Meditation Point #111
A Zen ThingWhen it’s cold, water freezes into ice;
when it’s warm, ice melts into water.
Similarly, when you’re confused, essence freezes into mind;
when you are enlightened, mind melts into essence.
– – Muso Kokushi
This is an interesting quote and one that can be read many different ways. Being a regular guy with a regular life I’m not going to delve into a lot of mumbo jumbo about our connection with the cosmos or how when we block that connection we enter an impure state. No, not going to go there. Instead I am going to quote my favorite movie, “The Replacements” starring Keanu Reeves. Yes really! There is a discussion in the movie about fear. The topic is quicksand, that state where you find yourself in over your head and you can find a way out no matter how hard you try…quicksand. What this quote and that scene were indirectly talking about was perfection. Those moments in our life when everything is so clear and feels so perfect that the feeling stays with us. Many times we experience that feeling just before we fall (fail). From my perspective we fall because of that feeling, we recognize our perfection and in recognizing it, ruin it. Perfection is a state of being without realization, it just happens. Parents will understand this quicker because we get to witness our children realize their moments of perfection.
This doesn’t mean that we can never attain perfection, to the contrary realizing we have and falling because of that realization is part of the learning process. The next time you won’t notice your perfection as much and will stay in that state for a longer period of time. Physical activities lend themselves to states of perfection with enough practice. But a state of perfection requires something more then just practice and that something is the mind. The mind needs to be quiet. Not quiet as in not thinking but quiet as in focused and trusting in the moment. Thinking outside the moment is folly though we all do it. So when you practice your Kata or Kumite, breath, relax and let perfection flow. When it happens you will know it and want to latch onto it. It will not return until you again relax and let it flow freely. Perfection isn’t yours to possess and control any more then you can control whether you take your next breath.
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