The Mind exists not in isolation. A powerful Multiplier is produced when mental and energetic practices are synergistically combined.
Your brain, and beyond that, your Mind, of which the brain is its earthly manifestation, is vastly powerful if we understand how to cultivate its power. Here are some tips based on my 80 years of navigating on this planet.
- Reduce clutter. The more uncluttered the Mind, the more we can concentrate its energy and imaginative power.
- We do not need to believe our own thoughts, ideas, or the stories we tell ourselves. Belief is a matter of choice. I came to this realization after many years; I still fall into this trap, and then rediscover this important insight, continuously, and each time I am better off for it. Personal freedom from believing our own thoughts and convictions is one way to take greater control and responsibility for our destiny. It therefore becomes a powerful means of self-empowerment.
- And with it comes a greater sense of choice—to read and meditate more, not to obsess over the news (which is fast becoming propaganda), etc.
- We may even reach an another important insight—we have 100% dominion over the meaning we ascribe to events. In other words, we are the makers of our own meaning. We possess a formidable unrealized power to alter the influence of events in our lives, simply by exploring with curiosity the stories we tell about them, and how different our experience can be, depending on the story we tell.
- I have found this power is enhanced by a peaceful and tranquil Mind.
- How to quiet the Mind? As noted in Just Click!, quiet your Heart, or energy field around your Heart, and your Mind will naturally settle down.
- Koan: Blue Cliff Record, Case 2: Chao-chou, teaching the assembly, said, “The Ultimate Path is without difficulty; just avoid picking and choosing. Not Picking, not Choosing immediately places us in a position of neutrality. The need to judge the critical mind vanishes. We simply enjoy the moment.
Attitudes toward aging
This is a part of my story. Please watch my Evolutionary Conversation with grandmaster Li Junfeng. Aging, it appears, does not wither him. He is still globe-trotting at 86; one week he is giving a training in Austin, the next in the Philippines, then back to his home in Beijing, and he has the energy to all of this and much more and not become exhausted. “Don’t you get jet lagged, my friend,” I ask? “I simply relax” he replies.
The same message is from my friend, 91-year-old calligrapher and enso master, author Kazuaki Tanahashi. I called him recently; he had just returned from an exhibition of his art in Venice, Italy. He is completing a book on the paradox of Aging, he says. Both Kaz and Teacher Li demonstrate what happens when we combine the Mind with a practice to develop vital energy. I should mention that Kaz Tanahashi in his youth trained in Japan with Grandmaster Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of the Japanese martial art of aikido. I hope you enjoy my lengthy interview with Tanahashi sensei.
Forgetting the self
I once asked my Zen teacher Yamada Koun Roshi what was the secret to becoming a cat which was at that moment nimbly walking along a wall outside the Zendo. He smiled and said, simply, “Forget yourself.” Forget your “self,” and merge with the cat. You will understand the essence of cat. It’s the key, and requires time; be patient.
See let me ask you: What can you discover about your inner power when you forget yourself?
Story of O-nami
So, now I want to tell you a story, excerpted from the great storyteller Paul Reps’ classic, Zen Flesh Zen Bones:
In the early days of the Meiji era there lived a well-known wrestler called O-nami, Great Waves. O-nami was immensely strong and knew the art of wrestling. In his private bouts he defeated even his teacher, but in public he was so bashful that his own pupils threw him. O-nami felt he should go to a Zen master for help. Hakuju, a wandering teacher, was stopping in a little temple nearby, so O-nami went to see him and told him of his trouble. ‘Great Waves is your name,’ the teacher advised, ‘so stay in this temple tonight. Imagine that you are those billows. You are no longer a wrestler who is afraid. You are those huge waves sweeping everything before them, swallowing all in their path. Do this and you will be the greatest wrestler in the land.’ The teacher retired. O-nami sat in meditation trying to imagine himself as waves. He thought of many different things. Then gradually he turned more and more to the feelings of the waves. As the night advanced the waves became larger and larger. They swept away the flowers in their vases. Even the Buddha in the shrine was inundated. Before dawn the temple was nothing but the ebb and flow of an immense sea. In the morning the teacher found O-nami meditating, a faint smile on his face. He patted the wrestler’s shoulder. ‘Now nothing can disturb you,’ he said. ‘You are the waves. You will sweep everything before you.’ The same day O-nami entered the wrestling contests and won. After that, no one in Japan was able to defeat him. (From Paul Reps, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones 1957)
Combining with energetic practice. Now I suggest you pause in listening to this Module and listen to the Taiko drummers in Finding Your Power in combination with Great Wave—the energy of pure sound—listen with full body—and recall the Story of O-nami. The image of a Great Wave is by the ukiyoe master, Hokusai. I hope you enjoy the experience of viewing this iconic image while listening to the Taiko drummers.
For more on Finding Your Power, please see Move 2 from the Laughing Heart website