A monk named Joshu asked his teacher Nansen what the path was, the thing all his training was for, and Nansen said: "Everyday life is the path." Joshu asked whether it could be studied. If you try to study it, Nansen told him, you'll be far away from it. So the thing Joshu was training for was the ordinary day he was already standing in, and you can't get good at a Tuesday by reading about Tuesdays. The man who collected this story, centuries later, ended it with a verse: flowers in spring, a moon in autumn, a breeze in summer, snow in winter, and if nothing useless is hanging in your mind, any season is a good one. Studying the day is one way to be far away from it, and carrying something useless into it is another. Before the next hour starts, name the one useless thing already hanging in your mind, like the argument you're still rehearsing, and let the hour start without it.