The 'assess' part, certainly not the *others* part :) And I'm wondering whether zen finds it questionable/inappropriate/not conducive to good practice/not conducive to good meditation or mindfulness/unskillful/likely to lead to more and more assumptive thoughts/likely not to lead to peace/possibly dangerous/potentially harmful to another, and therefore to self also/whatever word/s most covers what I'm trying to say.........as has been partly suggested.
In some ways I suppose that zen isn't taking a view on anything, incl. the rights/wrongs of assessing the mind of another, and I *get* that. Let be whatever is, and all that..... But is a tendency to assess the minds of others in any way a hindrance to practice.........hmmm......if so, would it be conducive to practice purposefully attempting to reduce ones tendency to do this..... Rose --- On Sat, 1/15/11, Chris Austin-Lane <[email protected]> wrote: From: Chris Austin-Lane <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Zen] beginner's mind, romantic moments, etc(to Rose/list) To: [email protected] Date: Saturday, January 15, 2011, 2:57 AM Is the thing you find questionable the "assess" or the "others"? My elliptical post earlier was just meant to say that the changes that I experience in sitting seem to make me more aware of the other people around me, and therefore I am oddly more able to see their body language and non-verbal stuff, without trying to. Just by not being obsessed with myself so much. It is generally true of people that the non-verbal communication is more important than the actual words (at least for communication of the sort that wants to be improved). But, should, we don't need no stinking should. We'll see what we see, is all I was saying. There's no clear line between knowing that you are upset and knowing that your neighbor is upset. On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 11:04 AM, Rose P <[email protected]> wrote: I think what I'm saying Chris, is *should* we be assessing (at all), if zen isn't really about doing so......but I want to ask this without the word *should*.....but don't know how to....hmm... :)
