The Practice of Not Thinking: A Guide to Mindful Living

by Ryūnosuke Koike

Keep this up and we’ll lose out on nine out of ten seconds and a genuine appreciation of reality for fifty-four out of sixty minutes. And by the time we grow old, we’ll be looking back and marvelling at how quickly those years have flown by. As a consequence of losing ourselves in our thoughts, which are sometimes fantasies that do not tie in with what’s actually happening, our sense of reality will be depleted, as will our feeling of happiness.

The passive state of seeing and the active state of looking. The passive state of hearing and the active state of listening. The passive state of noticing a smell and the active state of smelling something. The passive state of tasting something and the active state of savouring it. The passive state of touching something and the active state of feeling it.

SPEAKING ILL OF OTHERS WILL EVENTUALLY DARKEN YOUR HEART

Everything affects everything else and is part of an interconnected whole, like the stars that make up a constellation. Don’t discriminate between those stars. Give an equal amount of attention to every one of them, and the world of the sounds around you will become enriched.

Think only about the bare essentials – your hands as you hold a broomstick, the way you push that vacuum cleaner – and your mind will stop thinking about other things. Touching something while moving your body will both stimulate and relax you very effectively.

We’re conditioned to understand that all we have to do when it’s hot is to eliminate the heat, that by changing that factor, by turning on the air conditioner or removing items of clothing, we can try to become comfortable. And by repeating that, we become intolerant of the smallest things. In other words, our mindset becomes selfish in the long run.