Thinking outside the box

[fitzo]

There's an old Zen saying....

Before enlightenment... carry water, chop wood.
After enlightenment... carry water, chop wood.

The difference is in how you approach and experience the ordinary.

 

[nc_cooter]

Thanks for the insight, Fitzo. Growing up I thought my Grandpa's belt was the the way to that kind of enlightenment. Didn't realize he was so Zen.

 

[Don Hanson III]

That's really good, Fitzo.

It's all a matter of perspective

 

[R.C.Reichert]

There's an old Zen saying....

Before enlightenment... carry water, chop wood.
After enlightenment... carry water, chop wood.

The difference is in how you approach and experience the ordinary.

That just goes to show that everything is already enlightened. There is no becoming as in waiting for something to happen, there is only being. Simply be enlightened. Every task no matter how small becomes a journey through enlightenment. The task is no longer a task. As they say, "do without doing" or "the grass grows by itself".I just wish the grass would mow itself too.

Actually, right now I'm wishing the condo guys would start shoveling our sidewalks so I don't have to wade through a foot of snow in the morning. I don't pay condo fees for nothing (although some days it sure seems like it:grumpy.

 

[69_knives]

I guess enlightenment would mean you fetch H2O and split cellulose.

 

[Tai Goo]

Inside the box = Safe, comfortable, easy
Outside the box = Risky, uncomfortable, difficult

Inside the box = Timid
Outside the box = Courageous

Inside the box = Average
Outside the box = Extraordinary

 

[Sean Cochran]

There's an old Zen saying....

Before enlightenment... carry water, chop wood.
After enlightenment... carry water, chop wood.

The difference is in how you approach and experience the ordinary.

Well put.

This is a good post. I really used to have a problem with sociatal labels and being put "in the box" in one form or another by people. I really worried that I would lose part of myself, being just another nameless face in the crowd. Then i realized I was thinking too much. I now believe that it doesnt matter whether Im "in the box" or out. I know my own comfort zones, and how to push myself beyond those. To me, it is all about self awareness. I guess I ride the fence between conformity and individualism only because it dosen't matter to me which side I fall, as long as I am expanding my own limits.

 

[Tai Goo]

Zen wisdom:

“Be master of mind rather than mastered by mind”

“Move and the way will open”

“Ride your horse along the edge of a sword; hide yourself in the middle of flames”

“The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”

“He who asks a question is a fool for a minute; he who does not remains a fool forever.”

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become.”

“A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows the public opinion.”

 

[Mark Williams]

Blah Blah Blah......Make some knives

 

[Don Hanson III]

Blah Blah Blah......Make some knives

You have arrived, my son

 

[Tai Goo]

There's an old Zen saying....

Before enlightenment... carry water, chop wood.
After enlightenment... carry water, chop wood.

This is a good example of circular thinking, rather than linier thinking.

"The reverse side also has a reverse side."

 

[Tai Goo]

You have arrived, my son

Arrived where?

 

[Tai Goo]

Thinking is the most important part of the overall knife making process, yet one we seldom get to talk about.

 

[Don Hanson III]

Arrived where?

It really doesn't matter

 

[Tai Goo]

It really doesn't matter

Then why arrive?

I'm just in it for the journey and adventure.

 

[fitzo]

This is a good example of circular thinking, rather than linier thinking.

"The reverse side also has a reverse side."

It is more a sling; the seeker is the rock.

 

[Don Hanson III]

Arriving and the jounney are the same thing. It's all one

 

[Mark Williams]

What do we do once we have arrived ? Start another journey ?

 

[Tai Goo]

What do we do once we have arrived ? Start another journey ?

Yes! Finish one knife,... then start another. Once the knife is finished that journey is over. Just keep making knives!

Same with ideas and concepts...

Each time you learn something, or should be learning something,... and moving on to the next idea or knife. That's how you get better.

Just like you said, go make some knives.

The end point and the beginning point are the same point,... same time.

The door out is same the door in, a circular revolving door.

"When one door closes another opens."

Both linier and circular... maybe like an upwards and outwards spiral.

 

[JasonSCarter]

"Fear is for the enemy, Fear and Bullets" J.O. Barr

Before getting into a project. be it knife, gun, or someother project. I will mentally go through the steps and building process time and time again. making the mistakes in my mind so I do not (hopefully) make them in reality. (yea rght, we all know they happen to manifest though!) but by mentally going through the steps and I am able to innovate processes and controls that would normally be off the cuff and cause a mistake. by continuing to learn from the old guys, in books and treatisies, and practice on the subjects of metallurgy and smithing. I can pick and choose the best practices for my style of knife making. Much like What Bruce Lee said... "Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.
Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend."

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Jason