Zen and the Art of...
“Zen and the Art of” seems to me to be used as a marketing ploy here in the United States. Honestly, how do “Zen” and “fixing the toilet” go together? Zen and the Art of Fixing the Toilet, I don't know if that is an actual book but it might as well be. Let's explore what the pages of this book might contain. “Reaching inner piece before taking the plunge” sounds like a probable first chapter to a fix-it book like this one. If this book were to be like any other “Zen” book, as it most certainly would be, it might tell the reader that the blocked toilet is the path too enlightenment, and that the plunger is the tool in which the wielder may use to guide them on their way to enlightenment.
My group's book was anything but conventional Zen, though not quite as bad as the aforementioned proposed book above. Zen and the Art of Managing Up was the title of my group's book, and one of our major problems with it is that it told the reader to essentially forget everything. I guess that would be a good start at “how to relax”, but since it had to do with managing I cannot fathom how “forgetting everything” could possibly help out in the long run. For instance if I forgot this paper and decided to just stare blankly at a wall, as the book suggests in so many words, that would not be good for my grade.
However, that could be related to the practicing of Zen, forgetting everything in the world around you and focusing primarily on oneself. As with Zazen, the practitioner forgets worldly desires and happenings, retreats into one's mind, and meditates. So perhaps the author is telling the reader that if they relax and forget about the world for a moment everyday they will attain inner peace and be able to go and tackle that assignment with a clearer conscious when they set to it again. Or if they get that toilet unblocked they'll rest easier at night knowing that it won't overflow on them in the morning and ruin their bathroom rug, but that would be reverting back to material possessions. Either way, I still think it's a marketing ploy.
My group's book was anything but conventional Zen, though not quite as bad as the aforementioned proposed book above. Zen and the Art of Managing Up was the title of my group's book, and one of our major problems with it is that it told the reader to essentially forget everything. I guess that would be a good start at “how to relax”, but since it had to do with managing I cannot fathom how “forgetting everything” could possibly help out in the long run. For instance if I forgot this paper and decided to just stare blankly at a wall, as the book suggests in so many words, that would not be good for my grade.
However, that could be related to the practicing of Zen, forgetting everything in the world around you and focusing primarily on oneself. As with Zazen, the practitioner forgets worldly desires and happenings, retreats into one's mind, and meditates. So perhaps the author is telling the reader that if they relax and forget about the world for a moment everyday they will attain inner peace and be able to go and tackle that assignment with a clearer conscious when they set to it again. Or if they get that toilet unblocked they'll rest easier at night knowing that it won't overflow on them in the morning and ruin their bathroom rug, but that would be reverting back to material possessions. Either way, I still think it's a marketing ploy.