Key to happiness?

I'm not the kind of guy who gets terribly religious, but also not the kind who likes to speak ill of the faithful (until they try to tell me what to do). Still, if I were forced to choose a faith to follow, it would probably be a particularly purified form of Zen Buddhism. I mention this because the TV show, Life, has a character who tries to follow the precepts of Zen.

Here's the thing: Is our affinity for a particular faith more than just a quirk of personality? This struck me when the TV show had a pair of episodes named for a Zen exercise: dig a hole and fill it up. The idea behind the exercise is that the activity doesn't take a lot of thought and is utterly pointless--which is kinda the point, if you'll forgive the perverse way of putting it... Well, the real point of the hole-digging is to allow you to focus on the task, meaningless as it is, and in doing so, empty your mind of those restless thoughts and simply become present and mindful. As in, become one with the universe and all that good Zen stuff.

My puzzlement is, how is this different from the way a person with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) would calm themselves and become more "present"? Now, you only have to peruse my blog archives for a while to see that I, perhaps compulsively, keep a listening journal. I freely admit to an occasional urge to be compulsive, is that why I find Zen appealing? What does that say about personality type and other faiths?

For the record, I don't think I truly suffer from OCD. My musical journaling isn't a fetish that leaves me anxious when I don't do it--although my iPod and iTunes means always knowing what I listened to and when.

CDs listened to today:

• Benjamin Lees: Concerto for French Horn and Orchestra
• Paul Motian Trio: Trioism