I know, everybody have a memory, once (or many times) looked for the four-leaf clover when we
saw the patch of ground covered by the clover. Of cause I have, and in deed I found few of them in my life.
Yet, I don’t think it brought me any better luck —— and I’m not talking about the good luck here.
( Still, this post deserve to have a title of Four-leave Clover —– you will find it 🙂 )
——
When you were looking for the clover, do you remember what you were thinking ? Kind of play to the God ?
“Oh my Load, please give me a Four-Leaf Clover” —— I don’t think so. 😀
(May be you were thinking of your girl friend or boy friend —- to present the precious findings. How sweet ! )
When you are scanning the field with your eyes, I don’t think any thought was in the brain.
Eyes were just scanning and just concentrating for the task. In fact any thought would be a distraction.
And, do you believe the concentrated effort, will power would help to find it ? I don’t think so neither 😀
And if you lucky to find one, was it in the center of your eyes ? —— it doesn’t necessary so.
Quite often we find the intended object somewhere periphery of our vision.
We read the small letters in the center of our eyes, other than the center, we can’t read and understand
what was written there. So that, when we need to find a file name in the list, we have to concentrate
and pick the pattern of the word in the file name. It need to have a will to read.
In comparison we can detect the pattern which we know already in the periphery of eye field.
But this vision were controlled by our subconscious, not by our conscious will. When noticed
it’s there, we move eye-ball and capture it in the center of vision, then confirm it, Gotcha !
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When I was in my Uni’ I was asked to join the research expedition to the remote corner of Japan or pacific
islands, to help the botanist. ( As I was a member of Alpine Club, specialized in yet traced area or jungle
kind of terrain and doing botanical photography as well —– despite of I was a student of Sociology. 🙂 )
Strangely, in those occasions, many times I was the first or only one to find out the specific plant, while
going through the field or jungle. I have enough knowledge of botany but, professors knows a similar type
and so on far better, and the information I had, was only a line drawing of the plant from the botanical book,
encyclopedia etc otherwise 70-year-old dry specimen, of which the plant haven’t been seen 50 years,
kind of rare species. Everybody was amazed ” How you could see this. You must got very good eyes ”
( Though, I’m heavily short eye-sighted ) “No no, I just noticed, it looked different ” ” In 10m away ? ”
Of cause, the plant didn’t come on front of us. I had to catch it in my peripheral view.
——- In deed, our eyes or cognitive function of our brain is possessing remarkable ability.
Just learned from 2″ size line drawing to distinguish real plant ( which is not necessary having flower to
stand out ) might be akin to a Policeman to apprehend a suspect, from a vague photo-fit.
It must have a very intuitive creative work to fill a gap.
—-
But before work out to reconstruct the image, we need to catch it in the first place.
So, how our eyes can catch the Four Leaf Clover in distance, even by the peripheral vision.
In fact, the answer lies in this peripheral vision, and its subconscious process.
It’s all came down to the same paradox ” When you want to see, you can’t. When you abandon to
search, you start to see”. And here, the same Blanc Space in the Mind is playing the role. (Refer the Post)
If you don’t know about the Zen, you might think this is contradictive though, this is how our brain works.
Expose the perception in open-minded way, which Zenist call Mushin (Mind of no mind), the brain can
receive far more information / visual signal, and able to process them far more efficient way.
( Many years ago, I met a man who is working as a railway station staff told me “How to find a railway pass
cheat” saying ” Standing and checking the passes one by one by reading the date on the pass is impossible.
So, we just standing watching the incoming passengers. Then anyone caught eyes, we look at his / her
pass and read the date. We are reading the behavior and the mind of the passengers. Standing and just
seeing the flow of the people, still we can distinguish who is cheating, far more accurate” —– Well said :-))
——- This is why I wrote in the earliest post, ” Just walking the street. Just looking forward without focusing
any point or taking any notice of street scene, open and spread your vision from the side to side.
This is the Zen ” ( in easiest way —- called Walking Zen 😀 —– The advantage in Walking Zen is, you
can observe your state of mind from your Peripheral Vision (able to notice, both end of images are keep
moving while you walk) —– though, tricky part is, you only have to feel them without the conscious mind.
Still it is easier than to observe the state of mind of Sitting / Meditating without Thinking —–
Thinking the state of Not Thinking is pretty hard to achieve —— Make your subconscious to observe
your conscious mind which supposed to be not thinking = This is the nut-shell of Zen training —- Training
because the aim is to achieve Let the subconscious to think and deal with the life —– Because of the
subconscious is thinking but you do not notice it = Hence you are not consciously Thinking.
—– Most important point to remember is, All the thinking process was actually done
subconsciously, then, conscious consideration such as tactical maneuver, social pretence etc
intervene and mess-up the decision-making and push the life into unnecessary trouble.
Buddha’s suggestion was simple, Be straight and simple, don’t make a life complicated by
being messed up by unnecessary thought. This is what the Buddhism all about.)
So, why not try your Zenist eyes by looking for the four-leaved Clover. (Provided, if it’s there at all. 😀
Zen can not create something out of nothing. Zen can only help you to see it ) Good luck !
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