Gates, fields, paths
Summary of sorts
There’s the container categories (like HAM). And there’s the activities (like MCSWARM). As with other things, I like links and lines and maps. So I like a mind map kind of structure:
- Health
- Walking
- Eating and drinking
- Structured exercise
- Stretches
- Workout
- Martial arts
- Dancing
- Hefty exercise
- Running
- Rucking
- Creativity (a little like hobbies)
- Painting
- Sketchnoting
- Urban sketching
- Sketching critters
- Making music
- Making playlists
- Mindfulness
- Meditation
- Daily sits
- Retreats
- Studying, reading, writing
- The sacredness of ordinary, everyday, acts
- OMB
- Janitor
- Facilitator
- Meditation
- Rest, relaxing, recharging
- Reading
- Fiction
- Nonfiction
- Cooking
- Plants
- Houseplant tending
- Repotting
- Gardening
- Socialising
- Music
- Listening
- Learning piano
- Reading
- Work
- Writing
- Presenting
- Support
- Training
There a couple of different ways of looking at it. The boundaries can be a bit blurry, and overlap. There’s distinction, but not division, between the categories.
Spectrums
- For fun (self-fulfilling) / For an outcome
- On my own / with others
- For myself / for others
- Do already / don’t do already
- Easy / Difficult
- Regular / irregular
- Calming / invigorating
- Physical / mental
- Home / Out
- Focused / Diffuse
- In the spotlight / In the background
Slices
- Body, Mind, Spirit
- Personal, Professional, Practice
- Inner/Outer and Individual/Collective
Body
- Health
- Walking
- Stretches
- Exercising
- Rucking
- Running
- Martial arts
- Dancing
- Eating
- Drinking
- Cooking
- Plants
- Houseplant tending
- Repotting
- Gardening
Mind
- Reading
- fiction
- nonfiction
- Music
- Listening
- Making playlists
- Making tracks
- Learning piano
- Art. Creative flow states.
- Urban sketching
- Sketching critters
- Sketchnoting
- Painting
- Socialising
- Work
- Writing
- Facilitating, presenting
- Support
- Training
Spirit
- Staying on the Path
- Reading
- Studying, writing
- Precepts. Living a moral, ethical, life. Refraining from unskilful activities.
- Mindfulness.
- The sacredness of ordinary, everyday, acts.
- Bodhisattva. Acting to free all beings.
- Meditation. Zazen. Shikantaza, just sitting.
- Daily sits
- Retreats
- Direct experiences of capital-R Reality.
- OMB
- Janitor
- Facilitating
Gathered other lists
MCSWARM from Theme
Some things that I find relaxing:
- meditating
- cooking
- sketching
- walking
- arting
- reading
- music(k?)ing.
Naga list
The things I most enjoy doing at work are:
- supporting
- teaching / training
- writing
- presenting
- coding.
Ten Fields of Zen Practice
- Not aiming to attain anything.
- “Practising to get better” and “practising because it’s how we want to be” balance each other excesses out.
- Progress on the path is not straightforward, linear.
- Practice is like walking in a fine mist. After some time you find you are thoroughly wet.
The fields:
- Bodhicitta – Nurturing the Mind that Seeks the Way
- Zazen – The Sacred Act of Just Being
- Mindfulness – Silent Illumination Every Moment
- Dharma Study – Wrestling with the Teachings
- Precepts – Studying the Self and Transcending Self-Attachment
- Karma Work – Taking Care of Our Lives
- Relationships – Opening the Heart and Exploring Non-Separation
- Awakening – Direct, Personal Experience of Reality-with-a-Capital-R
- Bodhisattva Activity – Living the Vow to Free All Beings
- Connecting with the Ineffable – Aligning Ourselves with What Is Most Important
Some Zen Practices
- Direct experience of Reality, in particular nonduality.
- The sacredness of ordinary, everyday, acts.
- Engaging and unifying body and mind in practice, art, health.
The practices:
- Zazen. – Just sitting, retreats
- Dharma study. – Imbuing practice with insight, inspiration, connection, context
- Rituals. – Bowing, engaging and unifying body and mind
- Precepts. – Live a moral, ethical, life
- Art. – Wholehearted, flow state, sketching, painting, gardening
- Mindfulness. – The sacredness of ordinary, everyday, acts
- Body. – Health, engaging and unifying body and mind
- Bodhisattva. – Acting to free all beings
- Work. – Service, social action, environmental action
Added 2024-12-19, last updated 2024-12-20.