When you know…

“The body is not a collection of atoms but a stately, wondrous being. The mind is not emotional and intellectual entanglements but an unknowable solitary awareness.”
-Hung-chih

Listening is more fun than letting your mind run amok.

The mind—unobserved—is a decision making machine. The number of unknown decisions it makes in five minutes is incomprehensible.

There’s seldom anything good in an unconscious decision. The majority of them ranging from mischievous to malignant.

The mind—observed–reveals a different story entirely.

Undo mindless decision making with mindfulness training.

Select activities you do frequently, like putting dishes away, getting dressed, preparing a meal… And for each, make it a goal to hear every sound.

Listening is an active and potent meditation. Be aware of all the sounds produced by the activity; ignore everything else.

Water tinkling down the drain, the soft sliding of a plate across the counter, the roar of the flushing toilet, reveal a fresh significance when that is all you are aware of.

That may or may not be an accurate rendition of master Hung-chih. 

Listening has two wonderful byproducts. Listening suspends the thinking mind. You cannot worry about what isn’t happening when you are listening.

While listening to something you may have done thousands of times, suddenly, a flash of insight will reveal a new, more effective technique. (I like that one because I am an performance freak.)

The point of mindfulness training is learn what your mind creates, the good and the bad. The goal of mindfulness training is to always know what you are creating. When you know what you are creating, living perfects itself.

======
I’ll post a new topic each Friday afternoon, in one of two categories. One will be on shooting, and the other will be on living. Or: how I learned to live from what I learned by competing.
Thanks for coming in.