Spoon boy:
Do not
try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize
the truth.
Neo:
What truth?
Spoon
boy:
There is no spoon.
Neo:
There is no spoon?
Spoon
boy:
Then you'll see, that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.
(The Matrix)
Conditioned responses
Society conditions us to perceive reality in a very particular way. This
is not necessarily how the world is.
We see what we are taught to see.
An easy example is 'money'.
You are given a piece of paper and you accept it as legal tender.
If you were given a post-it with a number 10 written on it, would you accept
that as being money?
Why not?
You are conditioned to attribute value to some things and not to others.
What if we said that your house is worthless? Your car, your jewellery, your
job?
Would you accept this as truth?
You think inside a box.
Koan
Consider this koan:
Shuzan held out his short
staff and said, "If you call this a short staff, you oppose its reality. If
you do not call it a short staff, you ignore the fact. Now what do you wish
to call this?"
(Koan)
Substitute the words 'short staff' for 'shoe' and it may make more
sense to you.
If you call a shoe a shoe then that is incorrect. The word is not the thing.
The shoe can only be understood through its application. Through doing. Through
wearing it.
Wearing a shoe illustrates an understanding of its essence, its function.
Yet, if we do not call it 'shoe' what do we call it?
Assuming that we wish to communicate, we associate words to things, and we
express the concept.
When I say 'shoe' you know what I am referring to.
Unless you do not speak English.
Ultimately, every modern person would understand the utility of a shoe but not
necessarily use the same word for shoe.
They would comprehend the physical object but not necessarily the word.
Do you speak English? Or do you use a different word to suggest this object,
this concept?
The problem with the word is that although it expresses the concept, is it
accurately expressing reality?
Do we all see the same shoe?
The same shoe as you?
Unravelling koan
There is no answer to the koan. It does not exist to be answered as such. You
cannot solve it.
Just consider what it is saying and what the ramifications are...
It serves to change how you think. To realise that your thinking is hampered by
words.
And by your conditioning.
Fixity
We are inclined to see the world in terms of fixed things: conventions,
orthodoxy, traditions...
These things create the illusion of stability, of fixity, of safety.
This does not follow in accord with reality.
The world is in flux. It changes all the time. There is no real fixity. Even
your own body ages constantly.
There is no box
In our tai chi school we encourage people to avoid fixity.
There are no techniques, no preset responses. We can do things in any number of
ways.
Some methods work better than others. And all have ramifications and
consequences.
There is not one fixed way at the exclusion of all others.
Students learn to appreciate that they are thinking within a box. Instead of
'thinking outside the box' they realise that there is no box.
Our conditioning limits us.
Transcend it.
Let your mind open and your consciousness expand. Embrace what is.
Page created 25 March 2000