Ordinary

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.