i'm rather old to be just now discovering zen, but it apparently has always done fine w/o me.
my reading mainly jacob needleman & of course thomas merton has begun to lead me twd the topic.

my 1st exposure was, like the other 2, after the fact. ie, i was at the beach sev. yrs ago flying my little kite & later i realized i had been experiencing a 'zen moment". now i can sit in my favorite chair & watch the birds come to the feeder. but when the red-bellied woodpecker comes & positions hisself so his back is twd me, i count that as a z.m. keeps coming back, TG.

then other day i had parked the car & was headed into the big box, when i noticed a sparrow taking a bath in the shallow puddle in the pkg lot, so i paused a moment until he/she left & i realized----ANOTHER z.m. its all sort of joyous---a discovery in old age but now ive found a new focus. something to look fwd to in old age is not common. as nr as i can tell however, this experience wouldn't qualify as Zen.

now, about O.A. soon i'll be 78 y.o. but i really dont have any wisdom except to say, how i've discovered 'the meaning of life'. I like how Tolstoy is quoted,----something to the effect none of it means a damned thing.' , but some things do become clearer. i mentioned recently to a frend, how much insight we can find in hindsight. but i have actually figured out a topic for another blog that no one will read. about an Emperor!!!! Marcus Aurelius, so watch for it!!!