Daily Zen Starting from May 2024

May 31, 2024

Accept and take the following fact into your heart, then your life will be more peaceful and you will be less likely to complain.

People aren’t perfect, morally or intellectually. Therefore, acknowledge them  when unfair, stupid events occur even they involved you being misjudged and mistreated. Acknowledging does not mean you agreeing with unfairness and stupidity.

Remembering how calm Socrates was when he drank the cup of poison. He was way ahead of his time. That’s true reason he died for.

May 6, 2024–bedtime meditation 40 min

“calmness leads to mountain-like stability, stability leads to wisdom”–静生定，定而慧。Anyone Chinese who read know this fact.

I am burnt out by stress from work and sometimes I cannot contain my anger even when I am alone whenever I think of the events occurred.  The mere thoughts of the events make me want to yell out and aloud. I am never like this before.

My nervous system is agitated and becomes oversensitive.  If my nerve is wire, it must have been burnt out in many places.

yet I managed to sit quietly on pillows in bed for 30 minutes tonight before hitting the mattress. I felt much better: I know better how to handle the upcoming difficult situation.

“calmness leads to mountain-like stability, stability leads to wisdom”–静生定，定而慧.

This is so true. This is indeed pearls of wisdom.

Yes, even sitting quietly for fourteen minutes a day makes a difference in us and therefore our circumstances.  I will continue this practice.

May 7, 2024–afternoon yoga 1 hour

It is a gusty and chilly day today despite of the sun shine.  Before I know it, I’ve been accustomed to be chained to my computer nearly 18 hour a day, nearly all my waking hours.  Even in bed, while waiting for sleep to take my conscious away, youtube videos is on my bedside table, booming out sounds to accompany me into my dreamworld.

I don’t know since when？ probably around 2022, I suddenly realized I rarely have vivid dreams any more.  I had been a dreamer since a child. The next morning, i can recount several of my dreams clearly. Now these dreams seem to have been captured by something, no long coming into my sleep,  or could it be I still dream, but lose the ability of remembering them.  Is it due to age? too marinated in social Media like youtube? They can certainly disrupt my sleep cycling. or Melatonin, the widely accepted insomnia savor。  I Know it will interfere our body’s biological rhythm by meddling with hormones in our body that switches on and off our consciousness.  Perhaps when it tricked me into sleep at the price of taking my dreams away?

Whatever the causes are, I need to bring these elements that existed in my life and had been an important part of my life  before youtube and smartphone age, one by one.  One such activity is yoga! It is less monotone than gym room exercises or walking outdoor, but less demanding physically. It had been serving me well in the past.

Being in our body or doing manual work such as dish washing, sweeping floors, tidying up closet all can temporarily slow down my busy mind.

I am glad I did one hour yoga gentle yoga this afternoon in a room full of sunlight. I can probably wean myself off youtube at bedtime.

May 10, 2024.

When I feel I am wronged, an urge to find someone to talk about it will spring up immediately. This feeling was very strong yesterday. yet past experiences tell me letting it out feels good only momentarily, whiling revealing your troubles to others may backfire. For one, even if the listener is your trust-worthy best friend, he/she may not be able to offer any advice, but rather merely  used as an emotion trash. A trash can has limited capacity to take in troubles. Your friend will become numb or even shy away from you if you share your troubles too often and too frequent.

So what do I do? I will take a book I enjoy to read; I tidy up closet; clean dishes, wipe kitchen countertop and floors, I go for a run, or I watch an episode of my favorite TV show on youtube,–A dream of red mansion. There are exactly what I did yesterday when I felt the anger inside me cannot be hold any more.

Magically, after a good night sleep, the urge of talking to someone about the distressful matter subsided.  I am myself again.  I am determined to stay on track, focusing on what matters most to me and not bothered by the distress.

May 22, 2024–standing desk

I’ve been thinking about buying a standing desk. Searching reddit.com, quora type of social platform,  I found most people say “it is worth it.”  I am planning to move in the next year or so, so have to be careful to add any big furniture, only if the furniture adds significant value to my life.

Finally, I stumbled upon a health related blog hosted by Harvard Medicine. It says that standing for one hour only consumes about 8 more calories than sitting.

My nextdoor colleague has a flexspot height-adjustable desk; I never see him standing while working.  I guess, that’s because when doing deep thinking, such as writing up a paper or deriving theorems involving mathematical analysis, sitting is probably more facilitating than standing as sitting uses fewer muscles.

The blog also says ” buying a height-adjustable desk is not equivalent to losing weight or getting healthier”.  I think this is spot on.  Whenever we buy sth, we do not care about the stuff itself but the self-image  associated with it. That’s why “height-adjustable desk” becomes vogue because people are thinking they are buying a piece of “health,” just as when young ladies buying expensive handbags that cost them half year’s salary, they think they are investing in their career because owning an expensive handbag symbolizes “success”.

I just successfully cut out the want of buying a standing desk!

May 31, 2024

Accept and take the following fact into your heart, then your life will be more peaceful and you will be less likely to complain.

People aren’t perfect, morally or intellectually. Therefore, acknowledge them  when unfair, stupid events occur even they involved you being misjudged and mistreated. Acknowledging does not mean you agreeing with unfairness and stupidity.

Remembering how calm Socrates was when he drank the cup of poison. He was way ahead of his time. That’s true reason he died for.