Obsession – Mindfulness – Middle way

Anybody who try to learn / practice Buddhism by oneself, to find the measure of Middle way

while committing so-called  Mindfulness, but not in obsessive extreme,  is not easy.

To biggin with Mindfulness, to learn what is the Mindfulness is hard enough, —— in fact, to understand

what is Mindfulness —— is already somewhere middle of the way reaching to the Enlightenment !

Most obvious and common mistake to learn Mindfulness is, to mix-up it with the concentration.

Concentration with passion and enthusiasm.( in another word, with Emotion )

Far from it, it is the result / even a by-product of the Mushin ——Once the Mind has gone, so nothing to

think about though, something left in the hand or very front of you—— so, just do it.

Mindfulness is not the concentration of the mind, but simply nothing else is there.

It may look utterly strange though, to learn Mindfulness, first, start to do a boring useless

practice, repeat and repeat again until your mind become insensitive and able to do it without

thinking —–> and able to see the task with completely emptied brain / Blank Space ——-

The task may seem something foreign or looks even first time to see  ( by the newly acquired

Open–eyes / Dispassionate eyes ) —–> as nothing else is in your mind,so

just deal with  ” this, only the Task.”

Hence, nothing else there, the eyes, attention everything  goes into it, down to the minute details.

( Eyes sees what you want to see, but Dispassionate eyes sees everything on front, as it is )

To somebody-else’s eyes, it may seem too much.    To clean the kitchen down to a minute water-mark

may seem to be a  Compulsive cleanness Obsession / Mental Disorder though, never mind, as long

as it wouldn’t take more than 10 minutes after a cooking or eating,  it is just a normal practice.

If it goes hours everyday —— m m m ?

What is extreme, where is the Middle way is just an arbitrary view. Often, the cleanness obsession

of Japanese frighten the westerners, (you may not know, they carry a wet tissue with disinfectant to clean

their hand after shake hand with unknown person.  They are only the people using disposal toilet seat cover)

but it is normal, among the Japanese.  This is the reason why they are even reluctant to shake hand, or

share the bottle and drink direct from it (touch somebody-else’s saliva ) let alone kissing to other person !

( It is originated from deep sublimated  Japanese Shinto ” Avoid the foreign dirt and keep you clean “)

—–

Where to draw the line and stay in Middle way, is not rigidly fixed.  Since, the fundamentals of the Buddhism

is not torment you  with complicated rules, but to liberate your mind.  Try extreme will definitely taxing your

body and mind, but obviously dirty kitchen would cause your ill-health.  So, here is clear Middle ground.

Do what you think appropriate. Observe who you are, and if it is acceptable for you, do your best.

( So, to a Japanese, Clean it when it was soiled may be a Middle way,  and to a Hippie guy clean the

kitchen once in a week may be his Middle way —- though it’s a huge leap to clean it first time ever.   🙂  )

—-

While observing your own tasks, re-arrange the order, or a  way to sort the memos, even the position

to stick those memo, or the way to respond the Emails etc, and making it easier and  smoother  to

deal,  —— if the situation is getting better,  its mean your Mindful approach is working.

And when you established a system to deal with those tasks, and able to sort them quite business-like,

almost automatic way, in fact you are processing it, in the Mushin manner. —Why not it is efficient.

Difference of the Mushin to machine is, as the eyes is completely open, it is possible to spot

anything peculiar or the point to pay attention.  This is what makes the human different from a machine.

—– So, keep you busy.   🙂

___/\___

—–

Peace in a Battle field

There was a funny conversation in Email exchange ——–

” Hey  Yoshizen, could you pay the cost through Paypal please”

” Sorry, I’ve been black listed by the debt recovery company,

so that, I can’t use money transfer.  I only can give you in cash.”

” Oooooh, you are such a trouble maker 🙂 “

(Among the Anarchist group,  Trouble-maker is the honourable title  😀 )

” Oh yah, so far I’ve made the enemies,  whole Judiciary here, Japanese Embassy,

Police, Local Council, British Telecom, Virgin Media, Three G, T-Mobile and

barely having a truce with Talktalk.

So that, the Motto of the Zen is the PEACE,—— how to find a Peace / Calm Mind

while shooting  😀 “

—

——– When we are in the battle field, we need to have unmoved,  focused mind

and the clear eyes —- therefore the Zen is the most effective way to deal with the situation.

Dealing with the photography / how to capture the subjects, or even dancing on the rhythm, it is

the battle facing with the situation while sensing all the signals, then instant judgement and the response.

Because of the gushing torrent of the information is coming in, to put them in the clear space

in order to give detached  bird’s-eye view and make instant intuitive judgement

with appropriate priority, become crucial.

—–

This is the reason why,  the sword-masters,  martial-artists even the throat-cutting  share-dealers

needed to learn the Zen —– they are not chasing Nirvana or Enlightenment (too late any way  🙂 )

but needed to have ultimate efficiency managing their mind,

hence able to maximize their achievement in the life.

Do nothing, just sitting peacefully —— needs no more.

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