excuses

Last Saturday, it was cold outside. Must have been around 30-40F during class. Part of my tooth broke during our yearly thanksgiving dinner. Must be while I was eating the turkey meat. Everytime I drink now it hurts on the right side of my mouth. And I'm not going to see the dentist until Friday. It was inevitable, the crack was already there months ago, and I kept eating hard food, such as cashew nuts. So I have to blame nobody but myself. Then I had this stiff neck that bothered me almost the whole of last week. It hurt everytime I tried to turn my head on the right.

So the combination of cold weather, broken tooth and stiff neck made me feel like not going to class. But I went anyway. And I'm now glad that I did. After class, I didn't seem to mind the cold weather anymore, I stopped worrying about my tooth, and my stiff neck problem disappeared.

At the end of the class, Teacher was hungry, so we went out to eat for lunch at The Office. And we all ate a lot! Teacher said that if our workout was even better we would have been able to finish two-plateful. What kind of work out is that? I'm not sure I'm ready for that. Or maybe I am.

Going back to all my excuses from practicing. I think everything is all about perspective. It seems that even perspective itself needs to be trained. Bottom line is, it's easy to give up. What's the fun of giving up? Of course, there are times when you really have to give up. You don't want to get sick, of course. If you get sick then that means you have reached your limit. It seems that the saying "What does not kill you makes you stronger" is really true. Of course what my limit is not the same as your limit. So Teacher judges my limit, and when he's not around, I do it myself.

The body it seems is limited, but the mind is not. Skill is limited. Creativity is limitless. The mind leads and the body will follow. But what happens in times when you practice with "no mind"? Does that mean that the body leads, and the mind follows? Does that mean that creativity is "no mind"? The mind still seems to be there, but relaxed.

I found this somewhere online.

A Student's Excuses For Not Practicing

In the Spring it is too nice out.
In the Summer it is too hot.
In the Fall it is too pretty.
In the Winter it is too cold.

Also, here's an excerpt from Chuang-tzu's Preservation of Life:

Prince Huei's cook was cutting up a bullock. Every blow of his hand, every heave of his shoulders, every tread of his foot, every thrust of his knee, every whshh of rent flesh, every chhk of the chopper, was in perfect rhythm, --like the dance of the Mulberry Grove, like the harmonious chords of Ching Shou.

"Well done!" cried the Prince. "Yours is skill indeed!"

"Sire," replied the cook laying down his chopper, "I have always devoted myself to Tao, which is higher than mere skill. When I first began to cut up bullocks, I saw before me whole bullocks. After three years' practice, I saw no more whole animals. And now I work with my mind and not with my eye. My mind works along without the control of the senses. Falling back upon eternal principles, I glide through such great joints or cavities as there may be, according to the natural constitution of the animal. I do not even touch the convolutions of muscle and tendon, still less attempt to cut through large bones.

"A good cook changes his chopper once a year, -- because he cuts. An ordinary cook, one a month, -- because he hacks. But I have had this chopper nineteen years, and although I have cut up many thousand bullocks, its edge is as if fresh from the whetstone. For at the joints there are always interstices, and the edge of a chopper being without thickness, it remains only to insert that which is without thickness into such an interstice. Indeed there is plenty of room for the blade to move about. It is thus that I have kept my chopper for nineteen years as though fresh from the whetstone.

"Nevertheless, when I come upon a knotty part which is difficult to tackle, I am all caution. Fixing my eye on it, I stay my hand, and gently apply my blade, until with a hwah the part yields like earth crumbling to the ground. Then I take out my chopper and stand up, and look around, and pause with an air of triumph. Then wiping my chopper, I put it carefully away."

"Bravo!" cried the Prince. "From the words of this cook I have learned how to take care of my life."

a guide to understanding things

Open, mindful and aware
In rest and in motion
Every action and reaction
In all directions