February 16th, 2008
The Wrong Way To Enter A Zen Monastery! (part 1)
The spiritual life sometimes begins with unlikely candidates, in unlikely situations! Not long after Janet and I made our dash out west in 1978, the bill collectors got serious about my wild spending. They repossessed my car, harassed me at the furniture store where I was working, and made my life as miserable as only they know how.
It ended up being a battle of wits, with me stubbornly determined not to pay them a damn nickel, and soon I was looking for a place to disappear for a few years. I also had to find some answers. My shallow Catholic background, steeped in useless “mystery, miracles, and authority” where I was never exposed to Catholicism’s deeper aspects, such as the contemplative saints, was failing me.