Meditation Gardens, D.T. Suzuki Museum, Kanazawa, Japan

  “The intellect proves itself as a kind of nuisance in more ways than one, but it is a useful instrument in our practical life, and as long as we make judicious use of it we shall derive much benefit from it.”—D.T. Suzuki, Living By Zen

  I love simplicity. And loving simplicity I love the limpid purity of Zen teachings. They forego images and symbologies, indeed they seek to dissolve and pass beyond the images that beguile and entrap us in order to reconnect us with direct experience. 

  In the above quote the grand old teacher D.T. Suzuki elucidates how the intellect is only a useful instrument in solving problems and arranging our ‘practical life,’ “…as long as we make judicious use of it,” as he says. 

  However, gazing out upon the world today it is glaringly obvious that those days of “making judicious use of it” are far behind us. In fact that “nuisance” the intellect appears to be running amok in large segments of the modern day population, so much so that the Nature and Life that provides sustenance for it, that underpins all its grand ideological systems, is under strain. 

  And that doesn’t even take into account the looming advent of ‘Artificial Intelligence!’ “Goodness gracious,” as generations past might have exclaimed, what’s to become of judiciousness and what’s more wisdom when we’ve handed all our prerogative for thinking to the machines? 

  Well, here at the Omphalos Cafe we don’t ‘think’ about it… 

  We practice Zen and move beyond thinking…

  Back to the shimmering simplicity of Life…

  Because Life is ALL there is….