For the past 20 years (give or take), the word “Zen” has been used liberally in association with some personal, commercial or business concept to suggest that the concept in question can be “mastered”, usually through a “formula” that someone “discovered”. Typically, though, this mental elixir is alluded to in a self-help book (or eBook), DVD or seminar — which, of course, will cost you some money to acquire.

Typing in “the zen of” (with quotes) in Google alone results in over 742,000 sites out there talking about the Zen of something. So if the true ideas about Zen as a distinct school of Buddhism are distilled to loosely — if at all — apply to anything from MP3 players to how to close a business deal “better”, it would only make sense that “meditation” would become the next logical buzzword that would be touted as a let’s-get-happy meme. Read the rest of this entry »