Make Every Move...About the Move
To a dog, a moment ago doesn't exist. Neither does a moment from now. See my stick? he asks you with a wagging tail and dancing eyes. I just love this stick! It's the greatest stick in the world! And you're the greatest friend in the world! And I'm just so glad we're here, so we can enjoy this stick together! Because there's just nothing better than being right here with you and this stick.
The same is true for us, even though our minds tell us otherwise.
My friends...All we have is right now; there is nothing else. In the practicing of any art (be it fly fishing, boxing, playing the violin, snapping photographs, dancing in the ballet, making breakfast, authoring computer code, or just living life), all you have is right now: this stroke, this twirl, this shot, this line, this step...THIS move. Make EVERY move about that move, and nothing else.
The reward? You get to lose yourself in the move—in the physicality and current presentness and pleasantness of it. In that moment, time becomes relative: sometimes it stands still; sometimes it passes quickly without you realizing it. This...is flow. This...is being happy.
Happiness is wanting to be right where you are, right now, and nowhere else in all creation. It's being 100% devoted to your current experience. That kind of happiness is unreasonable—for it's a happiness that doesn't need an articulated reason (or cause) to justify its existence. Or expression. When you're in the moment, the need to justify "you just being you" as you're experiencing the extraordinary event of "you just being you" is nonsensical. The intrusive mind may still want to go there, but it's completely unnecessary. Don't let it take you away; don't sign for that package; just stay where you are.
Make every move about the move itself. This...is being present.
Be happy, my friends. All the time. Even if everyone thinks you've gone mad and lost your mind, be happy anyway—unreasonably so!
When you discover the secret of genuine presence, much of the mind-filling things you agonize over (I hope this happens. I hope that doesn't happen. Why did that have to happen? Oh no, what am I going to do?) will stop engulfing your heart and keeping you from the only thing that matters: here...now.
Live from the heart—always. Forget the mind, feel everything, be present, and make every move about the move. This...is whole-heartedness. This...is being alive. Truly so...
Note:
Some of the above thoughts were inspired by a series of books I read many, many years ago by Dan Millman, a Collegiate gymnast of the 1960s era.
IKIGAI Weekly Blog Schedule (per The Training Trinity):
Mondays: Meditative Prayer
Wednesdays: Holistic Discipline
Fridays: Martial Arts Practice
www.templemartialartstraining.com
