The place beyond

We just got back from the Bay area, where spent the last days of our Summer vacation, with family, friends and in training with our teacher, Shibata Sensei. In the hours spent on the mat in Berkeley, I tapped into a familiar place, a place that is beyond fatigue and exhaustion. During my years of apprenticeship I often used to visit this place while pushing the envelope; the body all achy and fatigued, the mind becoming silent - a place of great emptiness. At the end of my last class, I became quite weary. Just then I was granted about fifteen minutes to revisit this space. It is a space of surrender and letting go - not out of choice, but one that develops organically when one continues to put out effort. There is no energy to waste on anything extra like, thinking or being self-conscience. By concentrating on the present moment alone, one may find a very fulfilling place.

Within these rare moments lies the truth about a larger capacity we can stretch to, despite our limiting beliefs. In the book "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience", Mihaly Csiksczentmihalyi writes: "The knowledge - or wisdom - one needs for emancipating consciousness is not cumulative. It is not a cognitive skill and as well as intelligence requires commitment of emotions and will. It is not enough to know how to do it, one must do it consistently and it is a painfully slow process to modify our own habits and desires."

In many types of physical and mental practices, people describe their top experiences as "being in the zone", "in the flow", or "being at one with things". It is a mental state attained by a person fully immersed in the activity. Practitioners of the varied schools of Zen Buddhism apply this concept to aid their mastery of various art forms such as in the realms of visual arts or martial arts. The concept of moving through our limiting thoughts while uncovering new capabilities may be practiced in many areas of life. In a recent study done on athletes, it was found that the end point of exercise occurs when the subject can no longer continue the activity due to pain, weakness, or boredom. Shortly following the exercise, however, most subjects report that they could have worked longer.

The place beyond awaits those who are willing to penetrate through their self limiting beliefs into the other side, choosing to swim through the waves of pain and fatigue, monotony and sweat, and into the Zone.

image:
Katsushika Hokusai
The Great Wave off Kanagawa
c. 1829–32 color woodcut, 25.7 × 37.8 cm