Attention

“Long ago, the World Honored One went into the Snowy Mountains, and after passing six years in suffering, became enlightened. This was the enlightenment of the True Self. The ordinary man has no strength of faith, and does not know the persistence of even three or five years. But those who study the Way are absolutely diligent for ten or twenty years, twenty four hours a day. They muster up great strength of faith, speak with those who have wisdom, and disregard adversity and suffering.” - Takuan Soho – The Unfettered Mind

NOTES: People of today become so short sighted and their attention spans so short as to be able to understand that the Way and true discipline take years of dedication and practice. Next time you are watching TV count how many time the scene or angle of the camera changes. Watch how the camera will show a conversation between two people but rarely do they show the two people in the same frame. This is a small example of how we can be conditioned to have short attention spans. Things have to happen fast and each frame grab out attention or the mind wanders off and we loose interest. For those who have never hunted or meditated, sitting for hours on end seeing the same scene drives them nuts. They can’t appreciate the beauty of each subtlety revealing itself as the mind shuts down and you begin to become part of the environment. The adversity and suffering is in passing through the gates of boredom and simplicity to arrive as one with your surroundings, to touch “The spirit that moves in all things”. Keeping at something means for a long time. Not just a few hours or days or months but, years and years. Most people don’t see that far or have the discipline to keep at it for that long. Without immediate results they quit and turn to something that gives instant (but short lived) rewards. When you make a choice to follow the Way it is a choice that will take a lifetime or more. When I tell a student that it will be three to five years or longer to obtain Shodan rank they get depressed because it seems so long but, is it really that long compared to 100 years or many lifetimes? I think not. Sometimes just stand in one place to teach yourself the discipline of time, fight the urge to move forward out of boredom. Sitting in a hunt spot (or sit spot) will help to enforce this discipline. Keep this in mind at length and practice daily.

Just the other day I received a lesson in tolerance and discipline in the form of a crying baby at the theatre. Why would someone bring in a baby to the movies and let it cry. I was not accepting the moment for what it was. I was not absorbed in the movie and was distracted. I had lost my discipline in attention easily by something I had no control over.

Peace – GhostDog