Whats the big idea?

So this is my first post and I figured I should really let someone know what this is meant to be all about. Even if that person turns out to be just me. Maybe I'll end up working it out as I go along.

I've been practicing zazen now for a couple of years. Zazen is an interesting beast. The more I've practiced the more it has sucked me in. So now it is a central part of my life. If I don't do it, I don't feel 'right'. So as I try to up the ante and delve further into the nature of reality I will use this blog to try and document this journey in the hope that it will help me process and understand what is going on. 

Staring down the barrel is just a phrase that popped into my head from nowhere when confronted with Blogger asking me 'what do you want to call your blog?' I hadn't thought about that part. But as a throw away title it does have some meaning. To me Zen is a direct confrontation with reality. There is nowhere to hide with zen. You can't blame anyone else for anything that has ever occurred in your life because its all down to you. Zazen is a mirror that reflects every last drop of truth right back at you. So to me staring down the barrel seems an appropriate title. As the man once implied, its not easy to handle the truth.

In zazen we just sit, in a stable position, with back straight. We allow our thoughts to settle without attaching to them or avoiding them. We just sit with whatever occurs: the pain in your legs, the tiredness in your back, the tension in your shoulders, the million and one thoughts and fantasies that stream through your brain. Just sitting allows you to stop trying to be something: a father, a son, a daughter, a teacher, a banker, a partner, an arsehole, a hero. Zazen is about being nothing other than what you truly are, minus the labels.