--- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], new.morning <no_reply@> wrote: > > > > The point is I think is the realization that we have control > > over the action only, not over the fruit. Whether we get the > > fruit or not is up to any number of things. > > True, buy my emphasis in your sentence would > be that "we have control over the action." > > The TM dogma tended to suggest the opposite, > that when we were in shitty moods it was the > result of forces we had no control over -- > "unstressing" -- and we should just take it > easy and take it as it comes.
And keep doing whatever we were doing. How does this "suggest the opposite"? We have control over the action, no matter what our moods are, and we aren't to focus on the moods. > I don't believe that this is either true or > productive in the long run. We DO have control > over the temporary states of attention we find > ourselves in. We can change them as easily as > we "come back to the mantra" in TM. Well, maybe we can, maybe we can't. Maybe the best course is neither to indulge our state of attention nor to fight to change it, but simply to take it as it comes without dwelling on it. > > I know entrepreneurs and those in service fields like real > > estate, who never focus on the end result -- other than > > setting it in their sights initially. Its sort of "don't > > count your chickens before they are hatched." And that > > the real thing is the journey, not the destination. > > > > The mountain lions nature is to run and hunt. He excels > > at that. He focuses on that. At the end of day, he may > > starve or feast. Thats not up to him. > > Alan Watts once said, "Zen does not confuse spirituality > with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. > Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes." There > is a remarkably liberating effect of focusing on the > work at hand, rather than the expected result of that > work. Based on my own experiences in life, I would > suggest that the likelihood of the action turning > out "successfully" is in direct proportion to how > thoroughly one can focus on "being in the moment" of > doing the work, and having as little thought as pos- > sible of the eventual goal of the work. Which is exactly what focusing on the action rather than the fruit is all about. Sounds like you're in perfect agreement with what MMY was teaching on that point.
