Well those same gurus also speak of ego death when you’ve been still enough for long enough so maybe the concepts aren’t that far apart — khaled
However, ever notice animal behavior? Very recently I saw a tiny praying mantis and as I approached it it sensed my presence and immediately froze. It stopped moving completely. This is, if I'm correct, death mimicry. Dead or lifeless things don't move. This is clearly a tactic to escape becoming a meal but the message that it conveys is stillness spells death or lifelessnes. — TheMadFool
Very recently I saw a tiny praying mantis and as I approached it it sensed my presence and immediately froze. It stopped moving completely. This is, if I'm correct, death mimicry. Dead or lifeless things don't move. — TheMadFool
Suzuki-roshi, in his well-known book Zen Mind Beginners' Mind, indeed says that the practice of zazen is to sit perfectly still, but completely alert, like a frog waiting for a fly to appear. — Wayfarer
There is a difference between being still to avoid being preyed upon, and being still in order to prey, but neither involves an inactive mind. Both, I see as an exercising of will. — Metaphysician Undercover
The mantis’ alternative would have been to move contra to its environment, which attracts attention for obvious reasons. Most predators’ eyesight is not as keen as yours. A fish moves in a school and other animals in a herd for the same reason - attracting undue attention has its risks. What message you receive from their stillness/movement is likely unintended. You make your own correlations.
The way I see it, calming the mind or mindfulness is a similar process of becoming attuned to one’s environment, rather than out of step with it. When we are distracted by ‘mental garbage’, we’re out of step with the moment itself, and can bring unrelated thoughts, emotions and experiences to bear on our interactions with the world. This can be unintentionally damaging. — Possibility
Suzuki-roshi, in his well-known book Zen Mind Beginners' Mind, indeed says that the practice of zazen is to sit perfectly still, but completely alert, like a frog waiting for a fly to appear.
But if zazen is misinterpreted as trying to suppress thought, then indeed that is criticized as a misunderstanding of the practice. — Wayfarer
Death. Hmmmmmm — TheMadFool
Must it? Is it incapable of rest, stasis and even death?The mind must be active — TheMadFool
Why then the emphasis on stillness? — TheMadFool
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