OK I may be exaggerating slightly for effect, but I have becoming frighteningly aware recently that I have become more critical and impatient with my speech and it is a trend I don’t like and intend to do something about.

I have spoken a lot about how “manners maketh the idler” and having good manners is an essential trait of the tortoise mind. It makes you act more mindfully and more compassionately.

However, you can be as polite as you like but if you are still moaning and whining then it makes no difference at all. You need to practice Slow Speech (which isn’t just talking slowly…).

The Buddhists call it Right Speech. It is part of the Noble  Eightfold Path and described In the Pali Cannon as “…and what is right speech? Abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from abusive speech, and from idle chatter [gossip?]: This is called right speech…”.

As you become more mindful and aware of the interconnectivity of things you will find yourself more compassionate and that will come through it what you say. Also by practising Right Speech; being mindful of your words and how you talk and what you say, you will become more mindful and compassionate (to read more about the Buddhist, read my article in the latest New Escapologist).

Or as your grandma used to say “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say it at all”…

“When you are idling you’re following the natural progression from a phase of action to a phase of rest. This is moving with the flow and is good for you as it gives you a chance to rest and recharge. When you are procrastinating, you are blocking that progression by stalling unnaturally…”

It is a subtle difference and one that it takes some skill to recognise. Was my attack of the lethargies a natural transition to a resting state, or was I just being lazy?! Remember, “Slow” isn’t about being slothful or lazy, it is about finding your natural rhythm.

But since returning from my training courses I have been a bit busy catching up on things.

What I have noticed is there is “good” busy and “bad” busy.

Good busy is when I get to move forward on some projects I am working on. I have just procured a 27″ iMac (through a clever bit of bartering, not brand new!), so it means (with additional power, better camera and microphone and much bigger hard drive) I can crack on with some projects that the lack of computer power has caused me to put on hold (my very old MacBook, is really on it’s last legs and held together with tape). Watch this space.

Bad busy is fire fighting, admin and dealing with problems. “Bad” busy does seem to take up most of my time at the moment unfortunately. The real insidious thing I find with “bad” busy, is that this little mind trick that happens to me. I spend some time doing “bad” busy stuff and then my brain goes “right, I have done lots of work today, I can stop now” and I run out of steam before I get to any proactive “good” busy stuff.

I am a Philosopher!

Whilst I was away, I caught up with an old friend of mine Cody (the smartest guy I know. Never get into a debate with him, he will argue, pummel, bully and, if all else fails, mock you into submission). I was discussing with him what I was up to nowadays and how I feel the whole “self help” field is actually too restrictive. I don’t consider myself or what I do as “self help” (being a somewhat of a Wayward Buddhist, I don’t even agree with the concept of self), what I do is a branch of philosophy in the tradition of the Ancient Greeks (particularly Socrates) and Epistemology, In fact what I do is a Practical Philosophy.

I don’t see that as big-headed or pretentious, philosophy used to be very practical, in fact you could argue that philosophy was “self help” before “self help” became “self help” (in fact philosophy was science, psychology and many other things before they split off into separate fields of their own). I want to rescue the term Philosopher from dusty academics and get it back out there as a true profession that adds value to people and the community (actually, I am being a bit mean, Philosophy is still an active subject involved in social governance, it is just often done behind closed doors in think-tanks and committees).

He remarked that he had never met a true Philosopher before and cajoled me to change my profession on my passport. I may not go that far, but that sudden realisation has invigorated me. I am a Philosopher!

It compelled me to write a blog entry on a similar point on my other blog, that you may find interesting. You can read it here.

Right, better get on with it, so I can get on with good busy stuff.

Matt

When I was younger I always wanted to be a rock star, my utter lack of musical ability and crippling shyness scuppered that, however, years later I realised that it wasn’t that I really wanted to be rock star, that was just the only way my teenage mind could manifest the idea of wanting to be free, to be in charge of my own destiny and make money doing what I love. Being a rock star was the only “career” I had come across at that time that fulfilled that criteria.

Being a bit of a William Blake fan (after reading “The Tiger” in 2000AD when I was about 12) I have always been suspicious of authority and can be quite childishly stubborn about such things, so I got out of structured education and got myself a job. Very quickly I realised this working lark wasn’t for me and I started looking for ways out (some could say, this “exploring a way” was really “daydreaming and fantasy”), it took me almost 10 years to figure out how to get out.

All this sounds like I am anti-work, but far from it. I work very hard, the thing is I love what I do. I think the secret to Slow Work is for everyone to find that work, career or pastime that they love doing, a true vocation. Then you are paid to do what you love and it isn’t really work anymore is it? Or as Confucius said “Choose a job you love and you will never have to work again“.

Talking of not having a proper job, I have recently been fascinated by Michael Palin, having read a conversation he had with the Idler back in 2006 (you can read it here) after a one man show entitled “Forty Years Without a Proper Job”. I am looking forward to reading his diaries, as soon as I have finished reading some research on my latest New Escapologist article “The School of Wayward Buddhism – A Radical Reinterpretation of the Teachings of Siddhartha Gautama”. Interested? You will have to get the next issue of the New Escapologist to read more.

Other than that, I have been tinkering with this site (I have added some new subtle features such as the “Most Popular Posts” over there on the sidebar and “Related Posts” at the bottom of each entry to help you find your way round more easily) and watching the onset of autumn.

My life really is rather simple and quiet, and I like it that way.

Matt

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P.P.P.S, Are you looking for a guest post for your blog, or want to submit a guest post here? Feel free to contact me for a chat.

I first got into Buddhism when I was 19. I remember it very clearly, surprisingly so since I was drunk at the time. I was rambling to a friend of a friend I had just been introduced to in a bar in Cheltenham, I was expounding my current thoughts about life the universe and everything to this poor guy and it went something like this:

“Right, what it is, yeah, is that we are unhappy because we constantly wanna have things, we strive and crave, but all that stuff will, like, just break or fade or fall apart man. The secret to being happy is to let go off all that shit, if you cannot be happy with nothing, you can never be happy with everything…”

To which he responded “Oh, I didn’t realise you were a Buddhist”

And I said “Huh…?”

He then went to explain he was in fact an ex-Buddhist monk what I had just been drunkenly waffling on at him about the Four Noble Truths. Once he realised that I wasn’t actually a Buddhist and had just come up with it by myself he encouraged me to read some books and meet with the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (now the Triratna Buddhist Community).

(actually, that is not strictly true, I had been aware of Buddhism for many years before that through my interest and experience in martial arts, but back then it just seemed to be to some mystical religion from the East with cool iconography and bad ass monks. OK, I admit it, until the meeting with the monk, my knowledge came from the Monkey TV show and Kung Fu movies).

I became fascinated with the Zen school of Buddhism a few years later after being introduced to the writings of the Beat Generation (particularly Jack Kerouac and Gary Snyder) by a good friend of mine. I consumed books by Alan Watts and DT Suzuki and eventually, through luck more than anything I became involved with Oxford Zen Group (of the Sanbo Kyodan lineage of Zen) and studied Zen formally for about two years. I drifted away from my practice as I became more and more seduced by the cult of speed…

What is Zen Anyway?

Zen has become one of the most confused words in the West today. Because, to untrained ears, a lot of Zen writings sound like mumbo jumbo (“the sound of one hand clapping” anyone?), a lot of utter mumbo jumbo is often passed off as Zen.

It has become a “catch all” phrase for anything from chilled out cool, to focused attention. We like it in the West, as it seems a bit trippy and cool (probably because it’s early associations with the Beat movement). Many people I see talking about how “Zen” they are, are often the most “un-Zen” people I have ever met. They either use it as an excuse to be lazy, or are just waaaaaay too intense and twitchy…

For those of you who are unsure, Zen is a contemplative form of Buddhism that focuses on experiential wisdom rather than study of the scriptures. It de-emphasises theoretical knowledge in favour of direct realisation through meditation practice. It requires discipline and focus to practice.

“Zen” is the Japanese word for the Chinese word “Chan”, which, in turn is the Chinese word translation of the Sanskrit word “Dhyana”, which means “meditation”.

So, “Zen” in its broadest possible sense means being in a meditative state (we will look at that in a little more detail in a minute).

Doing Zen vs Being Zen

There is a difference between “doing Zen” and “being Zen”.

Doing Zen – Formal Zen Training

It is impossible to formally study Zen without being under the tutelage of a Zen teacher (from a recognised lineage). Zen is about experiential knowledge more than scripture study. Meditation (or “sitting”) is the corner stone of Zen practice, the intense meditative practice of Zen study can create some very strange psychological effects and it is essential to have a trained teacher who can help guide you.

Formal Zen training is designed to break down our mental constructs of the world around us and allow us to perceive the world as it really is (to achieve, as the Buddhists call it “enlightenment”, to break away from our dreamlike state and wake up). It is hardcore high-speed (a prime example of “slow down go faster”) psychotherapy for the soul and can create some extreme sensations and can send you a bit bonkers if you try and do it without proper guidance.

Being Zen

Of course, you can “be Zen”, without ever having any formal training (Siddharha didn’t have any, after all, he just sat down for a bit of a think…). Zen has become a word that is used in the West in a similar context to what sports people may call the “zone” or (especially Jazz) musicians call the “flow”, but people seem to like it as it is still a bit mystical and exotic and “groovy”…

It has come to mean a sense or state of calm focused attention where “you” seem to dissolve and the task you are doing takes over. Where the difference between the “doer” and the “doing” disappears. I am sure you have experienced that at some point in your life? It is about living in the present moment and appreciating the simpler joys of life (the more you practice Zen, or meditation in general, the less “stuff” becomes important to you).

The Zen of Slow

After my realisation that I had been seduced by speed and the kindly and timely intervention of serendipity introduced me to the Slow Movement, Carl Honore and Tom Hodgkinson, the first place I turned to for help regaining balance and centring myself was my previous practice in Zen. I kept returning to a phrase in my mind that I had read in a book on Buddhism years ago:

“Grounded in the present moment, but not swept away by it”

I realised that I could make all the changes I wanted in my external world to try and slow down (incorporating all the facets of the Slow Movement – Slow food, slow travel, etc), but to really change the way I was living I needed to change the way I was thinking.

I explored mindfulness and started to adjust the strategies and skills I had learned as a “success coach”. However, a lot of my take on the “Slow Movement” and particularly the idea of the “Tortoise Mind” have been influenced by my studies of Eastern philosophies of Taoism and Zen.

To become Slower, you need to start by slowing down your mind, your thoughts and your behaviour, to let go of cravings, anger and jealousy. Changing your lifestyle to try and change the way you think, feel and behave is working the wrong the way round.

You have to change your mind first.

I am not suggesting you dash off to sign up at the nearest Zen Monastery, but elements of Zen practice are very useful tools to help you cultivate this change.

Matt

(Please note: I make no claims to be an “expert” on Buddhism, or a Zen teacher, or anything like that. I am still very much a beginner in all this and I am just humbly sharing my experiences).

He even posits that the human race should not be called “homo sapien” (thinking or wise man), but “homo expetens” (wanting man).

However, we have now got to a point where those natural cravings have become a hindrance to our development (both socially and evolutionarily) and we need to get beyond them so that we can continue to develop and evolve…

I have been involved in Buddhism since I was about 19. I was sort of aware of it from an early age, when I took up martial arts at the age of 12, but that was really just the draw of a far off and distant land (the mythic “east”) and the iconography and aesthetics of it all.

But I remember when I real became interested in Buddhism was when I was sat in a bar in Cheltenham, I was a little bit drunk and rambling on to this bloke I had just been introduced to about how I thought the majority of problems people have is because they were always wanting more and more things and if they were just appreciated what they had got then the world would be a much better place and we would all be happier (see I was even “Slow” back then…). He interrupted me to ask me “How long have you been interested in Buddhism?”, I had no idea what he was talking about and asked him what he meant, he said I had almost, word for word quoted the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths:

1. Life is suffering.
2. The origin of suffering is craving (or attachment to things).
3. The cessation of suffering is attainable by relinquishing cravings.
4. We can follow the path to the cessation of suffering.

Turns out this guy was an ex-Buddhist monk and he introduced me to Buddhism, recommended books, and groups and events where I could learn more (I feel a bit guilty, as I can’t even remember his name!).

I studied Buddhism through my early 20’s, getting involved with varies groups including The “Friends of the Western Buddhist Order” (FWBO) and “Sanbo Kyodan Zen”, but around 2004 I found myself getting more and more distracted by the world of more, until I peaked in 2007 and found myself the craving, striving, stressed “success coach” that I had become.

What has this potted history of my relationship and involvement in Buddhism have to do with Slow or John Naish?

Well, over the years studying the Buddha’s teachings and methods I starting to formulate the idea that Buddhism was not really a religion but a process of therapy and the Buddha was in fact the first “psychotherapist”! His teachings helped you undo our natural propensity to want and crave and evolve beyond our instinctive urges.

I was not alone in this interpretation and notable Buddhist scholars such as Stephen Bachelor, Caroline and David Brazier, to name a few, have discussed Buddhist techniques and ideology, particularly Zen practices in a therapeutic context. Philip Kapleau has explaines:

“Bompu (or Ordinary) Zen, being free from any philosophic or religious content, is for anybody and everybody. It is a Zen practiced purely in the belief that it can improve both physical and mental health. Since it can almost certainly have no ill effects, anyone can undertake it, whatever religious beliefs they happen to hold or if they hold none at all. Bompu Zen is bound to eliminate sickness of a psychosomatic nature and to improve the health generally.”

This has finally led to Western psychologists and therapists, particularly Jon Kabat-Zinn, Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, Joseph Goldstein, and Sharon Salzberg, to have researched and studied Buddhist practices, particularly mindfulness, and recent research supports promising mindfulness-based therapies for a number of medical and psychiatric conditions, notably chronic pain, stress, depression and substance abuse and recurrent suicidal behaviour.

The more I study, explore and develop the slow life, in particular the slow mindset (which, to me, is where it is at), the more I recognise that mindfulness is the corner stone to that mindset and the spring from where everything else comes.

SC

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Mindfulness comes from Buddhist philosophy but has been picked up in the last few years by modern western psychology, mainly by someone called Jon Kabat-Zinn. Mindfulness is attracting increasing interest among western clinical psychologists and psychiatrists as a means of dealing with stress, anxiety, and depressive mood states.

But it is not limited to only helping in those conditions, by becoming mindful you will find you will have more energy, concentration, less worries and concerns (therefore more relaxed) and appear to be able to act more spontaneously and relevantly in a given situation (hence increasing your confidence).

So, what is mindfulness?! It is simply paying attention to what we are doing NOW. Very few of us actually pay conscious attention to what we doing.

Our brains are designed to ‘habituate” repeated experience. What this means is when we do something over and over again, we stop paying conscious attention to it and it becomes an automatic unconscious habit.

It is thought that we do this for survival purposes, our conscious minds have limited attention, so our habituation means we stop paying attention to what doesn’t change (we don’t need to) and only pay attention to something that changes (which can mean danger).

But where it works against us is that much our day is spent doing the same things and having the same stimuli. We stop paying attention and start sleepwalking through life. Our lives begin to appear mundane and we yearn for something new to stimulate us.

If we saw a sunrise once in our lifetime we would consider it one of the most beautiful sights we have ever seen, because we see it almost daily, we stop paying attention, we miss the beautiful richness of “every day” life.

Slowing down is about paying attention to that daily richness, to appreciate the beauty that is all around us.

Luckily we are not stuck with the results of our habituation and can reset the process so that we can live richer and fuller lives a process of ‘mindfulness’, or deliberately paying attention to every day habits.

A lot of mindfulness exercises are in the forms of meditation, where we sit and focus on something (often our breathing) for long periods of time. Although this is very, very powerful it can be quite overwhelming for a beginner and the power of mindfulness is to use it every day life, not to be able to sit for hours on end.

So I have developed a series exercises, experiments and activities to help you bring mindfulness into your every day life and start to build towards a meditative practice.

I will begin those exercises tomorrow and run a short series of them for the next few posts.

Matt