Copyright by One man's perspectivesZen - an Eastern philosophy for living that is continuing to gain popular acceptance among western folks, is a concept that I was first acquainted in July 2008 after having picked up a book called Zen and Reality: An Approach to Sanity and Happiness on a Non-Sectarian Basis by Robert Powell. Although the concepts explained in Zen seem a little hard to digest and may at times appear contradictory to conventional understanding, I nevertheless found myself being able to smoothly flow with the ideas expounded, picking one after another in a very comfortable manner. Since then I was hooked with Zen. Like a humble disciple in hunger for more knowledge from its master, I went in search for more knowledge in this domain. Fast forward one year later and beginning in September 2009 I started to achieve a series of "breakthrough" in my understanding of Zen through actually living it...
By living it I mean applying the principles to my work, mostly in the course of doing my works as a student (though I did apply it to other more mundane activities such as eating, sleeping and even taking bath!). The result was greater productivity in the tasks that I did and the "the quality of Zen" also improved. The improvement of my Zen can be attributed to a few important works that I came across for the last 10 months. I give thanks for stumbling across these works in September 2009; it was during this period when I was undergoing a trying interval to complete my final-year project at college. Coming to read these works at that juncture enabled me to be really productive and delivered my works effortlessly. It was sheer luck! I was not consciously looking for them; instead, they came to me out of pure coincidence. Here are the three works that I got to know and that will be of immense benefits for readers to explore and apply them to their works.
SImple-ology
Zen Habits, The Power of Less
Inner Excellence