Daily 5
From LaurasWiki
Question: You talk a lot about samu in Zen. Does intellectual work count?
Answer: If you don't ever work with your hands you become too intellectual. Professors are too intelligent and can become a little bit crazy. Wisdom is not just a matter of the forebrain. True wisdom arises from both thalamus and hypothalamus. When both are strong you have great wisdom. But if you spend all your time reading philosophy only your forebrain is working, while your old brain grows weak. The two are out of balance and you become tired and nervous and sometimes a little crazy. Your memory grows weaker and weaker, and even though the forebrain is developed by books it is tired. When you start to grow old you lose your memory. But through the hypothalamus things are engraved in the brain. Their essence remains in the subconscious and during zazen it revives. Not sexual ideas, not pleasant thoughts: the things that have made a profound impression on the body, they are what revive during zazen. For me, the sutras, my master's talks, all those important things have marked not my memory but my thalamus, through the subconscious. Accumulating facts to pass exams, on the other hand, was very hard work for me, and now I've forgotten them all. During zazen, when I talk, the words penetrate to your thalamus and become seeds that will grow; in five, ten, twenty years they will become wisdom. That is the highest psychology.
--Questions to Master Deshimaru (http://www.zen-deshimaru.com/EN/sangha/deshimaru/q-r/1110.htm)
My Daily 5
For balance: One a day, in each category:
- Meditation Practice (zazen + chants)
- Body Practice (kyudo, pilates, walk)
- Samu ("temple cleaning" = physical labor to care for your physical environment)
- Admin Practice (GTD review, accounting, mail, filing, etc.)
- Writing/Coding Practice (work on projects)
How To
Write these up on a small white board or interactive web chart so that you can check them off every day. The act of checking them off is key to the tool's effectiveness -- a small, physical, encouraging reward, confirmation, that builds momentum. The Emergent Task Timer: Online (http://davidseah.com/tools/ett/alpha/) is easy and quick for this (though it has small bugs and drawbacks, it's the best I've found). It provides a kind of scatter plot time map, which really helps me stay focused. You can print it out or save it as a PDF. Convert to something that syncs with iCal? Priceless.
Sometimes, smaller, more specific items work better for the Daily 5 list than the broad categories used here. So, if it's not working, try tweaking the list toward more specificity.
