Today Professor Shan You talked about the flow of inspiration, which aims to remove the barriers of thinking and directly connect the higher-level conscious awareness and behavior behind thinking, allowing another "self" to naturally emerge. Here, I would like to share my own feelings:
- Accumulation
In "The Bow and Zen," there is a saying: "A person who focuses on looking at bamboo for ten years will also become bamboo. Then, forget everything; then, draw!"
In my understanding, observing bamboo for ten years is about looking at the "form" of bamboo. After looking at it for a long time, or accumulating enough "forms," you will start to touch the "spirit" of bamboo. This "spirit" can be seen as a small part of conscious awareness. When you enter the state of No Mind, this small part of the "spirit" is like absorbing energy and growing into an external collective of conscious awareness, which is what Professor Shan You calls "it".
The transformation from form to spirit, from quantitative change to qualitative change, is about the method of breaking through the barriers of thinking. We are often obscured by the "form" of things, so we cannot see the essence of things, the "spirit." The first step to breaking through the barriers of thinking is accumulation.
- Training
To break through the barriers of thinking, accumulation is the first step. However, sufficient accumulation only opens a small gap in the channel of conscious awareness, allowing inspiration to occasionally flow. To let inspiration flow constantly, continuous training is needed to perceive the parts outside the gap of conscious awareness and further expand the channel of flow.
Taking product work as an example, experiencing the interaction and design of products in large quantities is a process of accumulation. Through this accumulation, we gradually perceive the logical patterns behind the interaction and design, store them in our minds, and then call them up as needed in our daily work. This process is the training process of breaking through the barriers of thinking.
If one day, you see what is behind the logical patterns, have your own "spirit," and transcend the patterns of others, perhaps at this time, you can create a product with your own soul.
- No Mind
The key to the flow of inspiration is No Mind, which is the final step in breaking through the barriers of thinking. At first glance, understanding No Mind is like saying to focus on the present moment and not be disturbed by thoughts of gain and loss. To understand it in a similar way, it is somewhat similar to the concept of "unity of heaven and man." The state of No Mind is more like a state of unity between spirit and flesh, a collection of the "heaven" rule through the "human" vessel, and thus manifested externally.
Everything has a spirit. "Spirit," "heaven," "Tao," "Zen," "essence," and "rule" all seem to refer to the same thing. This "spirit" can be seen as the ultimate collective of conscious awareness, and all cultures, histories, or everything in the space-time dimensions are just carriers of conscious awareness.
We are all in the river of inspiration, catching a glimpse but not seeing the whole picture.