By Adam Smith
All rights reserved.
©2017 Adam Smith
www.dragonpoe.com
ISBN: 978-1-387-80063-6
Imprint: Independently published
Dedication
Thank you to all the dear people who took part in the creation of this work.
Special thanks to Sarah Flores who helped to edit this book.
To Jeff Bezos for building Amazon.com and helping deliver this work. And special thanks goes to my mother, Alexandra, who brought me up and accepted me back when I returned from my homelessness.
Adam Smith
Zen? Jerusalem? How in the hell are they even related?
It’s all about the state of mind. The inner self. Zen teaches you to stay calm and find your true self. Jerusalem, on the other hand, is known to be the city of the three religions. Some are born into them, and some are adopting them as they go. Zen will help you figure out what it is you really should do.
Also, you might find it preposterous, but there are plenty of similarities between how the prophets of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam attained their connection to God—spiritual enlightenment, if you wish. If you question that statement, let's take a look at what is known to us today.
Moses sat for forty days at the mountain Sinai before he received the knowledge of the Ten Commandments, which are the basis today for all European jurisdiction. Jesus sat for forty days in a desert to meet the Devil and refuse his offers. Muhammad, after the loss of his wife, sat for forty days in a cave before he received the knowledge of the Quran.
Spiritual practice. What is it, after all? How do you do it? How do you live it? Well, you practice your moods and thoughts and actions. Through time, you gain more experience about yourself and the world. I believe that all three of these historical figures practiced meditation before they got their provision, and after the final push of forty days, they were enlightened.
What is Zen? Zen is a merge between Buddhism and Taoism. Lao Tzu was one of the wisest men to walk this earth. I strongly believe he will appear weird to you, but it doesn't lessen his genius. Why might he appear weird? Because he made it to the history of mankind as someone who meditated in a cave and then when he achieved a state of enlightenment, he rode a bull towards the south of the country. Before crossing the border, he was stopped by a soldier who asked him, “What is Tao? What is the great void?” Tzu stopped and produced a document that is today considered the base of all Taoism.
If you could only understand the words in Tao Te Ching, Tzu’s only written work, you could get such a better insight into yourself and the universe you're living in. It could change your life forever. Tao Te Ching presented the trinity and its infinity for the first time in human history. As James Legge translated: “The Dao produced One; One produced Two; Two produced Three; Three produced All things.” It also explains that when the Tao remained silent, he expressed everything.
Buddha also sat for forty days of meditation before he was enlightened. Under a tree. There is even a possibility that Lao Tzu was Buddha’s teacher at some point, but that cannot be proven, and where Buddhism originated isn’t important. What is important is that we were able to receive that great amount of knowledge from such highly developed minds. As Rodney Gypsy Smith used to say: “It’s the message that’s important, not the messenger.”
We come and we go from this world. But what remains? I landed on the Holy Land in 2000. It was the 30th of July. The first thing I said when I got off the plane is, "I'm home." I was nine years old, and there was a long journey ahead of me. Life twists like a snake if you don't know what you’re doing. It does the same if you pretend that you do.
I can't count all the times I've visited Jerusalem throughout my stay in Israel. I visited it with family. With friends. With a woman who was dear to me. And alone. I usually made it there by bus. Luckily, the 21st century offers a great service in public transportation.
Walking through Jerusalem… What’s it like? I think the first thing you notice is the architecture. You may judge it to your own taste, but to me it is beautiful. Archaic. Mysterious. Liters of blood have been spilled upon the pavements you walk and the walls you climb and observe. From the Siege of Jebus in 1000 B.C. to the Six-Day War in 1967, there was the blood of Jews, Romans, Christians, and Muslims. I'm sure there was blood spilled over this place even before there was a historical record of it. You might wonder what is so special about these walls, about this spot in the desert that made men conduct such atrocities in the past. If you’ve ever studied—or tried to study—the human mind, you might have a good answer.
People have to cling to something to feel secure. To their jobs. To their cars. To their wives. We have to feel important, otherwise we won't think there is a point in living. But it takes true courage to drop everything, meditate, and look inside—to look inside and see what we really are without all of these things. That's what the prophets did.