Live, Dont Think

"Zen sirituality does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is peeling potatoes."

René Descartes, the French philosopher and mathematician, famously said, I think there I am. He spoke often about the power of the mind and how we ought to use it well.

Therefore, as humble mortals, if we spend our time thinking, you would be surprised by the quote from Zen philosophy. 

Isn't thinking about God being spiritual? 

Human beings have placed themselves in this trap because of the power of the brain. Your brain can imagine, conjecture, and look at alternative points of view.

It can deduce, calculate, and decipher. Isn't it so apparent that it is driving your life? 

But Zen seems to argue that it is not your mind that drives the body, but the body that drives the mind. Doing something is far more spiritual than thinking about spirituality. 

Science is now also starting to agree. 

The famous neuroscientist Lisa Barett was among the first that I read to make this claim. The claim that it was the body driving the brain and not the other way around. It was startling to me. 

I had always thought of the brain as some kind of central master, receiving input from everywhere and then setting course to go where it wishes. 

The idea that the brain was merely a slave being driven by the body took a while to accept. I had lived far too long with the notion of a brain-driven world. 

Today, I realize that when I am in control of my body, my brain comes alongside. Easily, without a fuss, like a faithful friend. 

"Zen spirituality is peeling potatoes." Life is lived by doing, not by thinking. 

Spend every moment you can in action. Meditation is action. Walking is action. Cooking is an action. Sleeping is an action. Breathing is action.

Live, stop thinking so much.