“You can not make money if you are anxious about making money” I was told once by an accountant.

The colloquial meaning of the word zen could be roughly explained as being cool, or going with the flow. Or, to use another term, being mindful. It originated differently of course, before entering the western world, and had a different meaning. As google points out it (zen) comes from a Sanskrit root meaning “thought,” “absorption,” or “meditation.

But making a film is the very definition of anxiety. It’s a pact with the devil. In other words it is a pact with the inertia of things.

Is really making a film going with the flow? On the one hand one needs to meditate and put a lot of thought and be absorbed by the filmmaking process before embarking on the film process and on the other one can not but will a film into existence using force and perseverance. In other words relax…but do it keeping an active/passive engagement. An oxymoron if you want because making a film is really going against the flow but one needs to let go too in order to have the surprise element also included in the process.

But wait a minute…..we all know about the flow.

The flow doesn’t want a film created much like anything or, to be more precise, the flow, having its own agenda (keeping the status quo of energy), creates its own things.

But…..

….once the process begins (the stone begins to roll) zen has a lot to say.

One wills a film into existence (going against the flow) but one must also know where to let things unfold intuitively (going with the flow).

And yes, this can be applied to everything that, for whatever reason, is being willed into existence.

Maybe Cassavetes said put it the best zen way…

(this is zen in progress…..or…. loving the oxymoron)