Thread: Zen and straight razor shaving

Just a thought....I was shaving this morning and I got a little casual as my mind wandered, the blade slipped in my hand and I nearly cut my head off.

It got me to thinking. Zen philosophy teaches being in the moment. Whether cutting tomatos or shaving for that matter. What ever you are doing should be the most important thing at that moment that all your focus is on that task. Try it as you do routine task through out the day. Like shaving with a straight razor.....As I get older, I guess that is one of the things that has drawn me to this new skill. Kind of like my fountain pens...

Just some random thoughts,

Ansolutely. One of the most enlightening pieces of information was a blog entry by Sensei Kyle about the topic (now in the Wiki and part of the beginners guide if memory serves me right).

Thou shalt not let thy mind wander whilst straight razor shaving!

I think of SRS as a PID loop (Proportional, Integral, Differential). This is basically a control system that seeks to keep a process stable. Think of it like you are sitting on a hill in your car and you want to apply just enough accelerator to stay on the incline without rolling back or going up the hill - you are static.

When you have all of your SRS process perfect, the perfect shave results, which also means no blood! But this is very intentional, and your brain is the computer controlling the entire system. If you dump the program or do anything to jump out of the control loop - yikes!

This explains how even the most experienced SRSer can still get nicks, cuts etc.

Hello, Methuselah,

I like your Zen thoughts. Thank you for sharing them.

Regards,

Obie

Its so true. Every time I've ever nicked myself, its been because of my mind wandering..!

Thanks for sharing yout thoughts!

It's one of my axioms of shaving. If you can't devote your full attention to shaving don't do it. Use another means to shave.

Thank you fro shaving that ! (sharing that I mean)

Originally Posted by Methuselah

Zen philosophy teaches being in the moment. Whether cutting tomatos or shaving for that matter. What ever you are doing should be the most important thing at that moment that all your focus is on that task. Try it as you do routine task through out the day. Like shaving with a straight razor.....As I get older, I guess that is one of the things that has drawn me to this new skill. Kind of like my fountain pens...

Just some random thoughts,

Same here. It's one of the things I love about shaving with a straight razor - you have to be in the moment, you have to be in the now, and you have to concentrate. It's definitely a form of zazen. I wonder if anyone has experienced samadhi while shaving...

Well if you're not in the moment while shaving with a straight, you find out pretty quick that life is suffering, eh?

Good thought.

I'm going to have to double up on my ADHD meds. :-) Good thoughts.