The Ikkyu San cartoon I posted a few days ago is loosely - very loosely - based on the 15th century Zen master of the same name. And the following words are attributed to him (Well, just the second bit!):
“Will you please write some maxims of the highest
wisdom?” a man asked Ikkyu san. “Attention,
attention, attention!” he wrote.
It's not always easy to pay attention to life. Sometimes I get lost in thoughts and get carried away with worries about the future, regrets about the past, excitement for the future, and nostalgia for the past. I could try paying attention to not paying attention but after a while my brain would get pretty confused!
It really does seem quite obvious though - the things I like most are the things I do with complete attention. So it naturally follows that if I pay attention to everything I do, I'll begin to like it all a bit more...
Thanks Mr. Ikkyu!
