Some comments to Asian ways

Do many Asians learn Buddhist meditation in childhood but use it years later after years of school and other education in their work? Is it then lower level intelligence, kind of technical like child's first guesses about some subject, instead of a widening of one's sphere of attention like reaching for some nice free time hobby?
As far as I understand, meditation is best as short time learning experience, not as a trick to use when the situation isn't spiritual, athletic or the like, I mean with a wider sphere of attention by ordinary civilized measures.

Do some Asians have kind of static theory perspective and think that making it better would demand meditation in motion? But instead it demands photograpf like thinking (see http://quickerlearning.blogspot.fi) and then adding video like observation ability to it.

31.8.2021   I have a book about Sanskrit which I have not read almist at all  but today I hapoened to look at the fat weird figure in the cover and it gave an imoression that Asians do not quite know what they lack in wisdom of lufe. I think that the lacking part is looking at a natural tree branch or the like with the branch in sight with all leaves in it, undisturbed, beautiful, not painted, not too clishee like, might be a photograpf. Such ought to be  part of the dsily lufe, atmosphwric, besutiful, good for the sense of sight, a piece of nature. 

Buddhist quotations

I used to have Buddhist quotations that I had copied to pieces of paper on my wall. I think that those taught me a lot about happy life and high skills. I read mainly Zen Buddhist books, Stephen Mitchel's translation on Tao-Te-Ching and poetry in Finnish. In addition I practised sports and walked in the nature.

From a book of maybe Shunryu Suzuki:
"The best way to control a sheep is to give it a meadow."
This is good for learning sports talents: just give each intention, each feeling, social influence, each phenomenom in the world it's natural place in the whole and moving goes smoothly and life finds it's right tracks.

There is a saying that is maybe common but I do not remember it well anymore, it is something like:
"When hiungry, eat.
When tired, sleep.
When walking, just walk.
Above all: don't wobble."
If I remember roght, it is very Japanese and traditional there., reminds me of Basho's poems, of the view on nature and wandering there.

There s a quotation that I liked much but which I guess is not common. Yet I found it very benefical for me:
"I embrace emerging experience, I participate in discovery.
I am a butterfly, I am not a butterfly collector."
But maybe I found this opening the viewpoint of my background in sciece.

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22. of May 2020
One of the first books I read about Buddhism, maybe the first, was very good at teaching Buddhism and happiness via Buddhism, especially the pictures of the book were good, but so also the text, at least it's beginning, I do not remember much about it anymore, but I have tried to search for it and it is out of print. It would be very valuable, at least for Europeans like Finns, if someone could pay the next edition(s), but the pictures in the book are expensive. It was something like Anne Bancroft: Zen - direct pointing to reality, but maybe I spelled the name wrong.Print-on-demand publishing like www.createspace.com maybe could solve the problem. Recommendations from readers could sell the book, I think. When I used createspace.com, it was free, just the proof copy costed and postage, but one can via it sell in amazon.com too and determine oneself the price but they take some percentage from it and demand some tax information, which I do not have as a foreigner, so I cannot get any money from such. But I did not manage in selling, so I am just a blog writer.

Asian masters compared to European

I guess that an European like an Asian master in skills would be called "grand master" of the thing in question, in Finnish that is "suurmestari", and have position like an ordinary Asian teacher in Asia, I guess. I guess that the reason for this is that the skill difference to ordinary Europeans arem't so big, since European's level of skill and wisdom of life is quite high.

Enlightenment and torture

Enlightenment gives a better ability to live everyday life as more skilled and more happy and with more wisdom of life and some social skills. It is not a way to overcome torture or other very miserable life circumstancies. Maybe enlightenment can help slightly to some such fates, I guess that to old time physical labour in agriculture especially, but for example overly much labour in academical work is much easier to bear if one is stupid.

Better capacity at making observations typically brings some wisdom of life. But like the point Knitting enlightenment in this blog shows, just such knowledge isn't enough. Instead you need to be inclined toward that type of practical action for it to succeed, for it to make you happy. Even then overly much is boring and brings poor work habits, while the same as refreshing extra brings good quality of life for a moment and is so typical to persons who like to do many kinds of things in their days and change often from one action to another that happens to interest/fascinate them more right then. Often the rythm of good quality work is like an edging path and not like a rigid scedule that lasts and lasts, boringly.
So it seems that enlightenment goes well with civilized freedom and not with torture like things. 
Lot of forcing to some kind of area of work comes typically from those who think that it is a good profession, like it.

Healthy ways of living

The heaöthy natural ages old ways of living seem to be what Buddhism too aims at, at least they offer help on the road to happiness, better life and higher capacity, good will and opening social tangles, bringing peace to the world
http://finnishskills.blogspot.fi/2015/11/healthy-ways-of-living.html

Knitting enlightenment

"About the pleasantness of knitting (Knitting enlightenment, if such is possible)
I didn't just now succeed in knitting according to this piece of advice of mine, but usually if one conceives things while in thinking perspective, especially if it is a rigid formal perspective like counting silently aloud in one's mind, if one so sees practical action and practical action is left somehow to the side, to not so successfull, one then does not feel so well while knitting or while doing something else in practise, like moving for example. But if one drowns to the doing, mostly without words, at the level of the senses and common sense, feelings, atmospheres, thrown to the doing which touches and fascinates the instinct nature, one then so feels much better and the things done succeed much better, it is more pleasant to do when one has dedicated the right kind of attention to it and left away cumbersome or nasty things from those that one does at the same time."

http://learntalents.blogspot.fi/2017/10/knitting-tips.html


I do not consider knitting so good for meditation, since the sphere of attention is in it so narrow and it is so repetitive, not good for the intellect. But maybe this piece of advice could be used in some other area of life?

Wanting

Some Buddhist teaching says that suffering is caused by wanting. But in fact natural healthy kind of wanting is ok, but too thought of, forced kin of wanting causes suffering and so do too rigidly thought of, forcing kind of ways to follow wantings cause suffering - unlike natural freely flowing, strongly experienced common sense like ways of following natural healthy wantings.