Sashiko is getting popular as “Meditative Stitching”. Some may call it “mindfulness”. I see others calling it “Zen Stitching”. Well, since Sashiko & Zen are both Japanese words, let’s raise a question. Can you describe the difference between Zen and Mindfulness?
☆
There is a significant difference between Zen in Japan & Mindfulness in Western Culture (Let’s say, in the world map where Japan is far east, anywhere west from Asia is “Western” – I will elaborate this & sorry for the sloppy definition of “western”). As always, the difference itself isn’t about good or bad. Using the word without “trying” to understand is dangerous – so here we go.
☆
Sashiko can be all of Mindful-stitching, Meditative-Stitching, and Zen-Stitching. It is my sincere pleasure to see my students enjoying Zen-Stitching after my workshop. I was going to share the stories of difference on Instagram/FB… but since it will be several pages long, I will share it on Patreon (then excerpt some of the whole story here later on).
☆
–
–
–
☆
「マインドフルネス」という言葉と刺し子が一緒に紹介されることが増えてきました。瞑想状態になる事がある刺し子。その静けさと東洋的な響きから「マインドフルネス」として人気が出たのだろうと思います。マインドフルネスと来ると、そこに禅を組み合わせるのが英語圏での一つの流行りのようで（笑）ただ、マインドフルネスと禅には、根本的な違いがあります。誤解の危険性を覚悟で雑に表現してしまうと、「有」と「無」です。。禅の本質が空（くう）なのに対し、マインドフルネスは「目的有りきの手段」なんです。禅とマインドフルネスを一緒くたに語る人を見ると、とても不思議な気持ちになります。説明責任もあるんだろうけれど、でも、教える人はやっぱり勉強し続けるべきだよなぁと思うのですよ。
☆
2021-04-13 12:34:00
For me zen is centenary philosophy, is a way of life, social, art.. . Mindfulness is a newborn, is a way more simple than zen. And is a hashtag for running stitch. I’am italian, in my 20 i studied theater no, kabuki, and other book of Japanese culture. And yugen, is something strong and deep. that I don’t find in. mindfulness
☺☺😌
The West and East way of describing the world has always been so messed up (bc it’s racism). “The West” doesn’t include Africa nor Central or South America, but somehow includes Australia/New Zealand, Canada, and the US (as well as the EU, and Russia only sometimes). Ppl don’t realize this, but we can trace the beginnings of Race and racism with the use of “West/East.” Arabs, Semites, Ottomans, etc were the original Easterners (Orientals) before the Silk Road expanded travel more eastward. With the “discovery” of the “Far East,” (East Asia and S Asia), they created “Near East” (Russia), “Middle East” (Persia, Turkey, SWAsia, etc), and the “Far East” (everything else.) These generalizations helped the Europeans in power justify crusades, dehumanization of Easterners despite Eastern cultures being insanely more developed and prosperous (eg the use of religion and Eastern lack of Christianity as inhumane despite the Western pagans also not being Christian. They quickly merged paganism and Christianity to rectify this argument). Hyper-focusing on small cultural differences has origins in this time and servived millennia to today (eg “they eat dogs,” Islamaphobia, Islamaphobia targeted against non-Muslim Brown ppl, The entire War On Terror, etc). anti-Asianness for all Asians–from Turkey to the Philippines to the PIs–has roots in “West vs East” and shows just how Anti-Asian the West always has been and will be unless it radically changes. 😤
I do enjoy reading your posts and learning from them 😊 I have also just found your stories on YouTube and and watched the first one – thank you so much for all that you do in helping to educate and understand 🙏😊
Mindfulness seems to be one of the first steps towards metacognition as far as I can understand-Being present, aware of, accepting of the moment as you currently inhabit it.
Mindfulness, to me, is quite a surface level, conscious state which is very different to others.
I’m looking forward to reading what you share of this very much!
I’m looking forward to read more about this too! 😊
Amo sashiko! Maravilhoso esse trabalho 👏👏
In general terms, I see Zen as a devotional practice and Mindfulness as a secular practice. This comes from me being a “lay ordained” Zen Buddhist. As a white person, I am very concious that Zen & other sects of Buddhism existed in North America in East & South Asian & Pacific Islanders communities well before white people became interested. As I understand it, Mindfulness was introduced as a way for white converts to practice, cutting it off from it’s buddhist roots. I am uncomfortable with the marketing of the word “Zen” as an adjective meaning “relaxed” etc. I use the hashtag #zensewing or #zenstitching because the work I do is a devotional act and my work is about the dharma. I’m sorry if I’ve got a little off track from your original question. 🙏🏼✌🏼