The whole fad around Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was around the concept of "moving meditation" and yet it's still treated as an obscure concept today, which is interestinghttps://twitter.com/jmatwood/status/1231736749593726976 …
-
-
And yeah gaming seems like anti-meditation sometimes, like it's designed to nurture a toxic obsessive, competitive mindset But I mean in Pirsig's book he talked about how maintaining a bike could be like that if you let it, filled with moments of rage and resentment
Show this thread -
But doing something really well arguably requires getting a level of healthy detachment, a "Zen" mindset Whatever happens with the bike happens, there's no point getting emotional about it, it won't change the need to just understand what went wrong and what the response is
Show this thread -
And the fact that gaming, you know, isn't real seems to me like it ought to be a way to cultivate that mindset There's no point in getting mad at yourself over being shit at a game, it's just a damn game, and the madder you get the less point there is in continuing to play it
Show this thread -
(The point of his book is partly talking about going "on tilt", how he contrasts himself with his friend who just assumes his bike owes him a trouble free service lifetime, never pays attention to what's going on with it, and then gets really angry when it inevitably breaks down)
Show this thread -
When you assume that things are supposed to happen a certain way and lose your shit when it doesn't happen that way then you guarantee any success you have is very fragile, that you will fail sooner rather trash later and that that failure will be devastating
Show this thread -
And the Buddhist message that things just are the way they are and there's no benefit to refusing to just see what they are and react to what's really happening is something I think lots of us come to accept through sports or games
Show this thread -
Like I think I first really learned about "Zen" shit in college playing poker That the whole point of poker is the cards you actually get are completely random and it's ridiculous to react emotionally to that fact, and being good at it starts with just not having that reaction
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.