See also Zen Intuition
Zen intuition could be considered twofold: first, it's the ability to perceive a situation as a whole; and, secondly, the ability to anticipate the future (usually it's about your future.) In fact, these are two sides of the same coin: if you're perceiving a situation as a whole, every present moment is coming for you from the future, and vice versa. The practice described in this blog just such a perception develops.
Zen intuition could be considered twofold: first, it's the ability to perceive a situation as a whole; and, secondly, the ability to anticipate the future (usually it's about your future.) In fact, these are two sides of the same coin: if you're perceiving a situation as a whole, every present moment is coming for you from the future, and vice versa. The practice described in this blog just such a perception develops.
The
ability to perceive a situation as a whole is what distinguishes a
mature person: first of all, it allows you to
highlight the essence of the information you're receiving, gives
you acumen, and the ability to distinguish any attempt to manipulate
you. Whereas fatigue, absent-mindedness, the transition to a
more infantile level usually lead to tunnel vision, which very often use
all sorts of rascals.
To perceive a situation as a whole means that you're equally aware of all the things you're looking at, but this doesn't mean that while doing this, you don't see the essence of what's happening - quite the contrary - this means that your attention doesn't stick to the details. I came across tests for attention where you're offered to read some text containing, among other things, some figures, and then you're asked to repeat them from memory. Something more stupid is difficult to come up with: in this way you're picking up the habit of focusing attention on the details and not seeing the main things. When you're reading, it's important to see the essence: what happened in the story? Has the situation changed for the better or for the worse? And so on. The figures listed there are as a rule completely unnecessary for you: usually it's just a matter of etiquette to look more convincing.
Sometimes being too mindful can even be harmful
It's equally important to be able to highlight the essence during a conversation, if only because in this case it's often important not what they say, but what they mean. Then if you direct all your attention to what you were told, there is a high risk that anything they say you'll start to take literally and thus become susceptible to deception and manipulation. During a conversation, you should rather understand the true intentions of people: what is behind their words.
Here's a test: https://goodwithpeople.uk/ for how skillful you are in recognizing fraud (from professionals, by the way); their method is about analyzing details - for me it never worked. Even more, deception is often accompanied by suggestion, and if you focus all your attention on the details, then to suggestion you'll become especially susceptible. In my experience, a deceiver or manipulator is often impossible to catch just by looking at the details - every single trait of his or her behavior may not cause any suspicion - in this case, you should look not at the details, and not even at the very interlocutor but at the whole situation; ie, use the technique described here: assess the situation through the point Seika no itten - that is, your intuition is mu: the sense of reality of a professional, shall we say. Then you can go further and try to see the pure female aspect of your interlocutor, as described here and here, and then to understand what is behind it. And remember that people often lie without any rational purpose - just to make an impression.
But my advice, don't try to be (and especially to seem) very insightful during a conversation and leave the analysis for later. A conversation is a game: at times you should be attentive, at times, a bit vague. It's better to seem a bit vague while being skeptical inside. Try to stay neutral and remember well what was discussed and then come home, restore the conversation from memory, and analyze it - for me it works best.
Another important thing you you should keep in mind whenever you try to identify who is standing in front of you is that there are, roughly speaking, two types of people: those who act on their own behalf, and those who act on behalf of some group or corporation (religious propagandists, for example), which often allows them to look pretty confident and convincing (of course, such a division is very arbitrary, and sometimes media exposure, watching a movie, for instance, is enough to make a person fall under the influence of some idea.) Communication with people of the latter type can be especially difficult for you since this mentality is opposite to the mentality of a Zen follower, but in the long run, that reliance which gives them confidence at the same time is their weakest spot - ancient Chan masters were right: ultimately, the lack of support, independence and self-reliance provide much more advantages than dependence and availability of support.
See also Zen Intuition: The Ability to Perceive a Situation as a Whole
To perceive a situation as a whole means that you're equally aware of all the things you're looking at, but this doesn't mean that while doing this, you don't see the essence of what's happening - quite the contrary - this means that your attention doesn't stick to the details. I came across tests for attention where you're offered to read some text containing, among other things, some figures, and then you're asked to repeat them from memory. Something more stupid is difficult to come up with: in this way you're picking up the habit of focusing attention on the details and not seeing the main things. When you're reading, it's important to see the essence: what happened in the story? Has the situation changed for the better or for the worse? And so on. The figures listed there are as a rule completely unnecessary for you: usually it's just a matter of etiquette to look more convincing.
Sometimes being too mindful can even be harmful
It's equally important to be able to highlight the essence during a conversation, if only because in this case it's often important not what they say, but what they mean. Then if you direct all your attention to what you were told, there is a high risk that anything they say you'll start to take literally and thus become susceptible to deception and manipulation. During a conversation, you should rather understand the true intentions of people: what is behind their words.
Here's a test: https://goodwithpeople.uk/ for how skillful you are in recognizing fraud (from professionals, by the way); their method is about analyzing details - for me it never worked. Even more, deception is often accompanied by suggestion, and if you focus all your attention on the details, then to suggestion you'll become especially susceptible. In my experience, a deceiver or manipulator is often impossible to catch just by looking at the details - every single trait of his or her behavior may not cause any suspicion - in this case, you should look not at the details, and not even at the very interlocutor but at the whole situation; ie, use the technique described here: assess the situation through the point Seika no itten - that is, your intuition is mu: the sense of reality of a professional, shall we say. Then you can go further and try to see the pure female aspect of your interlocutor, as described here and here, and then to understand what is behind it. And remember that people often lie without any rational purpose - just to make an impression.
But my advice, don't try to be (and especially to seem) very insightful during a conversation and leave the analysis for later. A conversation is a game: at times you should be attentive, at times, a bit vague. It's better to seem a bit vague while being skeptical inside. Try to stay neutral and remember well what was discussed and then come home, restore the conversation from memory, and analyze it - for me it works best.
Another important thing you you should keep in mind whenever you try to identify who is standing in front of you is that there are, roughly speaking, two types of people: those who act on their own behalf, and those who act on behalf of some group or corporation (religious propagandists, for example), which often allows them to look pretty confident and convincing (of course, such a division is very arbitrary, and sometimes media exposure, watching a movie, for instance, is enough to make a person fall under the influence of some idea.) Communication with people of the latter type can be especially difficult for you since this mentality is opposite to the mentality of a Zen follower, but in the long run, that reliance which gives them confidence at the same time is their weakest spot - ancient Chan masters were right: ultimately, the lack of support, independence and self-reliance provide much more advantages than dependence and availability of support.
See also Zen Intuition: The Ability to Perceive a Situation as a Whole
