that they are making a religion out of Zen.  I suppose I could shift my views into seeing them as a hospital of sort, but I am lazy.  To me, Zen is no different from Cindy Crawford's exercise video.  It is just a way to feel good, or at least, not feel bad.

Certain body positions that are more comfortable than others.  When you sit on the ground, there could also be some pebble under you, forcing you to shift your butt until you find a comfortable position.  This is what Zen is to me except it is about how your mind sits rather than your behind.

Body position also affects how you think or rather the extent of control over mind.  As for me, I don't like the way I have to hold my body and breathing pattern in certain ways just to feel better.  It's like moving and holding TV antenna in a certain position to receive better TV signal.  While I like watching PBS, I don't mind being stuck with watching soap operas.

Zen koans helps you move your mental butt.  It works by being obscure, same mechanism that provokes mammals to tilt their head slightly whenever they see something they don't recognize.  Zen koan makes you tilt your mind to understand words that make no sense otherwise.  In doing so, you change your perspective and you change as well — you are where you sit.

Frequently, I run into people are obsessed with Zen.  Some of them become monks.  Shaving one's head, aside from the symbolism and marketing side of it, is just a way to focus.  Avoiding meat reduces the chance of being swept away in a flood of emotions triggered or aided by certain chemical.  Still, I don't see the point of bleeching all the colors out of your life.  Being addicted to tranquility and illusion of clarity is a real danger for Zen practioners.

Of course, there are a number of wilder strains in Zen as exemplified by famously crazy Zen monks dotting the history of East Asia.  In Korea, there was a monk who practiced calligraphy with a brush attached to his penis.  Amusing and admirable in a way, but still trapped by the desire to be enlightened.  Very few ever experience the enlightenment.  Even more sad, few talk about how fleeting enlightenment might be.

So, I would like offer this piece of advice to those interested in Zen:

Take what you need and no more.