“I am an awakener, not a teacher”
Robert Frost
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Zen and Ink was born over a decade ago out of my own personal journey to find peace and tranquility amidst the ever-increasing chaos of our modern world. In the last ten years, the pace of our modern world has only accelerated and we have moved further out of sync with nature and the rhythm of our souls. It is my genuine hope that this website offers an invitation to deeper awakenings and provides healing offerings to support your return to a sense of Zen in the chaos our everyday lives amidst our rapidly changing world. Here you will find a place where I freely share my own writing and poetry, books and courses, brush painting and calligraphy, healing tools and resources I have discovered along the way with anyone who is seeking more balance and zen in their daily lives. This is also the hub for Zen Healing Arts and its menu of services to support your journey.
Many people today are seeking a place of tranquility, simplicity and calm. The world as we have known it has completely shifted beneath our feet and we are in a transition between this old world that has crumbled and creating the new world that lies ahead. We are realizing that all that we have strived to achieve and held onto as normal can change in a moment. Many are in need of support during this time of transition and uncertainty.
I hope you will think of this site as a resource of pure water along the path for the weary traveler.
Zen and Ink (originally launched in 2008 as simplemotivation.com) began out of that empty place where so many inspirational awakenings are born….that place called rock bottom. That was where I found myself after pursuing and achieving most of what I had been told would make me successful and happy. For most of my life, like so many of us, I had been on the path of pursuing the “American Dream.” We are each conditioned into this dream from a very early age. By all standards of measure, I had reached the American Dream. I had the big dream house, the car, the beautiful wife, and I had finally reached the place where I was in my “dream job” after 20 years of striving to find my place in the corporate world. I had spent most of my life getting there….wherever “there” was.
Suddenly, within the course of one year, I lost it all. The rug of the American Dream was pulled out from under me. No more car. No more house. No more wife, and no more job. Everything I knew as reality and had built up in my world and attached meaning to was gone in the blink of an eye. Within that very short span of time, I was also in a serious car accident which should have been final. This served as a wake-up to….or should I say from reality. It was as if my attention was being redirected. I woke up from the American Dream. Today, as we look around us, that has become the reality for so many. The veil has been lifted to the uncertainty that has been the reality for so many for far too long.
As a result of this “waking up” I was simply compelled to go inward and write. I wrote consistently on a daily basis as if I were writing words of encouragement to myself. Eventually, this evolved and grew and I was soon sharing my daily inspirational writings with others via email. Ultimately, this resulted in an inspirational website I created called simple-motivation. Each day I would write an encouraging post, usually along with a photograph I took in nature.
Before long I was reaching up to 1,000 plus followers from places all around the world. Unfortunately, that website came to an end. However, it awakened me to the awareness ever since that my soul is on spiritual path, simply living this adventure of lessons in the chaos of the modern world. I am only a sojourner in this chaotic urban jungle we live in. For many years, I allowed this site and the writings within me to go dormant. As each of us ultimately learn sooner or later, that which lies dormant in many of us is actually the gift we are here to share in this life with the rest of humanity.
Over the last decade, this path has taken me on a journey, both physical and spiritual. This journey began with the exploration of solitude, journaling, meditation, yoga and writing to begin finding my way. This led me on two solo adventures to Costa Rica where I discovered “pura vida” and the true happiness to be found in living very simply, yoga and surfing by day, with relatively few material needs. I returned and received my certification as a yoga instructor through Dharma Yoga which was my introduction to Buddhist teachings and philosophy. From there I took two journeys to China, which included Hong Kong and Japan. From an early age I have always been inwardly drawn to Eastern culture and studied various martial arts along the way. Eventually, my travels resulted in three trips to Japan over three years, where I discovered a sense of familiarity and home in Japan, as if I had lived there before. These travels culminated in my living for a year alone in Kyoto, where I studied the Japanese arts of tea, calligraphy and sumi e painting with Master teachers as well as Tai chi. I found my way to my Zen Master teacher and my home temple, Seikenji, in Kyoto.
Zen and Ink is the culmination of my quest to find Zen in the new world of uncertainty we now live in. However, as we ultimately learn, the quest is an illusion. The journey is the goal. We are simply here to awaken to what already is.
Zen Healing Arts is the culmination of healing modalities I offer in support of returning to a more tranquil and quiet way of being in harmony with mind , body and spirit through the modalities of Meditation, Movement, Energy, Hypnotherapy and Exploring the path of the soul.
It is the desire of my soul to provide an oasis for those who are drawn to a slower and simpler way of life; to provide a portal for awakening, tools and healing resources that many will find useful in their own quest to find the Zen which is already there and always within and around each of us.
What is Zen anyway? One definition I embrace is Zen is total state of focus that incorporates a complete togetherness of body and mind. Zen is a way of being. It also is a state of mind. Zen involves dropping illusion and seeing things without distortion created by your own thoughts. In a sense, Zen is awakening.
I do not begin to have all the answers. I am certainly not the guru or the teacher. I am simply here as a fellow traveler on the journey and am here to share teachings and ideas that may help serve others along their own path.
I appreciate the words of Robert Frost, “I am an awakener, not a teacher.”
These are some of the tools and practices that have changed my life in one degree or another and enabled me to find Zen on my own journey. I am happy to share them with you.
Thank you for connecting. Wishing you Zen and Creativity in your life.
In gratitude,
Kirk
Kirk Lee, CHt, RYT
Certified Meditation Teacher, Writer and Hypnotherapist
International Association of Counselors & Therapists (IACT)
Certified Meditation Instructor
Certified Dharma Yoga Instructor, RYT200
Certified Reiki Energy Practitioner, Hyakuten Inamoto, Kyoto, Japan
writer – poet – painter – calligrapher
