3 ms·

When drinking tea, I drink tea. [1] When coding, I code. When listening to music, I listen to music. When sitting on a plane, I sit on a plane. Resist the u

When drinking tea, I drink tea. [1] When coding, I code. When listening to music, I listen to music. When sitting on a plane, I sit on a plane. Resist the urge to distract yourself and see what happens.[2] [1] There is the story of the Zen student whose teacher taught him "When drinking tea, just drink tea." The same student later discovered his teacher drinking tea and reading the newspaper. When confronted the teacher said, "When drinking tea and reading the newspaper, just drink tea and read the newspaper." [2] I believe that boredom and frustration tolerance are important life skills worth developing. Also I have found that many things that at first seem boring become more interesting if you pay close attention to them.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
logicalDuck 10y ago
When you're drinking tea you're allowing the hot water to distract you from the ingredients of the tea, you should really just chew the herbs. All experience is blended, it's good to enjoy what you're doing fully but that doesn't preclude adding additional things to the experience. Sometimes the addition of those things allow you to have a fresh look at the situation you're in. Just sit on the grass, sit on the grass and read a book, sit on the grass and listen to music. You could mark two of those situations as distracts or redefine them as unique blended experiences to enjoy. I prefer the latter. Mindfulness practice is valuable though, I just think blended experiences like blended foods are equally valuable. I'd rather have a sandwich then separately eat bread, lettuce, cheese, tomato and mustard.
- gerbilly 10y ago
  The teaching to "Just drink tea" is a training principle. The reason that the teacher can read the news paper and drink tea, is that he's completed his training.[1] Most of us never attempt any such training though. In my comment I wasn't attempting to make a moral or aesthetic prescription. I was just pointing out that training the ability to focus on doing one thing is worthwhile. [1] Also most Buddhist teachings reveal several layers of meaning when actually attempted. You are supposed to _try_ and sit and drink tea only, and see what happens, and what that reveals about your mind.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

logicalDuck 10y ago

When you're drinking tea you're allowing the hot water to distract you from the ingredients of the tea, you should really just chew the herbs. All experience is blended, it's good to enjoy what you're doing fully but that doesn't preclude adding additional things to the experience. Sometimes the addition of those things allow you to have a fresh look at the situation you're in. Just sit on the grass, sit on the grass and read a book, sit on the grass and listen to music. You could mark two of those situations as distracts or redefine them as unique blended experiences to enjoy. I prefer the latter. Mindfulness practice is valuable though, I just think blended experiences like blended foods are equally valuable. I'd rather have a sandwich then separately eat bread, lettuce, cheese, tomato and mustard.

gerbilly 10y ago
The teaching to "Just drink tea" is a training principle. The reason that the teacher can read the news paper and drink tea, is that he's completed his training.[1] Most of us never attempt any such training though. In my comment I wasn't attempting to make a moral or aesthetic prescription. I was just pointing out that training the ability to focus on doing one thing is worthwhile. [1] Also most Buddhist teachings reveal several layers of meaning when actually attempted. You are supposed to _try_ and sit and drink tea only, and see what happens, and what that reveals about your mind.