What is Zen?
Zen is a way to clear and liberate your mind. It is about about direct experience without perceptual baggage. Talk a walk, that's Zen. Make some tea, that's Zen. Roll a blunt, that's Zen.
There is a formal approach to learning Zen: Find a master up in some Mystical Mountains somewhere and devote decades of you life to the teachings, but there is also an informal approach, find some resources online, watch some Alan Watts videos and listen to some meditative music.
Although you wont be a master, its just a way to help you get more out of life by building a robust mind that is in tune with nature. Zen is the reality behind the meaning.
It's simply being in tune with the non verbal quantum flux of nature.
Read this Parable by Camden Benares for further insight:
A serious young man found the conflicts of mid-twentieth century America confusing. He went to many people seeking a way of resolving the discords that troubled him, but he remained troubled.
One night in a coffee house, a self-ordained Zen minister said to him, "Go to the dilapidated mansion you will find at the address which I have written down for you. Do not speak to those who live there: you must remain silent until the moon rises tomorrow night. Go to the large room on the right of the main hallway, sit in the lotus position on top of the rubble in the northeast corner, face the corner and meditate."
He did as the Zen minister instructed. His meditation was frequently interrupted by worries. He worried whether or not the rest of the plumbing fixtures would fall from the second floor to join the pipes and other trash he was sitting on. He worried about how he would know when the moon rose on the next night. He worried about what the people who walked through the room said about him.
His worrying and meditation were disturbed when, as if in a test of his faith, effluvium fell from the second floor onto him. At that time two people walked into the room. The first asked the second who the man sitting there was. The second replied, "Some say he is a holy man. Others say he is a shithead."
Hearing this, the man was enlightened.
Hahaha it's all one giant comic tragedy or a tragic comedy depending on your angle.
Here's some Quick Zen for you: If you have 5 min to spare listen to this song and simply take deep breaths, as deep as you can and count them.
