Welcome to Householders' Gazette

My first Substack post. (Big nod of gratitude to Art Wagner for the nudge to do it.)

First: I’m delighted you’re here. I hope you like what you read, and subscribe. I promise it will always be unique.

Now let’s get on with it. What is Householders’ Gazette?

1. Householders’ Gazette is the later-in-life observations of a long-time observer and risk taker. While I’ve done a few physically risky things like run in Pamplona or swim from Alcatraz, ski steep powder on hallucinogenics and sleep with borderline crazy people, the larger portion of my risks have revolved around staying true to myself in a world that wants us to be someone else. It’s not easy to stay true to one’s path and with each border crossing there’s the question of did I go too far this time? Did I just become a pariah? Am I going nuts? So with a little bit of luck, the very least HG hopes to provide is some entertaining stories and observations that hopefully add up to a narrative thread that you find somewhat interesting, if not illuminating.

2. Householders’ Gazette is a chronicle of a future monk living the life currently of the householder. In Buddhism there are three stages of (adult) life: student, householder, and then forest-dweller. Most of us don’t reach the third stage though,  forever spinning in the entrapments of our bourgeois lives—nothing wrong with that, but it is a truncated version of the profundity of life, like eating so much meat and potato that there’s no room left for dessert.

The more monkish final chapter that few of us actually encounter brings further understanding, depth, and sweetness to life, but that’s getting ahead of myself. With kids still in high school, my mailing address is Householderville, USA, and will be for a few more years. That being said, my younger adult life was peppered with significant episodes of monkish mimicry, which I believe can bear fruit even now, for both myself and others. 

3. Householders’ Gazette will thirdly function as a platform for a few of the ‘spiritual’ pieces I’ve written over the years. I have been a lifelong meditator, and I’ve had moments which propelled me to write a few things I think could be of aid to others in their quest for meaning as we slouch toward enlightenment. The first of these is what I call a Box of Koans.

In Zen, a koan is one of those unanswerable questions that has the power to spark enlightenment, the most famous probably being, “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”  Given that America prefers action to contemplation, however, I thought up a variety of activities which get us out of our usual patterns and comfort zones long enough to open up a new sliver of experience, observation, and possibly growth. 

Toward that end I will begin this Substack with the ‘Box of Koans,’ and deliver as many of them as I can, one per post, as regularly as I can. Each koan will be introduced or framed with some brief commentary to nudge you in the right direction where you can discover things on your own. I hope you enjoy it, and that you can appreciate what you can do with them.

That’s enough about (my) intentions. Let’s go.

______________________

(WELCOME TO) THE BOX OF KOANS

You may already know what a koan is. In the tradition of Zen a koan is a tool a teacher gives a student to help them refocus their thought in such a manner as to let a grand cosmic truth become apparent, sparking Enlightenment. Koans usually come in the form of a riddle. Some further examples of this are:

Suspending your knowledge of good and evil, tell us what is your original nature?

Why has the Bodhidharma no beard? (He is generally pictured with a beard.)

These questions, however, are only really useful to the true student of Zen, someone who has given him or herself over completely to that particularly Oriental mode of thought. Here in the West we live according to a different ethos and a very different way of seeing the world. We are an action-appreciating people and we love to experience things. Rather than ponder and wait, we prefer to go and do. Box of Koans Is designed with this western tendency in mind.  These 200+ western koans help reorient our thinking and our awareness, expose our emotions and vulnerabilities, test our patience, and hopefully help us to more fully appreciate the phenomenon of life. They help us suspend our ordinary forms of logic and our habitual modes of thought long enough to allow some uncommon beauty appear from our personal back doors.

THOUGHT RUDDERS

I pose a few questions below as ‘thought rudders’ that might enhance your experience. A little inquiry can lead to a more critical understanding. Think of them as seed crystals of thought and contemplation, or as launchpads for depth. They are:

Why am I doing this?

New line what can I learn from this?

What can I learn from this?

What effect does this action of mine have?

What is good or bad about this and why?

How do I feel about this?

Will I tell anyone about this?

How does this activity relate to everyday life?

Was I aware of this before?

How do others react to my doing this?

Does this activity spark imagination?

Does this activity remind me of something else?

Would I want to share this activity with a friend?

Consider also the idea of writing out your thoughts and responses, creating something of an involuntary diary or journal.

But mostly, have fun. Tune into a different kind of truth. And God bless.

KOAN #1

Make music with things one ordinarily only finds in the kitchen.

Sounds easy enough. Get some pots and pans, glasses and crystal vessels filled with various depths of liquid, pasta, rice—whatever—and make music of it. Bang things, make them resonate somehow, go percussive or anti-percussive—there’s a world of opportunity here, all waiting for your imagination to execute and discover. Roomies, kids, siblings, or solo—what makes it work for you? Then make a video of it and post it to your Instagram if that makes you happy, #boxofkoans  #householdersgazette

Now apply some of the questions listed above and write out your responses.