"To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world, the most difficult and the most intellectual" - Oscar Wilde -
Perhaps, a buddhist monk would agree with this quote. A curious case in which a person devoted to spirituality would converge on the same principle with a hedonist.
During my karate training, one of the moments that I usually enjoy more is the Mokuso (黙想 mok'sō).
In this practice, performed before the training, the Sensei - the master, real translation "the one who comes before" - asks to all his students to sit and start meditating in silence; we are pushed to focus and to clear our mind from the many thoughts, worries and frustrations that target everyone in our daily life.
In fact, during a training - whether it is karate or another martial art - it is essential for a practitioner to leave every concern out from the dojo, the training place, and behind his/her shoulders. No matter how stressing your day was or how hard life is being with you. The reason is that only by having a clear mind you can express your true self and not let that constant flow of thoughts to take control. The reason, sometimes, is that you will need this moments to healing your soul and find a little corner of peace. From a practical point of view, focusing through this meditation moment will help you in learning the techniques, making them yours, and not getting hurt.
Theory apart, Mokuso is a real hell of an exercise, especially in the beginning, when you're not used at it. The body literally rebels to the static posture, not to mention the lotus position. Your mind will rebel too and, eventually, you will reach that point in which you're uselessly trying to not think ("hey wait, i'm managing to not think" and you know what.. this is thinking!). At the same time, once you started to familiarise with this practice, after applying some patience, this will become one moment in which you can enter in a bubble, be alone with yourself, and regenerate - at least this is how I feel.
Sensei Peter Hill, 7th dan Wado-ryu Academy Karate Do, one of the most brilliant martial artists that I ever met, uses to say during his seminars: "Slow is smooth, smooth is fast". Slow is fast. This few words, in their simplicity, underline a whole philosophy where contradiction is only apparent and where from the peace and harmony in the mind can come the true power of bu-do (the way of the warrior).
As a matter of fact, nowadays we are not even capable anymore to sit with friends and reason on a topic for 30 minutes without running to our smartphone, let alone meditating.
In the frantic pace imposed by today's society we are like hamsters running on a wheel, our thoughts controlling us more than us controlling them.
The aim of this article is not giving advice on the benefits of meditating, maybe you can check for some neuroscience research on this, there are very interesting articles out there (just see below an infographic I liked)
My point here is to question if we are still capable nowadays to make silence inside us, and from that silence to create an original and creative thinking, something that goes beyond the conventions and binary-predetermined "choices" organised for us by the powers ruling our society.
I feel that there are moments in which it's important to just forget those concepts that became such an essential part of us: being successful, progress, getting approval from the community, being liked, being upvoted, that spasmodic need of reaching pleasure or usefulness in everything we do.
Sometimes we don't have to strive for being original, for asserting ourselves, for pleasuring and fooling ourselves. We just need to stop, to listen and let the world coming to us instead of seeking it frantically.
Thank you for reading Steemians! This is my first article, I hope it gave you something to think and, in the end, this is a way to introduce myself and to dip the toe in the water :-P