"Mu" or "emptiness" in Mushin refers to an empty mind in the sense that distractions, preoccupations, fears, worries, are absent and are no more an issue for the mind, whether in combat or daily life.
The concept of Mushin is identical to the Japanese metaphorical expression "Mizu no Kokoro" or the "mind like water." This mental attitude refers to a mind that is in total harmony with the Cosmos that it resembles a still pond of water without any ripples where the surface reflects a clear and perfectly undistorted image of the surroundings, like a mirror. http://www.zen-buddhism.net/zen-concepts/mushin.htmlSo often we worry about death. This is understandable.
"Lin Yutang’s ideal is the ‘scamp’ – an amiable loafer who wanders through life, learning, loving, living. He is a good-natured Renaissance Man, dabbling here and there, connoisseur of nothing, dilettante extraordinaire. He is earthbound, a man of his biology and of his senses. (For Lin, happiness is “largely a matter of digestion.” He favorably quotes a college president who admonished his freshmen that “There are only two things I want you to keep in mind: read the Bible, and keep your bowels open.”) Lin’s loafing scamp is a profoundly embodied mind, not a brain on a stick. And most of all, he’s eminently ‘reasonable’ – a trait Lin mentions throughout, and points to as the very foundation of the Chinese character.”
(--from Mark Cyzyk article “The Importance of Living” by Lin Yutang, in Philosophy Now, Issue 119, April/May 2017) https://philosophynow.org/issues/71/The_Importance_of_Living_by_Lin_YutangWell, maybe the ‘reasonable’ part is still to come.
Silly, trying to authenticate or derogate whether someone is a Christian. I’d start elsewhere: “Mr Kristof, Am I a human?”
This Easter I am more interested in whether the spark of life that keeps me going is still firing, for one more morning. I’m interested in whether the current political ethos is really trying to build its power on the pain of suffering people. Or, whether intellectual exhaustion has finally called it quits on science, common sense, and kindly regard.
I’ll take a beaten up, murdered, and resurrected spiritual activist like Jesus any day over the braggadocio sorry excuses for leaders who claim that richer-than-thou and worthier-than-thou are the new criteria for religious/governing saviors of the contemporary holy land of this country.
For Χριστός sake, choose to be human!
19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” (John 14: 19-21, NIV)
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| Anthony Sanborn Jr. in Cumberland County Unified Criminal Court Thursday morning. Staff photo by Ben McCanna --Portland Press Herald, 13April2017 |
