On Control – From Zen Mind Beginners Mind
January 3, 2012 § Leave a comment
CONTROL “To give your sheep or cow a large, spacious meadow is the way to control him.”
Nowadays traditional Japanese painting has be come pretty formal and lifeless. That is why modern art has developed. Ancient painters used to practice putting dots on paper in artistic disorder. This is rather difficult. Even though you try to do it, usually what you do is arranged in some order. You think you can control it, but you cannot; it is almost impossible to arrange your dots out of order. It is the same with taking care of your everyday life. Even though you try to put people under some control, it is impossible. You cannot do it. The best way to control people is to encourage them to be mischievous. Then they will be in control in its wider sense. To give your sheep or cow a large, spacious meadow is the way to control him. So it is with people: first let them do what they want, and observe them. This is the best policy. To ignore them is not good; that is the worst policy. The second worst is trying to control them. The best one is to observe them, just to observe them, without trying to control them.
The same way works for you yourself as well. If you want to obtain perfect calmness in your zazen, you should not be bothered by the various images you find in your mind. Let them come, and let them go. Then they will be under control. But this policy is not so easy.It sounds easy, but it requires some special EFFORT
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There is something called standard work, but 
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