Peace of Mind is a Thought Away: Mastering Your Thoughts, Part III
This is Part III of an eight part blog which began on April 14.
Matter of fact, I’d like to tell you a story now. In Zen monasteries, you are expected to be mindful or conscious all the time and not just when you are meditating. In other words, when you are doing mundane chores like washing the dishes, working in the garden, preparing a meal, etc., you are expected to be in the present and focused on the task at hand and not so lost in your thoughts that someone could easily sneak up on you.
When you are lost in your thoughts someone can easily surprise you. When you are not lost in your thoughts and are truly present, focused totally on the task at hand, you will notice if someone or something has just come into your proximity. You are able to sense what is really happening because you are not caught up in past or future thinking. You are truly present.
The head monk in Zen monasteries, called the roshi, in order to instill the idea of always being present or mindful in his monks, would often quietly and stealthily walk around the monastery with a bamboo stick. He would walk up to a monk unannounced. And, if the monk was lost in his thoughts, he would whack him in the fanny with the bamboo stick.
Now if the monk was practicing mindfulness, if the monk was fully conscious and present, the monk would be aware of the roshi’s presence, turn around, bow to the roshi and the roshi would then bow back to him and would pass him by. If, on the other hand, the monk was preoccupied in his thoughts, his fanny would very well know that the roshi had just snuck up on him.
The most important lesson to learn from this story is that you can be totally distracted by your thoughts and miss out on something really important that is going on right in front of you.
This is Part III of an eight part blog.