“Cultivating mental clarity is all about your willingness to give up logical thinking and avoid getting trapped in a spider’s web of words and thoughts”, Monk Tsuda tells us as we settle on to the straw-matted floor in as close to a lotus position as we can physically manage. For more than a decade, I’ve been struggling with understanding the concept of stillness. In some way it possesses the ability to trigger peace and anxiety almost simultaneously in equal measures and intensity. Spending time with Monk Tsuda - third generation Zen Master and head priest at the Kyoto based Daishin-in temple - provided a new refreshing approach to the notion of self and how that self-realization is related to the ability to become a mere observer of your thoughts, and therefore in turn can foster stillness. “Human beings can’t learn this truth by rational thought, nor by studying scriptures, rites or rituals”, he continues. “It requires practicing stillness on a daily level in witch the aim isn’t to clear your mind entirely, but just to make mini steps towards letting your thoughts fully go”. Excerpt from a recent story on Japanese Zen Buddhism.