Once Ma-tsu and Pai-chang were walking along
and they saw some wild ducks fly by.
"What is that?" the master asked.
"Wild ducks, "Pai-chang replied.
"Where have they gone?"
"They've flown away," Pai-chang said.
The master then twisted Pai-chang's nose
and when Pai-chang cried out in pain,
Ma-tsu said, "When have they ever flown away?"
(Koan)
Focus
It is tempting and common to imagine that the
world revolves around you, but it is also a
mistake.
No one
person is the
focus of existence.
To the individual this may sound unappealing but it is the
truth.
Peripheral
Existence moves and changes constantly as vast numbers of
relationships
develop, evolve, fade and pass.
Millions of creatures interact every day, the world hurtles around the sun
at 18.5 miles per second and none of this has anything to do with you.
Every facet of the world moves in some inconceivably complex ballet of
change.
Your role is utterly peripheral.
You matter
Everyone matters.
You are immensely important.
But your importance needs to be balanced by perspective; everyone else is
immensely important too.
Just as every blade of grass matters, every
cow, sheep, star and
insect.
Personal
The world teems around you and you are an intricate part of
everything.
Just be careful not to take things too personally.
When something unpleasant happens, the effect it has on you may be
inadvertent.
You are not the always the focus.
Whilst knowing this may not diminish the effect, try to have
perspective.
Potential
When you see that any one individual has the potential to be of great
service
to humanity, it is inspiring.
Great deeds are accomplished by immersing yourself in the doing and
forgetting the self.
Everyone has such potential.
It is sad when so few realise this and squander their lives in boredom and
apathy.
Still, what you do is up to you - your choices make you who you are.
Lost
A deluded person believes in their own mythology - they fall
prey to the tinsel of celebrity and
the trap of
vanity.
Only when you see the
floating world
for what it is can you swim in its pleasures without getting lost in your
own ego.
Tai chi
Learning tai chi can be immeasurably
frustrating for some people; their
impatience causes suffering.
They push and push, yet make little progress for all their additional
effort.
Tai chi cannot be
willed
into being.
The difficulty lies not with the tai chi but with you.
It is you that must change, grow, develop.
The tai chi has no life beyond you; it is you that performs the movements,
you that must relax and you that must let-go.
If you decide then to push yourself, ask: who is it that is doing the
pushing?
Page created 30 March 2000