zen and taoism

>>>My most recent finding in my meditation and daily life,
>>>which has been with me for a while but is the most important
>>>finding of all for me, is that i always need to be watching myself,
>>>the moment i don’t i find myself doing silly things
>>>like tensing up in my normal areas. My body is really
>>>like a child, can’t leave it unattended for a moment
>>>or it starts being silly! …and then the problems start.

If you can notice your body begin to tense up, or you can
notice some kind of internal tightening, then that is huge.
Most can not, so that is a big step even in itself.

And of course there will still be times when you don’t notice
at all until long after you’ve gotten all tense and out-of-whack.
But it is important to notice this also, and not to judge.
It is not about perfectionism, but about observing your
relationship to life itself and how you engage with it.

>>>Might not get a chance to reply for a couple of days
>>>though because i’m going away for a kickstart to
>>>my 2 week holidays from work! 🙂

Enjoy your vacation!

Best,
Steven

>>>Made me see my chemistry teacher in a new light, in a
>>>sense he was right, I was stupid at that time…
>>>I wasn’t putting in all of my effort, I was wasting
>>>both his time and mine. Regrets…….but I am glad
>>>I was able to see this.

Well, even if you weren’t applying yourself, his comment
still wasn’t very nice. I understand that people can
say harsh things when they feel stressed or disappointed,
but still it wasn’t very nice . . .

>>>It seems to me that 80% of college students
>>>really shouldn’t be there anyway. They should be
>>>in trade schools, or apprenticing. There are too many
>>>mid level managers and advisers in the world.

I agree. Most people in high school nowadays just think
that college is the next step, without ever really considering
what they want out of life. Even with a 4-year degree, it
can be difficult to get a job . . . and oftentimes that degree
comes with a load of student loan debt. In a lot of ways,
it is simply not worth it in my view, UNLESS the person
is extremely motivated toward a particular goal. College
should just be viewed as means to get educated, not as
a means to get a job.

>>>In my new job I am also teaching, but it is totally different.

As long as you are enjoying what you are doing, that is the main thing. 😉

>>>Math IS spiritual, I remember when I was in Japan. [snipped]
>>>I was reading for the third time when I had a moment
>>>when I understood what the author was talking about,
>>>my whole head opened up and I saw…
>>>it was amazing, I could understand the formulas,

Wow. Great sharing.

I’ve always sort of considered math to be on the opposite end of
the spectrum from doing spiritual practices . . . but about
a year ago, I ran into someone who had been doing deep
spiritual practices for awhile, and we had been sharing and
talking about practices in general. At some point he asked
me what I was doing “in the real world”, and I told him that
I was working on a PhD in math. To my surprise, he responded
with enthusiasm, and with a big smile on his face, said
“that’s great! the only way to open the seventh chakra is
through either mathematics or music”. It took me a minute
to recover from the shock, as I had expected the usual response,
but quickly realized that at least to him, he was dead serious.
Now I don’t know whether what he said is true or not, but
–at least for those moments–it made me feel like maybe my
two passions are not so disconnected as I previously thought.

I do have to say that when I sit down at my desk and spend
long periods doing high-level math, I do sort of go into
a little bit of an altered state and it almost becomes kind of
a meditation in a way.

>>>I went thru a period of real despair that because
>>>I wasn’t intelligent enough to understand I would
>>>always be in the dark. (Of course with the practices,
>>>I am able to have my own understanding now but
>>>until then I had given up.)

I wouldn’t make judgments about your own intelligence.
Everyone has their own innate intelligence, and this
can be cultivated in many different ways. Becoming
“book smart” in a technical field is only one skill,
and is something anyone can do if they are truly
passionate about the area and feed into it both the
necessary requirements of time, perseverance, energy,
and patience. And even in so doing, it doesn’t
necessarily reflect a person’s intelligence.

The only thing truly important in my view is to be
able to come into some kind of harmony and balance
with world in which you live, and use your own innate
intelligence and awareness to continually open yourself
up to deeper levels of connection to both universal love
and love for others. The rest is really just how we pass the time.

I hope you feel love in your life.
It is the only thing truly important I feel.

Best,
Steven