I really like this post, thank you! Part of the practice of zazen meditation is "unfocused focus" - you might call it paying relaxed attention to nothing in particular. Couple this with the zen koan, "The great way is not difficult if you just don't pick and choose" and it seems that the wide, focused/unfocused view of zen in which one doesn't label things as good or bad, beautiful or ugly so that one doesn't immediately react to a situation in an unconscious manner...is pretty much soft eyes. Biologically, this is difficult, given that we have amygdalas that react before we think, but meditation practices have shown that people really can override these older inheritances.
On Aug 14, 2018 Peter Herring wrote :
I really like this post, thank you! Part of the practice of zazen meditation is "unfocused focus" - you might call it paying relaxed attention to nothing in particular. Couple this with the zen koan, "The great way is not difficult if you just don't pick and choose" and it seems that the wide, focused/unfocused view of zen in which one doesn't label things as good or bad, beautiful or ugly so that one doesn't immediately react to a situation in an unconscious manner...is pretty much soft eyes. Biologically, this is difficult, given that we have amygdalas that react before we think, but meditation practices have shown that people really can override these older inheritances.