|
Serving a community of private individuals and professionals
who have the desire to cultivate a life of clarity, compassion,
and creativity. We warmly welcome our new subscribers. Thanks
for joining! Your feedback is encouraged. Please feel free to
contact us.
I'm preparing to publish my first book of stories in 2008.
In preparation for this I’m reworking some of my most
popular articles from the past. Today’s story was first
published four years ago. I hope you enjoy this updated version,
and I hope what you read will lead you to reconsider how to
live your life with a greater sense of emotional fulfillment!
The story that follows is a common tale told by Zen monks in
the Orient. What I write today is mainly inspired by the Korean
Zen master Seung Sahn.
Warmly,
Charlie
1. It's your thinking that leads
to your suffering
Many years ago there was a young man living in a large city
in Japan who felt his life was quite empty. With the hope of
achieving a state of inner peace, he shaved his head and went
to live in the mountains as a monk.
After studying diligently for ten years, the man realized he
still didn't understand how to live with a sense of emotional
fulfillment.
Talking with other disciples, the young monk heard of a highly
evolved Zen master living in China. He was drawn to study with
this man with the hope of finally realizing his true self.
He gathered his meager belongings, crossed the sea of Japan,
and started a long and arduous journey across arid plains.
Every day he walked for many hours, and would stop for the
evening only after finding a patch of land that had a natural
source of water safe for drinking. After traveling in this manner
for more than a month, he had the strange sensation of feeling
both energized and empty.
One day was particularly hot and dry and the monk walked endlessly
unable to find water. As the day turned into a moonless night
he finally found an oasis. Totally exhausted, he collapsed onto
the ground and began crawling around in the darkness in search
of liquid sustenance. He came across a roughly made cup that
had been left behind. The custom of leaving a cup with some
water in it for the next traveler was quite common. He drank
the meager amount of delicious tasting water and felt blessed
and at peace with the world. He soon lay down and slept quite
comfortably until awaking to the light of the early morning
sun.
Upon sitting up, the first thing he noticed was what he had
taken to be the roughly made cup the night before. Indeed it
was not a manmade cup, but rather the shattered skull of a baby
wolf! The moist skull was caked with blood, and a number of
ants were crawling around inside scavenging for food to carry
back to their colony.
The monk saw all this and immediately began to vomit!
He was overcome by several waves of nausea, and as the fluid
poured forth from his mouth and nose, he clearly experienced
his thinking mind overwhelming his body and his emotions. With
no choice but to submit to the moment, he understood that his
thinking mind had been overwhelming him his entire life!
The night before the water tasted delicious and he felt refreshed.
It was his misunderstanding of the circumstances that led him
to feel fine.
Upon seeing the skull and the ants in the light of the morning
sun, it was his memory of his past actions and not the putrid
water that brought about his nausea.
Regardless of whether or not he was understanding or misunderstanding,
it was his thinking mind that created the way he felt. This
was suddenly very clear to him. He realized that if his thinking
was capable of creating suffering, it was also capable of creating
peace of mind. He realized that what had occurred in the past
was much less important than the way he reacted in the present.
Upon understanding this, his journey was complete and he returned
home to live his life with a sense of emotional fulfillment.
Commentary
The way we think, breathe, and use our body plays a major role
in our creation of suffering and stress. Indeed we can say that
stress is caused by excessive thinking, tense muscles, and a
lack of sufficient oxygen to fuel our system.
The thinking mind tends to understand much of life through
the filter of "opposites". Right or wrong,
good or bad, you or me, easy or difficult,
are all created by our thinking. When we view the world with
a sense of opposition the world appears to conspire against
us.
People desire many things - fame, fortune, power, and success.
All of this desire comes from a failure to notice what we do
have; the essence of who we are. No matter how hard we try,
thinking alone will not help us understand our essence. When
we don't understand our essence we misrepresent and distort
all who we meet and all we encounter, and thus we suffer.
When we're at peace with who we are we're not attached to winning
or losing, succeeding or failing. When we're not attached to
the results we achieve, our body stays relaxed, we breathe freely
and easily, and we think less. Quieting the thinking mind leads
to intuitive action. Intuitive action leads to living calmness.
When we don't think we don't know. When we don't know, we learn
from everything.
I want to be careful to not give thinking a "bad name"
here. Thinking is necessary and can of course also add to the
quality of our life. Without thinking nothing would run on schedule,
there would be nothing to run on schedule, and I would not be
writing this article.
The crucial point to consider is whether or not you're able
to think while remaining calm. When you're able to approach
the need to adapt and learn while maintaining a state of equanimity,
you'll come to appreciate the many challenges life
presents you with.
When you rest your thinking mind, relax your body, and breathe
fully you give yourself the chance to enter into a state of
living calmness. When you're calm, you have the greatest likelihood
of manifesting your full power. In Oriental culture you're advised
to empty your cup prior to asking for more tea. In the same
way, emptying your thinking mind prior to thinking, prepares
you to receive new ideas and take on new challenges.
When you're agitated you tense your muscles and restrict your
breathing, and your mind appears to be inside your head. This
is "small mind". When you're in "small mind"
you feel separate from others and the connections you desire.
When you're calm and confident you relax your body and take
in copious amounts of oxygen, At such times your mind knows
no boundaries, no fixed location. This is "big mind".
Everything is inside your mind and your mind is inside everything.
There's nothing to be separated from and everything is possible.
There's no opponent and thus no winning or losing. This is the
state of mind to attain for peak performance. This is also the
state of mind to cultivate every day if you'd like to live an
emotionally balanced life.
In Aikido we understand that when people are fearful they tense
their muscles and restrict their breathing. When you tense your
muscles and restrict your breathing you unbalance yourself emotionally
as well as physically. All of which tends towards a further
sense of fear and stress. It's a vicious spiral!
When you breathe deeply and empty your thinking mind, your
muscles relax and you lower your center of gravity. At such
times you feel physically and emotionally balanced and your
ability to adapt and change is heightened. This way of being
is also a spiral, just not a vicious one!
Recently I had a business client who announced she was sabotaging
her career with negative thoughts.
I asked my client how realizing this important fact could wind
up empowering her.
At first she seemed a bit confused by my question.
I said to my client:
"I agree with your opinion. Your thoughts are having a
negative impact on what you're able to accomplish, and how you
perceive yourself."
"Indeed, your negative thoughts lead to a tense body, shallow
breathing, and poor quality results on many fronts.
I then said to my client:
"You already know your thinking has a major impact on how
you perform, This is a great realization to have."
"What would happen to your thinking if you took several
deep breaths relaxed your body, and talked more slowly?"
"How would this influence how you felt and thought?"
I prompted her to sit up a bit straighter, and breathe deeply
as she thought about her possible reply.
She changed her posture, took a couple of deep breaths and
said the following:
"Yes, my breath and my body have a major impact on how
I feel and think. When I breathe deeply, relax by body, and
talk slowly my thinking tends to be more positive, and I feel
better about myself. I'm sure that learning how to calm myself
prior to thinking, can dramatically change my career for the
better!
How about you? Can you now more clearly realize it's the way
you breathe, use your body, and think, that leads to your suffering
and stress, much more so than the actual circumstances and relationships
you're embroiled in?
Once you realize this to be so, you'll be on a path of emotional
fulfillment. I hope we'll meet somewhere along the way!
* * *
If you're having difficulty on your path to emotional fulfillment,
please consider engaging in some coaching sessions with me.
If you drop me a line and let me know what you want to accomplish,
I'll let you know if I think I can help.
Charlie@seishindo.org
2.
Book Recommendation
"Neuro-linguistic Programming for
Dummies"
by Romilla Ready and Kate Burton
(Translations available in French, German, and Dutch with Russian
in progress.)
NLP has a simple premise which goes something like this: You
can achieve success in any area of your life when you know what
you want and how to get it.
It's no surprise that NLP techniques have become so popular
in areas from business, to education, sports, coaching, counselling,
personal development and relationships. What Neuro-linguistic
Programming for Dummies has done is to overcome the jargon of
many other books and make NLP accessible to all. There's plenty
of great material in here for newcomers plus practical ideas
for experienced NLP readers. The familiar bite-sized 'For Dummies'
format with cartoons and anecdotes make it easy to dip in and
out quickly. Kate and Romilla have done a great job of explaining
the tools and providing many of NLP's benefits with a sense
of fun, which is why it's become highly recommended by NLP trainers
around the world.
The sequel Neuro-Linguistic Programming Workbook for Dummies
publishes in February 2008.
If you decide to buy this book and use our affiliate link below,
please know that we donate to charity (http://www.kiva.org)
100% of the commission made by us by selling books via Amazon.com.
Neuro-Linguistic
Programming Workbook For Dummies
|
