<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Yoshizen&#039;s Blog]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://yoshizen.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[yoshizen]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://yoshizen.wordpress.com/author/yoshizen/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Obsession &#8211; Mindfulness &#8211; Middle&nbsp;way]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p>Anybody who try to learn / practice Buddhism by oneself,<span style="color:#000080;"><strong> to find the measure of Middle way</strong></span></p>
<p>while committing so-called  Mindfulness, but not in obsessive extreme,  is not easy.</p>
<p>To biggin with Mindfulness, to learn what is the Mindfulness is hard enough, &#8212;&#8212; in fact, to understand</p>
<p>what is Mindfulness &#8212;&#8212; is already somewhere middle of the way reaching to the Enlightenment !</p>
<p><span style="color:#000080;"><strong>Most obvious and common mistake to learn Mindfulness is, to mix-up it with the concentration.</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000080;"><strong>Concentration with passion and enthusiasm.( in another word, with Emotion )<br />
</strong></span></p>
<p>Far from it, it is the result / even a by-product of the Mushin &#8212;&#8212;Once the Mind has gone, so nothing to</p>
<p>think about though, <span style="color:#000080;"><strong>something left in the hand or very front of you</strong>&#8212;&#8212;<strong> so, just do it.</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000080;"><strong><span style="color:#339966;">Mindfulness is not the concentration of the mind, but simply nothing else is there.</span><br />
</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000080;"><strong>It may look utterly strange though, <span style="color:#000000;">to learn Mindfulness,</span> first, start to do a boring useless</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000080;"><strong>practice, repeat and repeat again until your mind become insensitive and able to do it without</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000080;"><strong>thinking </strong>&#8212;&#8211;<strong>&gt; and able to see the task with completely emptied brain / Blank Space </strong>&#8212;&#8212;-</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000080;"><strong>The task may seem something foreign or looks even first time to see  (<span style="color:#ff0000;"> by the newly acquired</span></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000080;"><strong><span style="color:#ff0000;">Open</span></strong><span style="color:#ff0000;">&#8211;</span><strong><span style="color:#ff0000;">eyes / Dispassionate eyes</span> )</strong> &#8212;&#8211;&gt;<strong> as nothing else is in your mind,so</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000080;"><strong>just deal with  <span style="color:#ff0000;">&#8221; this, only the Task.&#8221;</span><br />
</strong></span></p>
<p>Hence, nothing else there, the eyes, attention everything  <strong>goes into it, down to the minute details.</strong></p>
<p><strong>( Eyes sees what you want to see, but Dispassionate eyes sees everything on front, as it is )<br />
</strong></p>
<p>To somebody-else&#8217;s eyes, it may seem too much.    To clean the kitchen down to a minute water-mark</p>
<p>may seem to be a  Compulsive cleanness Obsession / Mental Disorder though, never mind, as long</p>
<p>as it wouldn&#8217;t take more than 10 minutes after a cooking or eating,  it is just a normal practice.</p>
<p>If it goes hours everyday &#8212;&#8212; m m m ?</p>
<p><strong>What is extreme, where is the Middle way is just an arbitrary view.</strong> Often, the cleanness obsession</p>
<p>of Japanese frighten the westerners,  (you may not know, they carry a wet tissue with disinfectant to clean</p>
<p>their hand after shake hand with unknown person.  They are only the people using disposal toilet seat cover)</p>
<p>but it is normal, among the Japanese.  This is the reason why they are even reluctant to shake hand, or</p>
<p>share the bottle and drink direct from it (touch somebody-else&#8217;s saliva ) let alone kissing to other person !</p>
<p>( It is originated from deep sublimated <span style="color:#000080;"><strong> Japanese Shinto &#8221; Avoid the foreign dirt and keep you clean &#8220;</strong>)</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#ffffff;">&#8212;&#8211;</span></p>
<p>Where to draw the line and stay in Middle way, is not rigidly fixed.  Since, the fundamentals of the Buddhism</p>
<p>is not torment you  with complicated rules, but to liberate your mind.  Try extreme will definitely taxing your</p>
<p>body and mind, but obviously dirty kitchen would cause your ill-health. <span style="color:#000080;"><strong> So, here is clear Middle ground.</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000080;"><strong>Do what you think appropriate.</strong></span> Observe who you are, and if it is acceptable for you, do <span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong>your best.</strong></span></p>
<p>( So, to a Japanese, Clean it when it was soiled may be a Middle way,  and to a Hippie guy clean the</p>
<p>kitchen once in a week may be his Middle way &#8212;- though it&#8217;s a huge leap to clean it first time ever.   🙂  )</p>
<p><span style="color:#ffffff;">&#8212;-</span></p>
<p>While observing your own tasks, re-arrange the order, or a  way to sort the memos, even the position</p>
<p>to stick those memo, or the way to respond the Emails etc, and making it easier and  smoother  to</p>
<p>deal,  &#8212;&#8212;<span style="color:#000080;"><strong> if the situation is getting better,  its mean your Mindful approach is working.</strong></span></p>
<p>And when you established a system to deal with those tasks, and able to sort them quite business-like,</p>
<p>almost automatic way, in fact you are <span style="color:#000080;"><strong>processing it, in the Mushin manner.</strong> <span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong><span style="color:#ffffff;">&#8212;</span>Why not it is efficient.</strong></span></span></p>
<p>Difference of the Mushin to machine is, as the eyes is completely open, it is possible to spot</p>
<p>anything peculiar or the point to pay attention.  <span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong>This is what makes the human different from a machine.</strong></span></p>
<p>&#8212;&#8211; So, keep you busy.   🙂</p>
<p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><strong>___/\___ </strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#ffffff;">&#8212;&#8211;</span></p>
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