Expert: Joe McSorley - 5/3/2007

Question
Hello Mr. Joe!

How to achieve a calm mind? Sometimes I think that in order to be calm you have to become indifferent to what is happening to you, not to worry about anything that befalls you, so in a way be indifferent. So what's the secret, according to you, to remain calm all the time, if it's ever possible?

thank you


Answer
Dear Lucas,
 Why the emphasis on calming the mind?  I hope this is not something I’ve talked about.  I have talked about ‘stilling’ the mind which is quite different.  To simply have a calm mind is to be emotionless, lifeless and inhuman.  The Master Rinzai called the monks like this “shave-pate sh*tsticks” meaning bald headed and worthless.  Nature is not indifferent.  Animals protect their lives and strive for food and survival.  Calmness and indifference is not zen.  Having a still mind means not creating thoughts.  It means to see things directly and clearly as they are and not as a creation of the thoughts about it.  It you are really good at playing an instrument or a sport you cannot do it well with a chattering mind yet at the same time a calm mind doesn’t help much either.  A still mind is that which reacts and lives in the moment.  If your mind is still you can react appropriately while engaged in a sport without a thought in your head, you do what is right when it is right without cognition.  It is the same with playing an instrument.  When your mind is truly still and unfettered you are not concerned with the world or thought but playing purely in the moment.  A still mind still expresses appropriate emotion from joy to anger and is not in any way blank.
 I hope this helps you. Take care,
            Joe