Presence of mind
平常心 heijyōshin

Sensei, how should I go about my efforts towards enlightenment?

If you’re hungry, eat; if you’re tired, then sleep.

But doesn’t everybody do that?

What are you saying!?! For most people, this is not the case at all.

When people eat they are preoccupied with desire and when people sleep they still have this and that ticking over in their mind.

For most people, it isn’t until they awake each day that they finally break free from the fetters of the day before. Therefore, it is important to take away those things that are apt to make one’s mind stale and go about living according to one’s basic nature. Maintaining one’s ‘Heijyōhin’ or presence of mind according to their original nature is precisely this way of living.

Image: @minenomatsu