Clearing the Mind to Contemplate the Dao
Updated 2026-08-22
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
From Zong Bing's Preface to Landscape Painting in the Southern Dynasties: clear the mind and observe the Way. It means clearing the heart of prejudice and clutter so that the essence and principle of things can be directly perceived and tasted. The scaffold is that stillness precedes seeing: you cannot read the truth of a thing through a mind full of fixed views, so clearing is the precondition for observing.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Clear before judging: set down assumptions and mood before a complex judgment. - Observe directly: attend to the object itself rather than to your commentary about it. - Let it show itself: resist forcing an interpretation while still.
Anchor fast decisions
Preconceptions act as filters that only admit evidence matching what is already believed, which is why a full mind sees its own contents instead of the object. Emptying removes the filter, and attention can then rest on the thing itself, where structure previously overwritten by interpretation becomes visible.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
account_treeGenealogyexpand_more
menu_bookReferencesexpand_more
Source support: Explicit
- zh.wikipedia.orghttps://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%94%BB%E5%B1%B1%E6%B0%B4%E5%BA%8Fverified
PRIVATE NOTES · Only visible to you
SAVED Q&A
ENTRY Q&A · Private saving available
Ask with a clear boundary
thinkingmodels answers from published entry context only.
Your question is sent to thinkingmodels. The answer uses public entry context only.
RELATED MODELS