When you have understood the true value of training, you will be happy to engage in it even if it offers no material results. Only effort and will power keep you on the right track, and success often makes us less vigilant. Even if you have a great technique which can over power any opponent, only the effort can bring it into existence, so by genuinely giving your maximum effort in whatever you do, as well as identifying with this work, this will ensure honest success at the level of your capabilities1. It is said that you should be grateful for even the smallest things, because even if the work leads nowhere, at least you are working.
Often if we want only results we are burdened by how incapable we are of achieving our growing desires, which swell out of proportion. We might be so bent on becoming the ultimate fighting machine that we neglect other important commitments we have. Yes, because in our weariness to achieve some status it is easy to get carried away, strutting around expending vital energy in order to become a “somebody” in the eyes of others.
Those who remain in a tiresome state of pride and vanity, support its development. And the inertia it can induce upon your inspiration and energies can be considered the true enemy of progress. Whereas, if our goals remain far off out of reach, they are always there to lead the way, and a bond is united within us between what we seek. This bond becomes who we are and what we identify with. In other words, if we relate more to the effort and work of achieving, more than the accomplishments along the way (which quickly vanish into the past) we can achieve more than we would otherwise2. So yes, small goals of a technical nature for instance are great, but only principally to provide structure and direction to what we are doing.
Actually there is nothing wrong with living in the past. For example, try to think of all those occasions when life was memorable, had meaning and was inspiring and beautiful. It is in these moments of wonder that you will be redirected onto the right path, and by relating to the imagery, feeling, and ideas they represents, it will be as if they were happening all over again. In other words, they become eternalised. True, they might not be objectively occurring physically. But the thought of it, linked with the feeling through which the will exercises itself over reality, will ensure that it is happening within rather than outside as it once did3. In other words, you will have internalised the lessons and experiences. If you want my advice, don’t do what many people do, which is go over all that is wrong and create a kind of romantic view of the past remote past. If you do, instead of inspiring hope and courage within, you may well simply inspire discontent and inertia, with a few jolts of stimulation here and there… scraps or leftovers of motivation.
The air makes contact with a river through wind, and then the rivers makes an impression on the earth through the river bed, fashioning it according to some design. Similarly, our thoughts make an impression on our biological processes, through the medium of osmosis according to the designs they envisage. Take the example of thoughts relating to harmony4. Whilst they may not affect our physical body directly, they can influences things like blood pressure, mood, emotions, and other aspects related to psychology. The sensations this causes in turn has an invigorating effect on our organism, and eventually good things permeate our being through this process of osmosis. We come to resemble, slowly, what we think. If this effort is sustained, a gradual connection is formed between thought and physical reality. So beware of neagtivity.
Have you been ridiculed or told you are nothing? If someone sees that they are not capable of doing what they claim, then this is no reason to fall into despair and discouragement. Instead they should simply realise that this is because they are aiming for the stars, the summit, the high ideal5. They should not be discouraged by pretentious thoughts of not fulfilling their far off gaols, which besides, only retain their beauty and inspiration if they are out of reach. It is not correct reasoning to bemoan your situation. God help you if you ever succeed. This is what humility is all about, remind yourself that the work needs to be done and it is only in the ceaseless work and sincere effort that satisfaction is to be found.
Much of the success we imagine we deserve is beyond our control. Take the example of eating food. The Process of eating food is complex and beyond our skills to consciously control and manipulate. However, there is some instinctive, intuitive intelligence that does this job for us. And the more we are in tune with Harmony, sitting in a mindful manner, the easier it is for the body to do its job and digest the food for us. There is no magic way to eat. This is the reason for eating breakfast in silence, for example at spiritual retreats. But it is not necessary to venture out to one of these just to eat in peace (at least for some people).
As you can see, we don’t train to eat food according to exercises aimed at “winning” over this process, and no one can eat the food for you. In other words, it is up to you to make the efforts to establish the right conditions for eating, even before and after the meal. You then do the same for the next meal, and the one after that. Because once you have eaten a meal, the efforts involved at establishing the right conditions for the body to digest do not disappear. No, instead you should train to eat more effectively by letting it do its job properly, by standing to the side and making efforts to consciously observe this process through mindfulness.
You could eat the most healthy food in the world, but if you sit there in a state of nervous tension and strain, you will only end up with indigestion and fail to absorb the nutrients properly. You will then need to eat vast amounts of rich food because your senses have been blunted, and will probably end up with health complications. You will then need a complicated and specialised diet, whereas someone else who eats peacefully over the course of their life with just ordinary food receives a lot more benefit from a lot less food. And now let me suggest that the same is true of training. In other words, it is not so important what exercises you do, only that you exercise and make efforts intelligently.
That is why, for me, I recommend setting the ground and don’t concern myself much with results or validation, because I don’t think any of that depends on me. If I have set the ground, the seed will grow, however modestly, according to the internal state I have established within. I just make sure my efforts are sensible and organised properly. Or, if you like, the ideas and thoughts of the imagination can only manifest themselves through the body beneficially, if they are conducive to establishing a harmonic equilibrium. In other words, thoughts manifest through the intermediary state of the feelings they provoke in the body, just like food. And it is only when they are spirited into action through will power, in the direction of love and positivity, that they achieve physical reality. It is therefore beneficial to establish a link between yourself and positive thoughts you focus on, so that this becomes a habit. The results that are communicated via this process of osmosis are enough to obtain a clear understanding of why you must love what you are doing if you want the best results.
So, we must train the feelings and thoughts, and then the physical body, which for me comes last. Because action will not be truly effective or meaningful unless it is governed by thought, which means the love of engaging in the training, or whatever you are doing. Now, I do not mean that our limited brains should consciously “control” our movements, any more than they should control the stomach. Practices which emphasize robotic mechanical performances, devoid of meaning and proper rhythms are just empty shells. They wont be digested properly. That is why it can be beneficial to practice these routines by following the breath, so that they are accompanied by an underlying inner action – breathing. The breathing is brought under the control of thought by contemplating harmony, or harmony is established by focusing on the breathing exclusively. The one encourages the other, so it is not important which one you start with, they are linked, so just focus on the one you want to develop principally first.
Bon Appetit
References
1 Facing Trials with Sincerity https://intuitivemartialarts.com/2020/12/19/facing-trials-with-sincerity/
2 The skill is not separate from the work https://intuitivemartialarts.com/2020/07/04/the-skill-is-not-separate-from-work-and-contemplation/
3 Will Power https://intuitivemartialarts.com/2020/05/10/will-power/
4 Inner Disharmony https://intuitivemartialarts.com/2021/01/05/inner-disharmony/
5 The High Ideal https://intuitivemartialarts.com/2020/07/26/the-high-ideal/
