Sorry I ain't been writing much. I've been working hard on finishing up a novel I wrote way back in 1998. It's called Gill Women of the Prehistoric Planet. Back in those days I was trying hard to become a professional writer. I wrote dozens of short stories that I used to send to science fiction magazines and get rejection notices for. I managed to publish three of them, I think. All fairly bad. I was writing stuff for Ultraman, some of which was used uncredited. I also completed three novels; Death to All Monsters (aka Destroy All Spacemen), Akron Ohio: City in the Sky and Gill Women of the Prehistoric Planet.
Gill Women was the best of the bunch. It concerned the exploits of a hapless sf-movie nerd named Joe who lives in Akron and happens to have the last remaining copy of a film called Gill Women of the Prehistoric Planet. Joe believes that this moldering old movie kept in rusting film canisters in the basement of the punk rock house he shares with a band called the Zen Luv Assassins contains the key to thwarting an alien invasion he believes is being planned and organized at the local Johnny Teagle's HyperMart store.
It's a comedy that may or may not be science fiction. There's been some interest expressed lately in my novels, so I decided the time was right to fix one of them up and see if it goes anywhere. I'm actually enjoying the book a lot. About two years of hard labor went into creating it, and it's not bad at all.
ANYWAY I got an email today that said this:
Long time fan, first time caller! I'd appreciate a post or just your thoughts about the role of health and fitness in Zen. Most specifically what is your daily food routine like. Do you totally stay away from caffeine? Do you eat after noon? There's lots of Zen writing about mindful eating and such but I'd like to hear more of what your actual diet is like. Do you do wheat grass shots every morning? Do you choke down omega-3's every day? I remember a quote (from Sit Down I believe) where you mentioned our responsibility to feed ourselves healthy food and that you're a vegetarian. You've also talked about yoga and stuff. I know that my practice totally sucks when I've eaten too much or just generally treat my body like crap. And when I don't exercise I just feel way less "balanced" in general. Maybe I just need some encouraging words to get my ass to the gym!
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. My own diet is not really exemplary. I'm a vegetarian, but more for moral reasons than health. Which means that I consider Fritos as perfectly acceptable vegetarian cuisine. However, recently I've been trying to get a bit more serious about diet and exercise.
The crisis point came in my tour of Europe this Spring. I had very little control over what I got fed during my travels. Just trying to avoid big hunks of meat in everything I ate was hard enough. Plus I was spending a lot of time in planes, cars and trains, basically sitting for long, long periods. And not sitting zazen, either! Just sort of slumped in a chair somewhere.
When I lived in Santa Monica I had a regular exercise routine consisting mainly of yoga and bicycle riding. That was gone and I needed to do something. So I went on-line looking for fitness routines that could be done pretty much anywhere without any special equipment. I started doing a 25 minute workout I found on some website every day before breakfast, which I still do now that I'm back in the USA. It's got push-ups, crunches, squats and some other stuff.
I also spent some time in Japan with my friend Patrick Reynolds who runs a thing called the Peak Condition Project. My friend Ren did the program and it really made a big difference. I haven't done the program, but I did listen to Patrick lecture me about my lousy eating habits, and I've endeavored to change those -- fewer carbs, more vegetables (Fritos are not vegetables), less food at night, etc.
The ancient Buddhists were not allowed to eat after noon. Very few Buddhists follow that these days. In fact, in Zen retreats they have a cute way of cheating in which they refer to breakfast and lunch as meals and to dinner as "medicine." It's like supposedly observant Jews who hire gentiles to turn their lights on during the Sabbath. It pays lip service to the tradition but ignores the spirit behind it.
Nishijima, by the way, bucks this system. He calls dinner a meal during his retreats, and does the meal chant at night too (it's usually skipped at night at Zen retreats because you don't chant for "medicine"). I've kept Nishijima's tradition at my own retreats. I prefer the honesty of doing it that way.
In Buddhism we say that body and mind are the same. Unfortunately, too many in the Zen world see Zen as a purely mental exercise and ignore their bodies. I don't really trust fat Zen masters. I saw a video of one American master doing his prostrations and I really worried whether he was gonna have a heart attack with all the bulk he was carrying.
I'm not talking about middle-aged people who are carrying a bit of extra around. That's not such a big deal. But there are some truly obese Zen masters out there and I really wonder about that.
I once read a piece by some author talking about what it takes to be a professional writer. One of the points he stressed was physical fitness. Writing is a job where you sit around a lot. It's easy to get fat and soft. But, said the author, the condition of your body affects the condition of your mind. You can't be a good writer if you don't take care of your body.
I wish I could recall who wrote that, because I fully agree. I believe Zen practice absolutely requires you to take care of your physical condition. You need to exercise and take care of your nutrition. Body and mind are one. You can't expect to free your mind while abusing the rest of your body.
Nishijima Roshi chants the full Buddhist meal chant before every meal he eats, even when he's at home by himself. I haven't started this myself, although I have started doing the very short version of it at most meals. I read once that cultures with meal rituals have less obesity than those without. I can see why. Eating is important. It should not be taken lightly. Even vegetarians like me have to kill other forms of life in order to sustain ourselves. This is some heavy stuff.
So no, I'm not doing wheat grass shots or abstaining from food after noon. But I do try to be careful of what I eat and I make a point of doing exercise every day, no matter how much I hate it -- and I assure you I do hate it. A lot. But it makes me feel good. So it must be good. I'm no body builder, but I'm not fat and I plan to keep it that way. I try to deal with physical fitness and nutrition in a balanced way. It's important not to take even being healthy too far.
