Mushin as a Trainable Practise

[Gyakuto]

I was reading this and thought it would interesting for those on this board who have a Zen/Chan aspect to their pursuit - a possible shortcut, perhaps.

Mushin (No-Mind) as a Trainable Practice — Chosei Zen

Somehow I knew that living in the world of my head wasn’t the correct way to live as a human being. No one told me that. I just knew. This led me to seek out zazen (Zen meditation) and Zen training with our school.

choseizen.org

 

[_Simon_]

Very cool, thanks for sharing. Similar trajectory as me actually the last few months... I've been exploring externalising attention rather than the usual meditative internal process, and found alot of benefit. Even doing similar things he mentions as the 180° focus, and attention/awareness exercises of attention on both walls, all walls etc..

 

[Oily Dragon]

I was reading this and thought it would interesting for those on this board who have a Zen/Chan aspect to their pursuit - a possible shortcut, perhaps.

Mushin (No-Mind) as a Trainable Practice — Chosei Zen

Somehow I knew that living in the world of my head wasn’t the correct way to live as a human being. No one told me that. I just knew. This led me to seek out zazen (Zen meditation) and Zen training with our school.

choseizen.org

I've got something to say about this.

But I'll wait until later.

 

[Gyakuto]

Very cool, thanks for sharing. Similar trajectory as me actually the last few months... I've been exploring externalising attention rather than the usual meditative internal process, and found alot of benefit. Even doing similar things he mentions as the 180° focus, and attention/awareness exercises of attention on both walls, all walls etc..

‘Hidden Zen: Practices for Sudden Awakening and Embodied Realization’ by Meido Moore describes some excellent and ancient techniques such as ‘spreading the vision’ (which I find very useful during meditation) and sometimes distinctly odd techniques to set up a situation when you could ‘suddenly awaken’. He points out activities where one enters a state of ‘meditative absorption’ such as the point one starts voiding a full bladder! Have you noticed that far away look a cat/dog adopts when peeing? He explains some really whacky ones like meditating in graveyards at night, meditating under a sharp sword blade (?’Sword of Damocles’?), running on uneven ground in the dark (that graveyard again) using your ‘psychic eyes’ to avoiding tripping over!

I highly recommend his book.

There are some strange practises in Zen and I’m reminded of Tenshin Zenki Reb Anderson who found the corpse, in Golden Gate Park, of a man with a bullet wound to the head and a revolver nearby. Anderson returned to the body over a period of several days to meditate over the corpse, on one visit taking the revolver. He was prosecuted for this.

 

[Hyoho]

He points out activities where one enters a state of ‘meditative absorption’ such as the point one starts voiding a full bladder! Have you noticed that far away look a cat/dog adopts when peeing? He explains some really whacky ones like meditating in graveyards at night, meditating under a sharp sword blade (?’Sword of Damocles’?), running on uneven ground in the dark (that graveyard again) using your ‘psychic eyes’ to avoiding tripping over!

You mean like when my old shrunken prostate has me standing for some time?

 

[Gyakuto]

You mean like when my old shrunken prostate has me standing for some time?

In that moment Hyoho, your enlarged prostate is bringing you closer to Buddhahood…until you dribble onto ur cleanly pressed chinos and the internal swearing begins!

 

[Gyakuto]

It’s peculiar what hits you into a higher state. There’s a advert on TV for a perfume (Miss Dior) in which, five seconds in, Natalie Portman looks into the camera and says, sharply ‘Wake up!’ When I first saw it, it really ’startled‘ me and for a few tens of seconds I felt really….awake…free of the attachment to thought…like a plate spinning on a sharpened rod. But like a spinning plate, I soon crashed down to earth! So strange.

 

[Oily Dragon]

It’s peculiar what hits you into a higher state. There’s a advert on TV for a perfume (Miss Dior) in which, five seconds in, Natalie Portman looks into the camera and says, sharply ‘Wake up!’ When I first saw it, it really ’startled‘ me and for a few tens of seconds I felt really….awake…free of the attachment to thought…like a plate spinning on a sharpened rod. But like a spinning plate, I soon crashed down to earth! So strange.

Walk outside in 20 degree weather, you'll find enlightenment really fast.

 

[Gyakuto]

Walk outside in 20 degree weather, you'll find enlightenment really fast.

20 Celsius? That’s a the temperature of pleasant Spring day in the U.K.!

 

[Oily Dragon]

20 Celsius? That’s a the temperature of pleasant Spring day in the U.K.!

Ha. There no such thing as a pleasant spring in the British isles...

Winter is always coming.

 

[Gyakuto]

There no such thing as a pleasant spring in the British isles...

20 Celsius?

Winter is coming.

It’s already here and so our friends from the USA would be advised to stay away. It’s awful here and you’d hate it - honestly. You have no reason to leave your wonderful country where you have lots of everything.

 

[Oily Dragon]

It’s already here and so our friends from the USA would be advised to stay away. It’s awful here and you’d hate it - honestly. You have no reason to leave your wonderful country where you have lots of everything.

Winter is still 3 weeks away, really.

One thing we have that the British Isles don't, is lots of cold, cold mountains.

Do you even have bears there? We have quite a few different types.

 

[Gyakuto]

Bears? Our most dangerous ‘indigenous’ mammals are (American) grey squirrels.

The only good thing about Britain is we are, in every way, ‘beige’. No true extreme weather, no true extreme political views, no true extreme violent crimes, no true extreme geological features. People with alternative lifestyles can walk around (hand in hand) anywhere without fear of (open) abuse, we don’t have guns etc. It’s beige, beige, beige and I for one, like that.

But honestly, it’s an awful place. You’d really hate it so stay where you are as it’s probably much better…honestly.

 

[Oily Dragon]

Bears? Our most dangerous ‘indigenous’ mammals are (American) grey squirrels.

The only good thing about Britain is we are, in every way, ‘beige’. No true extreme weather, no true extreme political views, no true extreme violent crimes, no true extreme geological features. People with alternative lifestyles can walk around (hand in hand) anywhere without fear of (open) abuse, we don’t have guns etc. It’s beige, beige, beige and I for one, like that.

But honestly, it’s an awful place. You’d really hate it so stay where you are as it’s probably much better…honestly.

That whole post sounded like a Monty Python skit.

No true extreme violent crimes, that was a good one.

 

[Gyakuto]

That whole post sounded like a Monty Python skit.

No true extreme violent crimes, that was a good one.

‘Pie-thuhn’ and not ‘Pie-thohn’ by the way.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

In that moment Hyoho, your enlarged prostate is bringing you closer to Buddhahood…until you dribble onto ur cleanly pressed chinos and the internal swearing begins!

It wasn't internal swearing.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

I was reading this and thought it would interesting for those on this board who have a Zen/Chan aspect to their pursuit - a possible shortcut, perhaps.

Mushin (No-Mind) as a Trainable Practice — Chosei Zen

Somehow I knew that living in the world of my head wasn’t the correct way to live as a human being. No one told me that. I just knew. This led me to seek out zazen (Zen meditation) and Zen training with our school.

choseizen.org

“I can't get out,” the monk said. “My horns won't fit through the door.” - Robert Anton Wilson, Prometheus Rising.

 

[Oily Dragon]

It wasn't internal swearing.

That joke was perfect, man. Stealing that.

 

[hoshin1600]

"OH boy, another Zen post" I said to myself only to find out its from the lineage I trained with.
I find that funny and a bit odd.

But I don't see how the article points to a short cut. Zen is simple really just stop talking with your mouth and your mind and experience the world.

 

[Oily Dragon]

"OH boy, another Zen post" I said to myself only to find out its from the lineage I trained with.
I find that funny and a bit odd.

But I don't see how the article points to a short cut. Zen is simple really just stop talking with your mouth and your mind and experience the world.

I blame Japan for this. They sort of ruined things by taking the fun out.

Chan literature is full of funny stories that don't make much sense. And the secret is laughing at the people who try to. There is just no need and the training is meant to lead you to that.

But no, the Japan Empire had to tell pilots "you must be Zen...now go crash into that ship. Here's some rice wine".

I watched some movie about the suicide torpedo guys in WWII...try being mushin in one of those death cannisters.