Hi, everyone. I'm going to try to explain my ideology of spirituality and its application to life and how multitasking ties into it.
I will arbitrarily cut one life into two parts: the inner life (inactive) and the outer life (active). The inner life refers to spirituality and Zen cultivation and quietly learning to reach "a mind which is itself unified and aware." (Suzuki cited by Michael) Besides, what does one have to cut (discriminate) in this silence? Just be. The outer life refers to the busy, professional (outward, compassionate) life--cultivation put to some use. (Active meditation.) Ignoring the professional life, Zen is blindly useless and meaningless. Why does the Arhat sit in samadhi if not for others? Ignoring Zen, the professional life is insane and meaningless. Why do John's imaginary ego and passions still disturb? What need is there for Zen without profession? What need is there for profession without Zen? But the ultimate culmination to the human enterprise in Buddhism does not differentiate between this inner and outer. This nondualistic attitude aims at the perfect, contextual expenditure (or non-expenditure) of energy whether walking, sleeping, panting, sitting, or talking. (Zen and profession? What a joke says this perspective.) Returning to the discriminatory perspective at hand, multitasking is an important skill in the professional life. I go to high school and in order to use time wisely, I multi-task. In my first year spanish class, I find that 50% of the time used in the class is ineffective: the spaces between activities and the time used waiting for the unprepared high school teacher. I am not exaggerating with the percentage. The teacher gives two, sometimes three, times the amount of time that I need to work. Thus, I read a book or review for my AP classes while waiting. I use every second. In another class that I have, the teacher digresses SO MUCH that I promise to you that 95% of the class time is wasted on stories about himself (on most days). I took these inferior classes because they were a requirement but I do not want to regret my use of time, especially when receiving an "A" in the class is extremely easy. I want to use the time wisely. I won't expend my energy towards what mostly everyone else does: sleeping, hating the teacher, fantasizing, and judging others. So what I do is: I allow 10% of my attentention to remain in the class while I put the rest towards meditating, visualizing, planning, reading, or any other tasks I need to do. I have a system of activities and meditation but I won't go into that. " . . . and from the teachings and writings of all the patriarchs it appears they couldn't either." There is an expression and picture that a bodhisattva must have a "thousand hands" in order to be useful to the world . . . that the bodhisattva must be skillful and creative beyond imagination, able to concoct new methods for blind corpses, not catatonically clinging to emptiness nor clinging to phenomena . . . but compassionately helping others because there is no nirvana . . . no hole--nor reason--in which to retreat to . . . Multitasking is a task like eating, walking, going to school, studying or talking to the magistrate. When the time calls for it, the patriarch must do it or else he is not a patriarch. (This is related to the mirror-like wisdom and the all-accomplishing wisdom in Zen.) When hunger comes, I eat my rice. When sleep comes, I close my eyes. Fools laugh at me, but The wise man understands. --Zen poem The means and fruit of this mirror-like response is no-ego, just something out there responding to circumstances. When yin, yang! When smiling, frown to remind. Vulgarly exemplifying, when vagina: penis! (inside joke involving Tibetan Milarepa). Simply respond without clinging to habits whether it is to sit still for nine years to explain or establish a foundation by teaching incessantly for forty years. This may explain the erratic behavior of many sages from Socrates to Confucius to Lao Tzu and from Europe to Asia--particularly Zen masters. Summary: 1.) Multi-tasking is has nothing to do with the inner (inactive) life. No thinking even. Everything is still. What are you doing playing with yourself? No, don't even try to stop. You never can. Just--wu-wei. 2.) The outer life is different and same depending on how you look at it. When the situation calls for multi-tasking, go ahead, jump in the fire, "the lotus that blooms amidst the fire can never be destroyed." 3.) Ultimately the two halves are one, mirror-like Whole. I hope the read was pleasantly long. I like to weave an entire web in order to give a holistic vision. I'm not sure all of this was understandable though. *My main point is that multitasking is an important aspect of efficiency in the worldly life.* Thank you, bye. P.S.: We--err, at least me--are not full-fledged patriarchs and do not have perfect abilities to perceive the wisest course of action in relation to whole-context and so we must just try our best and take risks, blindly pushing forward sometimes despite multiple choices. (But once we understand the Way, there is never a choice. Wu-wei.) Read more Watts and Hagan to understand/unlearn. On 5/3/06, Bill Smart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Wednesday, May 03 Eugene wrote: > >But if multi-tasking is 'allowed in Zen' (don't hit me for this > >phrase...), what does the text of Suzuki mean that I cited in my > >previous post? > > I hit you one-hundred times! > > Nothing is 'disallowed', but multi-tasking does not lend itself well to > being one with your actions. 'When sitting, just sit - when walking, just > walk. Above all don't wobble!'. That's a paraphrase of a zen saying > addressing this same issue. I know there are people that can multi-task > better than others. Perhaps there are people that can multi-task and > still > maintain a oneness with their actions. I can't, and from the teachings > and > writings of all the patriarchs it appears they couldn't either. These > teachings are not ambiguous on this point. > > ...Bill! > > > > > > Current Book Discussion: any Zen book that you recently have read or are > reading! 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