The Zen of Things Not Working

It may be thought that true calm is achieved meditating in a sunny field somewhere. (somewhere not in Mumbai – here it’s too frikkin’ hot). But I think maybe Zen is achieved when it’s presented to one as the only option. Who needs to be calm while sitting in a field? Sure, you might be calm, ‘cuz you don’t have anything else to think about. But you could also be bored or happy or restless or hot (especially if the field’s in Mumbai in the spring (which the Indians call summer – not to be confused with an Indian summer, which occurs in autumn)). But I think you learn to be calm about things when they are a man’s voice amplified through speakers and coming through your window at 7 a.m., calling people to prayer (just in case they are only absent because they, y’know, forgot…or didn’t know…or foolishly believed sleep was an alternative) and this ridiculously amplified voice is shouting at you when you want a few more hours sleep even though it’s not that great anyway because it’s only on a thin mattress on the floor in a hot room. Or when you are in that hot room on the 7th floor of an apartment building in the middle of a hot sunny day and the electricity decides to go out. When you can’t get a document because you haven’t bribed the correct people. When the water goes out for the weekend and you have a wedding to attend the next day. I think you learn to be calm about things when your only other option is insanity. And I do sense that people here have a calm with which I do not frequently come into contact. They do get angry, but at a lower rate than I’m used to.

I think what you must learn is that you can get through it, that it’s not that bad, that it’ll be OK and maybe even better than you expected, and you really can’t do much about it anyway so what the heck?

I’m not sure, because I haven’t achieved this Zen, but that’s my current hypothesis.