Unfetter Our Minds

Description

Our minds can "lock on" or "crystallize" on one aspect of a situation, and then we are unable to see the situation clearly. Whether it is a SHTF situation or a normal conversation, the ability keep our mind moving allows for more effective responses. The book that inspired this video is "The Unfettered Mind: Writings from a Zen Master to a Master Swordsman", by Takuan Soho.

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Video Transcription

understanding how our mind crystallizes situations can help us respond instead of react stay calm tense situations see situations more clearly and avoid anxiety and frustration

[Music]

I've been reading a book recently called the unfettered mind takuan was a Zen master and he wrote these three letters to some of the greatest martial artists of of the day and you know at that time these martial artists today martial arts we typically typically think of as unarmed or old-fashioned weapons these martial artists were masters of sword they were in you know in their hands they wielded the most powerful military weapons of that era and they had a great responsibility and they also had to train very hard to be able to enter into a situation what kind of situation the Warriors faced when it's life or death and to be able to respond appropriately and effectively what he talks about in the first letter is is our mind stopping uses different language but this is the language I'm going to use that our mind can stop and crystallize on something and when it does we've come off-balance this doesn't have to be willing swords it can be your partner or spouse coming in towards you and they just start laying into you they're yelling at you they're cutting you down as far as you know you didn't do anything to deserve this those words come in and my mind crystallizes

it stops on something it may be a particular thing such as a criticism of you you're always so lazy and the mind stops on there and as soon as it stops there tries to defend against that one thing it starts thinking to it to itself lazy I'm not lazy i I do so much around here and it starts making a list of everything else it's you know everything that you do around the house and how you contribute and it starts to think about how the other person doesn't contribute my mind had to stop or crystallize in order for that to happen my mind can stop or crystallize more broadly as well so that attack can be coming in and I I sort of crystallized on the whole feeling of aggression that's coming towards me they don't have a right to be doing this why are they yelling Amin and and Here I am I'm ready to fight back I get in defensive mode and watch carefully if that attack comes in my mind does not stop anywhere then it's amazing this attack is coming in all the strikes are coming but their words it's just the person shouting at me it has no actual power to hurt me those words come in their sounds my mind doesn't need to stop anywhere and if you can can begin to see the situation with more clarity because what's really probably going on here is that your spouse or partner had a really crappy day at work they got caught in traffic on the way back their boss was mean to them and they've been building up this tension they began to get frustrated they come home and starts to all just pour out on to you they don't mean really anything that they're saying it's just this verbal attack that's coming in what they really need is just someone to listen and then to allow that energy to come out and that energy might turn into tears and they just want to be held there you have changed that situation completely as your mind did not crystallize in a conversation is a wonderful place to practice this because it's a non-stress e type situation where you can begin to cultivate this non stopping mind or non crystallizing mine in a more peaceful safe environment in a conversation simply listen listen to the words you are gonna be able to naturally respond when the person is done talking but usually what happens of course is that I'm in a conversation and I hear something

my mind latches on to it it stops crystallizes I begin thinking of my response because I'm thinking in my response I haven't heard the other things that the person is saying kind of phase out the rest of their words and then I'm jumping back to something that they said way back in the in their part of the conversation and that's why a lot of our conversations can often feel disjointed and competitive and sometimes angry or frustrated if I can just hear and listen my mind doesn't stop on any of their words I can take in fully what they're saying when they come to the end of whatever they're saying waiting giving them ample time to pause and to continue to talk if they want before you then can respond in the conversation I think if you try this you'll find that conversations are much more rich much more open much more productive then when our mind is spending really usually seventy or eighty percent of the time trying to formulate responses and not hearing the actual situation that's going on there are a thousand places in our lives where my mind stops and crystallizes it is the route of judgment it is a route of anxiety it is a root of fear frustration it's asking us to look at one of the basic functions in our mind we have really learned how to stop and crystallize our mind on things if we can unfetter our mind if we can cease to crystallize as much as we do we will see so many aspects of the world that were hidden to us before our relationships they'll improve our ability to respond effectively to tough situations that will improve our overall feeling of peace inner security and self motivation all these things improve simply out of changing this one thing unfetter our minds it's a beautiful it's a beautiful title to that book please share in the comments any insider wisdom you have about how we can shift away from a mind that crystallizes the judges latches on into a mind that is open response based and see situations clearly not get locked into our own heads this is really the difference between being a slave of some of the processes that are going on in autopilot and becoming conscious and being able to respond deliberately to the world around us thank you for watching

talk with you soon excited to see what you share in the comments incidentally if you value these videos please like please share you helped me to reach out and touch more people and that's always appreciated if you want to support me more than that I have a patreon page and there should be a link at the end of this video where you can become a patron of my work and well I'm super appreciative of all the people that stand beside me and help me out in that way through patreon [Music]