I know the saying goes like “politics, religion and <enter country’s favorite sport here> shouldn’t be discussed”, but I’m going to discuss a little bit of my personal religious views here, just because I feel daring today 
I’m an atheist so I don’t really believe in any superior deity. However I have a strong belief in Humanity and its power of changing things for the better, even if slowly and painfully. Also, as a philosophy of life, I follow some Zen-Buddhist and Confucianism principles, and actually started doing so even before I knew what they were. Since I was 5 years old I had direct contact with Japanese people and general Japanese philosophy of life through Kumon, and when I moved to São Paulo (with 13 years of age), a good portion of people I hung out with daily at school and outside it were also Japanese (since São Paulo has the biggest concentration of Japanese outside Japan itself and I studied right on the neighborhood with more Japanese – not Liberdade, but Vila Mariana and Saúde – this wasn’t exactly surprising). Due to the fact that many of them practiced Kendo, I tried it and fell in love with it. And basically was never the same person again 
As part of learning Kendo, at least if the masters teaching are serious about it, one must learn several Zen-Buddhist and Confucionist principles, even if they aren’t exactly labeled as so. Many Japanese martial arts like Karate and Judo also pass along these principles (or they should), but being the art favored by the samurai (who were the ones that amalgamated Zen-Buddhism, Xintoism and Confucianism as philosophical base for their lives), Kendo is the most strongly focused on these. So even if right now I don’t practice Kendo anymore (mainly because I couldn’t bear to start when moving back to São Paulo and then stop after moving to Edmonton), it really feels like (and I do know this sounds sappy) “once the sword is in your heart, it never gets out”, as one of my senseis would say. The feeling of exercising heavily, even getting hurt during Kendo matches, and then sitting on seiza position and meditating for quite a good while, your body burning and then slowly cooling off, your mind racing and then suddenly stopping all useless thought is amazing.
Anyway, a few days ago I decided to start thinking about koans for some time before going to sleep. It has been helping me a lot in this phase of so many transitions in my life (moving out from Campinas to São Paulo after so many years living on my own, being away from my significant other and friends, preparing to move abroad, saying bye to family, getting ready for some tough challenges ahead, etc), and it’s something I had never done before (all I usually do is meditating regularly and doing breathing exercises at random moments).
Here are 2 examples of koans, for those that never read any:
When you breathe in, experience breathing in.
When you breathe out, be fully conscious that
you are breathing out.
If you cherish and practice this, it will bear great fruit.
Whatever you are doing and wherever you are, you
will find steadiness, calm, and concentration if you
become conscious of your breathing.
From “Majjhima Nikaya” of the Buddha
OBJECTIVITY AND SUBJECTIVITY
Things have never declared themselves empty, nor have they declared
themselves form; and they have not declared themselves right, wrong,
defiled or pure. Nor is there a mind that binds and fetters people.
It is just because people themselves give rise to vain and arbitrary
attachments that they create so many kinds of opinions, and give rise
to many various likes and fears.
Just understand that things do not originate of themselves. All of them
come into existence from your own single mental impulse of imagination
mistakenly clinging to appearances.
If you know that mind and objects fundamentally do not contact each other,
you will be set free on the spot. Everything in a state of quiescence right
where it is; this is the very site of enlightenment.
Ch’an master Pai-chang
EDIT: This last koan seems to be intensely linked to the holographic universe theory I mentioned on my last post, doesn’t it?
