Edgar, Merle,
quoting:
"If one does not use the rational mind during cooking one will fail. That is
NOT Zen, that is incompetence!"
If one has only thoughts and reason, one cannot cook!
Merle claims sometimes to be disabled by thinking and by thoughts. The skill
of dropping them and not feeding them is extremely valuable. It's Bill!'s not
inviting the callers in for tea when you have things to do. I think Merle is
finding the traces just fine, and knows that there is gold on that side of the
hill. Focus and concentration is part of the training, and most of it. Let it
be. Thoughts will always come back, and will always arise. The skill or
faculty one seeks through practice is not a search for insight, or for reality:
it is a search for our full original human inheritance, and a settling in to it
...which is reality. Nothing outside of us! We are ...large.
Bon appetit!, All. Or, as I say better...
Buon appetito! Tutti a tavola a mangiare!,
--Joe (the Godfather's-Grandfather)
> Edgar Owen <edgarowen@...> wrote:
>
> Bill,
>
> The 'only one thing at a time delusion' is a common misunderstanding of Zen.
>
> In actuality EVERY human action is a combination of many actions. Fixing
> dinner is NOT just a single action called fixing dinner, it's a complex
> sequence of multiple actions that MUST be in the correct logical sequence to
> succeed.
>
> The correct understanding is not allowing mind to engage with unnecessary or
> irrelevant thoughts as they may arise but to concentrate on the logical
> multiplex of actions at hand to achieve the end...
>
> This all has to do with how Zen works in the world of forms. It REQUIRES
> INTELLECT to function effectively.
>
> Cooking dinner is NOT a single activity as comic book Zen supposes. It is a
> complex sequence of rationally oriented events including shopping for
> ingredients, planning what is to be cooked, cutting and chopping, mixing,
> cooking but only until done, serving the correct portions to the correct
> number of people etc. etc. etc.
>
> Zen is using the rational mind to accomplish this by recognizing the true
> nature of the world of forms one is working with.....
>
> If one does not use the rational mind during cooking one will fail. That is
> NOT Zen, that is incompetence!
------------------------------------
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