Ray Bradbury's Zen

On Twitter, Prop Anon spots an article by Ray Bradbury, "Zen and the Art of Writing," from the October 1958 issue of "Writer" magazine, available at the Internet Archive. In the article, Bradbury offers writing advice, and tells his readers to hunt up a copy of Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel. (Bradbury apparently gets the title slightly wrong.)

Prop wrote on Twitter that the Bradbury piece was  "influential."

It certainly influenced Robert Shea. In the Science Fiction Review interview with Shea, which I referenced yesterday, Shea talks about how the article had a big influence on him. Shea also talks about his Zen practice, and  his  habitat of meditating every day. It's a very in-depth and interesting interview. 

Zen haiku from Wales

Via Roman Tsivkin, I recently discovered a Twitter account I like very much: Pip Williams' Twitter account, which mostly sends out new haiku. Lots of evocations of the Welsh countryside, quite a bit of Zen, a little bit of many other topics. Some of my favorites so far:

across the valley
orange streetlights echo the
ancient glow of stars

at my support group
for eremophobia
no one else showed up

washing the dishes
other lights, other kitchens
other peoples' lives

the master who makes
the grass green seems vague about
lots of other stuff

fundamentally
said hui-neng, sixth patriarch
not one thing exists

the blue sky, the sun
usher in spring's bright riot
a gateless gate

in buddha's footsteps
i will walk, a cat, stalking
i accept my doom