It should be easy to imagine how I feel about a philosophy that puts forward the idea of not thinking. Of course it isn’t quite that simple. Zen proposes that we should stop thought getting ‘in the way’ of what we would be doing (or could be doing) without its presence. In the context of a sword fight this makes a kind of sense. If a sword is inbound on a killing stroke you really don’t want to spend a few micro-seconds thinking about how to respond. You just want to respond and then kill the guy before he has any change to counter strike. Without thought getting in the way the swordsman should be able – after years of swordsmanship training of course – to act and react without thinking. Weirdly, on reading the explanation of the process I knew exactly what the author meant because I had experienced Zen-like moments during my years of gaming. There have been times when, usually during RTS games that I have been ‘fighting for my life’ to such an extent that there is no time to think. For seconds at a time (and sometimes whole minutes at a time) I was acting and reacting without a single thought going through my head. To think in these circumstances is to die.
Despite that I can’t really imagine the idea of “not thinking” as much of a foundation for a philosophy that I can buy into. I can understand how useful it would be in certain circumstances but not as an end in itself. I will, however, be reading more in the area of Zen and especially how it applies to the Samurai warrior. The Samurai are a fascinating group that have interested me since my early youth and really deserve more of my attention. They will get this sooner rather than later I think.
4 comments:
It's a bit Zen with the cricket and batting. It comes easy when bowling because my head tends to empty anyway when I run around a lot.
With the batting, if you're constantly thinking you quickly stress out. So the trick is to switch on and switch off when you need to concentrate. I.e. bowler's coming in, switch on. Not needing to bat, switch off. The best players can switch on and switch off very quickly.
Plus, if you're thinking too much about what you're going to do it cuts into the under 1 second of reaction time that you have as a batter ...
I suppose you could apply the advice of the Zen teachers in quieting pointless mental chatter -- but that kind of mindfulness is present in Stoicism as well.
Ditto on the gaming moments -- CTF games in particular are too frantic to think sometimes. Thought-out plans have their place, too, though...especially the thoughtful use of explosives. ;-)
Yeah, I think my mind is way too "fettered".
As Crash Davis in Bull Durham would say, "don't think, meat, it can only hurt the team".
sc said: I suppose you could apply the advice of the Zen teachers in quieting pointless mental chatter
If only.... My brain just doesn't shut up sometimes. Its particularly frustrating late at night when I'm trying to sleep.... Zen or Stoic techniques would be good about then!
dbackdad said: Yeah, I think my mind is way too "fettered".
Mine too. I tend to overthink things which slows my actions down to a crawl.
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