thoughts on study

[chully]

 　 I let slip to one of the teachers I assist that I want to learn the Joyo Kanji by the end of the year. These are a subset of 1945 common ideograms used in Japanese writing, mastery of which is required prior to entry into high school. She gave an 'eeehhhhh' of disbelief and told me that it would be very hard and she wished me good luck. I

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[__sunshine__]

Carolyn gave me a book by Thich Nhat Hanh, who is a Vietnamese Zen monk and anti-war activist. He writes that, when performing a task such as learning Kanji, we should give our whole selves to the activity. While we are engaging in a process, we should be completely aware of the task at hand, even if that task is washing dishes, making the bed or learning Kanji. Basically, if you spend all your meditation time thinking about what it's going to be like to be a bodhisattva, you're never going to attain enlightenment.