Bay Area Zen Walk

Everybody has a different concept of ZEN

For mine, START by clicking the VIDEO in PHOTO section WAY BELOW

Begin @ ~ 25 SECONDS

While you check out details in the text & PHOTOS in the SLIDESHOW,

just LISTEN to the music - for now ;-)

As "ZEN" implies, this is an Experience for people who like to WALK IN SILENCE

as they spend the afternoon in TWO BEAUTIFUL, IF VERY DIFFERENT, places

One is flat / along the water / w amazing mountain views

The other - a short car ride away - has a nicely graduated "up" slope:

up / plateau / up / plateau / up / plateau / BIG up, then we're at the top of the hill

The idea is simple:

to have a chance for quiet reflection

as we move through two beautiful places

Of course, we CAN talk, especially as we BEGIN each walk,

so I can point out any "perspectives of interest",

and as we drive from one to the other

The key here, tho, is NOT the conversation -

that's SOCRATIC SAN FRANCISCO ;-) -

but the impact of "active contemplation" on THE SOUL

WHERE WE GO

As above, one walk is flat / along the water / w amazing mountain views

The other - ~ 12 min car ride away - is a nicely graduated "up" slope:

up / plateau / up / plateau / up / plateau / BIG up, then we're at the TOP OF THE HILL,

with excellent views of Twin Peaks / downtown SF / & East Bay

See pics OF & FROM both spots in the PHOTO section of one of my OTHER Vayable experiences, SOCRATIC SAN FRANCISCO

The order of the walks depends on your inclination / weather conditions / meeting spots / sunshine - fog dynamics etc

Since there CAN be a lot of wind in both places, be sure to do the usual Bay Area thing and BRING LAYERS :-)

Daylight savings time, meet ~ 4. Standard time ~ 2

NB: I confess to a bit of trepidation sharing these PLACES,

because I really don't want them to become too popular / crowded as "daily event venues"

Sharing an ACTIVE CONTEMPLATIVE EXPERIENCE, tho, is totally UN-ambivalent ;-)

MY CONCEPT OF ZEN :-)

When you're done with all the text & images -

all FROM OR RELATED TO Wim Wenders' masterful FAR AWAY, SO CLOSE,

the [in my view, better] sequel to WINGS OF DESIRE -

then GO BACK AND WATCH THE VIDEO ALL THE WAY THROUGH & FROM THE START :-)

The video is the opening sequence and lasts ~ 4 minutes [Ji-Yoon - sigh]

First, look at it FULL-SCREEN - to approximate what writer / director Wim Wenders intended

Feel free to repeat as many times as you want :-)

Then, tho, watch it SMALL-SCREEN, as you see the amazing location

both in motion AND in stills, right next to each other

The juxtaposition is striking

The character is an angel, Cassiel, played by the inimitable German actor, Otto Sander,

and what we hear are his thoughts, whose English translation can be found in the YouTube video

What's in this clip, at least for me, is a CONCRETE notion of the EXPERIENCE of being an angel

While the STYLE is clearly quite different from conventional images and ideas of Zen,

to me, the entire opening sequence, culminating in Cassiel's "prayer", is probably

the most fully realized imagining yet of what the Zen "experience" looks and feels like :-)