Ordinary
I am an
ordinary man in meditation. Like a
Buddha who sits under a tree, there is nothing extraordinary, there is nothing
to brag about, there is nothing to showcase, there is nothing to
highlight. If you take a picture every
day, it will nearly look the same, the body will age, the tree will age, the
weather will change, but there is no action, he is just a man sitting in
stillness. The clothes may be different,
but the action remains the same, he is in stillness. There is nothing extraordinary in his
stillness.
I train
everyday, I bike everyday, I eat everyday, I sleep everyday, I read everyday, I
write everyday. Everything I do is
ordinary. I do the same exercises over
and over; some days I lift more, some days I lift less. Some days I do more repetitions, some days I
do fewer repetitions. There is nothing
extraordinary in what I do, what I do, people have seen before. It is like watching a man who is sitting,
standing, or walking, it is nothing new.
It is nothing to be excited about, nothing to admire, nothing to
photograph, nothing to brag about, it is ordinary.
The
difference is the quality from within, the meditativeness from within. Although I do it everyday, the quality of
meditation makes it seem as if it is the first experience. To me it is not a routine, it cannot be,
every moment there is change. The body
and mind cannot be the same moment to moment, every moment the body changes,
every moment the mind is changing, until you grasp control of this mind and
stop the thoughts. Every day is a
different day; it is impossible for any two days to be exactly the same. Every day is something new, a new
experience.
The
lifestyle of a Martial Artist to me is similar to a basketball player. A basketball player can play thousands of
games, and every single game will be different, there will never be two games
that are exactly the same. The game is
not extraordinarily exciting, like watching a magician of whom you expect to
see a different magic trick every single time, no, the game is very basic, so
basic that you rarely even see any extraordinary slam dunks like the ones you
see in the slam dunk contests. You
simply see shots being made, people dribbling and passing the ball, every game
is 48 minutes long. The difference in
games are minor, one day he scores more, another day he scores less. One day he gets more steals and rebounds,
another day he gets less. Day in and day
out, he is playing the game.
But imagine
this game when there is no such thing as winning or losing. Imagine this game where there is nobody
playing but yourself. Imagine this game
that lasts not just for a few years or a few decades but for your entire
life. This is what Martial Art is to me,
you simply train in meditation for life.
You don’t train to win or lose; you simply train in meditation, in
awareness. The training is simply the
active expression of Buddha’s sitting meditation under the Bodhi tree. It is nothing special; it is very ordinary,
nothing extraordinary. It’s the same
thing over and over. People will just
walk on by, not even taking a second glance because it is nothing new and
exciting. Like the crashing waves
against the shore, like the flying birds in the sky, like the fish swimming in
the ocean, it takes a man of meditation to appreciate its ordinary beauty.
