ZenBananas is a collection of zen and spiritual stories, essays and comic strips for your reflection, enjoyment and hopefully, your enlightenment.

The stories I have posted here are those that have helped me in my personal journey (but then again, there really is no journey, stop traveling and you arrive).

Many of the stories are traditional tales but I have taken the liberty of retelling them in my own words and in my own style. I take no credit for the originality of the recipes (except for the unattributed essays). But I have cooked the food, added a dash of my own spices and served them to you in my own way.

If you read a story and don’t understand it, that’s ok. Perhaps in a later time, you will. Don’t get anxious. Don’t get angry. Relax, just be.

Life, and zen, is a banana.

Which brings to mind a story…

A man and his wife were in the bar. The woman was having a drink while the man was munching a banana. After a few minutes, the man put the empty banana peel on the table. He closed his eyes as he swallowed the last of the banana and sighed.

“Ah, my dear, life is just like a banana,” he remarked.

His wife stared at him for a while, waiting for him to continue. But the other man seemed content to be silent. After a few minutes, the wife could bear it no longer and asked, “What do you mean? What do you mean that life is just like a banana?”

The man looked at her in surprise and said, “How should I know? I’m not a philosopher.”

– TopBanana