Books For Developing Mushin

Could anyone recommend a good book on meditative techniques to develop mushin? Truthfully, I'm not so much interested in the philosophical aspects. I really would just like to learn some effective tools to help quiet this constantly chattering mind of mine.

Thanks

i suppose it would be helpful to know in what context you want to develop mushin. i may be wrong but i understand mushin as a state in which you perform without conciously taking control. for this to become possible the necessary moves have to be literally engraved in yourself through many, many repetitions. so, first you need practice and repetition. you can't reach mushin if you are not completely and instinctively sure of what you are supposed to do.
no practice -> no mushin

I may be misusing the term but I'm thinking in both martial and non martial terms. In terms of martial arts the example would be...while doing a training exercise 3 people attack me randomly. If I used good mushin I stay relaxed and attentive. I go with the flow and respond to each attack as necessary withou going, "What if they punch me what should I do, what if they kick me what should I do, etc, etc. Clearly this mushin is develop by repetitive training of techniques both from a physical and mental perspective. However, I am also interested in the idea of mushin in a non martial context. For instance, at times I sit down in my living room at night when it is quiet and I "just notice things." For instance I look at the piano and I simply notice it. I don't go, "There's a brown piano, it has 88 keys, it plays music, etc., etc. I do this with my whole living room. I guess I'd call it, "non judgemental awareness", "relaxed alertness", etc. I find this extremely peace inducing. I don't believe that what I'm doing is anything new. So my bottom line question is, "what are some books that discuss this sort of nonjudgemental awareness?" I know that I'm on to something but I'd like to find a text that describes it so if nothing else I will have a guide to remind me to sit down, shut up and just observe

Thanks.

if awareness is what you are after, a look into zen philosophy and training might be useful. zen emphasizes the concept of awareness and not judging about your preception or clinging to thoughts or emotions. i cannot claim to be a zen-buddhist but i have let myself be inspired by zen
there are a lot of methods in zen-teachings to develop and train awareness. a more ritualized version of what you have been doing would be zazen, sitting meditation. you might want to take a look at that.
what i like to do is go for a walk and just experience what is around me with as little thinking as possible. this is even harder than trying to refrain from thinking while sitting in quiet room because you encounter new things constantly and impressions fly at you all the time.
although the following is completely un-zen: it pays off. i started precieving little things i hardly ever noticed before. i got more aware of my surrounding, more concentrated on the moment and more confident, because i was in complete control. a feeling you can hardly describe with words and a striking experience at the same time. i strongly recommend you to look into zen-teachings if you want something like a all-day-mushin

Thanks for the info. I will look into some books on zen (and zazen meditation in particular). I know that the book Rhinoceros Zen has bee recommended on this website. Do you have any other recommendations?

Thanks

i found a lot of useful information on the internet, for example on:
zenguide.com
ciolek.com/WWWVL-Zen.html
thezensite.com

a ebook on zazen i found a very helpful introduction can be downloaded from the following page: http://www.zenguide.com/practice/zazen.cfm
this book is a nice overview of different aspects of zazen and easily understandable which is more than you can say about the majority of zen-related works

wow, this is like the holy grail of buhdism. I don't think that you can address this lightly people spend their whole lives trying to achieve this. I would look into going to a zen camp for a few weeks, and start from there.

zenguide.com was a helpful start. I must admit though I'm not looking for enlightment or deeper self knowledge through zazen. Really just more focus and concentration. Therefore, it would appear that even in doing zazen as a technique I still wouldn't really be "doing zen." I appreciate the feedback. This gives me a starting point.

Thanks

it would be interesting to see if anybody knows of other techniques or methods to enhance awareness, zen-related or not.
suggestions, anybody?

If you are still interested...
Musheen translates to zero-thought or zero-ego. The term is used to describe letting you subconscious take over your movements in order to allow you to perform them perfectly (as you hopefully have trained it to do).

As for enhancing awareness, you can always just begin taking notice/analyzing things that you normally would not (sound of footsteps, body language, how people are dressed). Eventually you will start to see patterns and without trying you will begin to notice things that you would not of before.