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Oh my! Those godforsaken active emojis are all open again below my reply window.... Blaring at me, it is hard for my easily "caught" mind to focus on writing with that! My vote....lose the in-the-face emojis...at very least the active ones!!!
Enjoying Artman's look at meditation in relation to this thread, and thinking of the names of Decware gear including Zen, I was reminded of the origins of the word "Zen."
As I recall the stories, Shakyamuni Buddha was raised in Hindu traditions of spiritual practice, where ancient Sanskrit and Pali were languages used to describe many things. Dhyana is the ancient term for the "yoga" (body/mind/spirit unification practice) of meditation. The dh making a dj sort of sound, the y being like a hard e sound, and the a's being more like "ah" sounds, dhyana sounds something like djee-ah-nah. And "Dhyana" is a primary practice in what became Buddhism.
Well, by the time Buddhism made it to Japan in a meaningful way, it had been around in the countries Japan picked it up from (mostly China and Korea) long enough to evolve into pretty distinct variations of classical Buddhist traditions of India. Simplified meditation practices became popular, streamlining Buddhist teachings into what became known to us as Zen.... And thus the quintessential and sort of "cut to the chase" feeling we tend to associate with Zen.
So for many in Northern Asia, efforts toward "awakening" and "enlightenment" (becoming energetically more light) evolved to be simpler, perhaps more available and beneficial for more folks.
Narrowing “practice” down more to basics, by minimizing habitual thinking patterns that overwhelm our minds, we have more mind-space available for insight. And more insightful, we are less influenced by culturally learned distortions of reality that make us feel bad and sap our energy. They learned that through meditation, we can better find ways to optimize human potential... that by growing better able to discern and differentiate habitual things that hurt us from those that help us, we can learn and change.
Anyway, in time, like the practices, the term "Dhyana" evolved as it moved through cultures and languages. Adapted by each culture's ways of being and acting, including different ways of forming words, the ways of saying "Dhyana" evolved. Long story short, as variations of the root word Dhyana were adopted in Japan, the Japanese way of saying it became what we hear as "Zen."
Literally, the Zen practice term Zazen, is sitting meditation. Za is for zafu, a cushion made to support optimal posture in sitting meditation, and Zen being "dhyana" or meditation.
But where does it all go? An old Zen Master said something like this: "Enlightenment is easy, it is just a matter of avoiding picking and choosing." To me, picking and choosing here refers to what Steve and Artman are pointing to. By avoiding overly "attaching" to things, including thoughts, expectations, ambitions, etc, it is easier to open to experience and learning in more unbiased and more open-minded ways....
Whether a basis of formal Zen, practicing to more completely experience consciousness healing..... or learning to deepen musical immersion.… or becoming more empathetic, less habitually abusive to self and others.… or to support doing better quality, less distracted work... Whatever.... it is not surprising that attempts to resolve culturally engrained perceptive disabilities, and to resolve distorted consciousness, were primary objectives for 1000s of years of evolving meditative and prayer practices.
So by “practicing” being more receptive to harmonious aspects of "what is," and less confused and disoriented by entrenched ideas of what we "think" "it" should be, we practice a form of Zen. And with luck, as distortions resolve, self-defeating ideas, beliefs and habits become less of a burden and barrier to being at peace with "the moment" … Then, more open to whatever we experience in the moment, we interact more easily in the universal activity of perpetual transformation and creation… And by association with transformative/creative activity, we become more like it, creatively activated. “Awakening” innate interaction with our transformative nature, we can become less stuck and overwhelmed by static beliefs, and more open to our deeper potential ...my take anyway...
So in "practice,"a big premise of Zen traditions I grew up with, was to expand the practice of sitting Zen into daily activities.... So driving the car meditation practice, gently but actively settling internal dialog and "just driving"....or washing the dishes Zen...or walking in the park Zen.…shopping for groceries Zen…. designing and making amps Zen... listening Zen....
Anything we can do to help mind be less overwhelmed by unhealthy biases and beliefs, can help clarify and relax consciousness. And more clarified and relaxed, we are less influenced by hyper-reactivity and the negativity of habitual thoughts and feelings that make us feel bad. Habits of unresolved fear, anger, hatred, shame and the like…. habits that cause us hurt ourselves and others also tend to keep us reactive...off-center.
So the big idea is that by carefully practicing “every-day” "Zen," we can more easily resolve distorted habits into healing ones. With less habitual mental activity “filling our heads,” and draining our energy, there is more room and energy to notice and discern what is good for us, and what is not so good for us.
So for me, Steve's using “Zen” for naming the great audio gear he makes is apropos in many ways. From the powerful focus and fluid creativity he applies in designing and building… to the focus and creativity used to help others more optimally experience beautiful music at home.… to me, these are forms of every-day Zen practice.
Completing the circle, Decware, if well assembled and supported in a room, can be close enough to natural musical expression that it can help the music we experience to feel pretty real. And feeling real, it can easily "catch our attention." Body and mind "overtaken" by the music, the practice of "listening Zen" can shift into musical immersion...pretty cool. And from traditional Zen practice being in-part about learning to more agilely and more often shift consciousness into a more "merged" or "unified" state, creatively practicing musical immersion is an expression of Zen!
Some thoughts anyway that I hope are not very distorted!@#$%^
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