What Tennis Has Taught Me About Life
I have good days, bad days; good games, bad games.
Trophies are about who I was, not who I am.
I hurt sometimes; the pain gets my attention, but it eventually goes away.
I don't always see the line calls the way my opponents or partners do.
Good equipment helps, but it is not the whole story.
Showing up is important. If I don't show up or my opponent doesn't show up there is no game.
Nets sag over time and need correcting.
Fluids do their job and need to be replaced.
Anticipating an opponent's play is often useful and sometimes harmful.
Doing the same shot again and again is not as useful or interesting as varying my shots.
It is good to shake hands (or elbows) at the end of a match.
Keep my mind on this shot, not the shot a minute ago.
Fit my game to my opponent's level. It isn't fun to obliterate a novice.
Try something new now and then.
Search for lost balls, but not too long.
Keep the courts clean.
There is satisfaction in trying hard, no matter what the result.
Wind gusts, sun, and uneven court surfaces require attention and make games interesting.
Playing deep shots gives more time for thought before the ball arrives.
Playing at the net allows better angles with sharp volleys.
In doubles, reading my partner is as important as reading my opponents.
Timely breaks from playing improve my game.
Everyone appreciates praise for a fine shot.
I should have an idea about where I want to hit it, but I don't want to lose sight of the ball.
The more tired I am, the higher the net.
Varying my practice routines prevents boredom.
Rain on Water
Comments on The Zen Teachings of Mazu (based on the translation by Thomas Cleary)
David K. Reynolds, Ph.D.
Let's be reasonable. You can't reject your mind with your mind. That effort would involve rejecting the rejection and so on endlessly. You can't turn off subjective judgments. You can't eliminate desires. Your pleasures give you both joy and sorrow. At the very least they don't last at the same intensity forever. Suffering happens, but so does joy. Sometimes.
Attempting to do the impossible is, by definition, bound to fail to achieve the desired results. Aiming to force the mind to eliminate desires or feelings or judgments is not only a waste of time and energy. Aiming to force the mind leads to obsessions and increased misery. It is the aim of forcing that is the real problem. Accepting the reality of desires, feelings, and judgments is the most sensible course. They happen, okay, but they need not determine what you do. Thinking about dying is not dying. Thinking about overcoming anxiety is not overcoming anxiety. Deciding to do what is right is not doing what is right. Committing yourself to a course is not walking that course.
Thoughts, too, happen. By having in mind a purpose or goal some thoughts will flow in that direction. Whether the goal is quiet sitting or carving a pumpkin or writing a novel or sweeping the porch the purposeful activity helps direct thinking. Of course, stray thoughts will occur, too. Trying to suppress stray thoughts with the mind is useless and may stimulate even more thoughts unrelated to your goal. Returning your body to moving toward your goal is often helpful in reducing the distraction of stray thoughts.
Enlightened awareness of delusions does not free you from delusions. It may help free you of some of the power your customary thinking has over you. It may make you aware of ways to use your body, your actions, more realistically. It may help you have more moments noticing what is going on around/within you. Don't get the idea that some experience, however moving, will make your life endlessly clear of suffering and confusion. You may learn to accept being ordinary, nothing special.
The thing you call "a car" is not a car. The things you call "suffering" and "neurosis" and "hunger" and "desires" are not the things themselves. Furthermore, they are not "things" at all. Labels point at other labels. Your "mind" is "labeled." I'm merely stringing labels here to "explain" more labels.
Is it possible to step back from this labeling and perceive reality in its raw form? I don't know. I don't care. It is enough for me to recognize the tendency to label, to organize and store information in labeled format. This recognition offers me a new (meta) set of labels with somewhat more "freedom to act", whatever that may be.
We are surrounded by space and included by that space. So of course what you do affects both you and your surroundings--all one. Your mind interprets that space, including your mind. Mind interpreting mind interpreting mind and so forth. Where would you be without it?
Something informs you about what you need to do. It might inform you to analyze the informing. Again, mind interpreting mind interpreting mind and so forth. Just do it--borrowed information, borrowed methods, borrowed resources, borrowed body, borrowed doing. All inclusive. Give it all away while doing it.
Blanking the mind with the mind takes effort that produces moments of quiet. Accepting the whole of it, mind and all, produces moments of transcendence. "Accepting" here means a kind of immersion, not mental effort. Immersion is inevitable anyway. You can't stand outside reality. You can't do anything on your own.
Immerse yourself in these words, or don't. My task was to put them in this form. Just another doing. Thank you for the loan of your attention. Meanwhile, I'll continue to do what needs doing.
Of course, you are welcome to check with what others think about CL. You will just get more talk, somewhat different from this talk. A more sensible course is to see how well CL works when given an experiential try. The experience goes beyond words about it, though some will try to explain CL in ways that might satisfy you. Your behavior will be your fine teacher. The more you immerse yourself in CL theory, the further you get from it. When you have experiential understanding there is nothing we can teach each other and no need to do so.
What stories will go on after we are dead?
The end
I have good days, bad days; good games, bad games.
Trophies are about who I was, not who I am.
I hurt sometimes; the pain gets my attention, but it eventually goes away.
I don't always see the line calls the way my opponents or partners do.
Good equipment helps, but it is not the whole story.
Showing up is important. If I don't show up or my opponent doesn't show up there is no game.
Nets sag over time and need correcting.
Fluids do their job and need to be replaced.
Anticipating an opponent's play is often useful and sometimes harmful.
Doing the same shot again and again is not as useful or interesting as varying my shots.
It is good to shake hands (or elbows) at the end of a match.
Keep my mind on this shot, not the shot a minute ago.
Fit my game to my opponent's level. It isn't fun to obliterate a novice.
Try something new now and then.
Search for lost balls, but not too long.
Keep the courts clean.
There is satisfaction in trying hard, no matter what the result.
Wind gusts, sun, and uneven court surfaces require attention and make games interesting.
Playing deep shots gives more time for thought before the ball arrives.
Playing at the net allows better angles with sharp volleys.
In doubles, reading my partner is as important as reading my opponents.
Timely breaks from playing improve my game.
Everyone appreciates praise for a fine shot.
I should have an idea about where I want to hit it, but I don't want to lose sight of the ball.
The more tired I am, the higher the net.
Varying my practice routines prevents boredom.
Rain on Water
Comments on The Zen Teachings of Mazu (based on the translation by Thomas Cleary)
David K. Reynolds, Ph.D.
Let's be reasonable. You can't reject your mind with your mind. That effort would involve rejecting the rejection and so on endlessly. You can't turn off subjective judgments. You can't eliminate desires. Your pleasures give you both joy and sorrow. At the very least they don't last at the same intensity forever. Suffering happens, but so does joy. Sometimes.
Attempting to do the impossible is, by definition, bound to fail to achieve the desired results. Aiming to force the mind to eliminate desires or feelings or judgments is not only a waste of time and energy. Aiming to force the mind leads to obsessions and increased misery. It is the aim of forcing that is the real problem. Accepting the reality of desires, feelings, and judgments is the most sensible course. They happen, okay, but they need not determine what you do. Thinking about dying is not dying. Thinking about overcoming anxiety is not overcoming anxiety. Deciding to do what is right is not doing what is right. Committing yourself to a course is not walking that course.
Thoughts, too, happen. By having in mind a purpose or goal some thoughts will flow in that direction. Whether the goal is quiet sitting or carving a pumpkin or writing a novel or sweeping the porch the purposeful activity helps direct thinking. Of course, stray thoughts will occur, too. Trying to suppress stray thoughts with the mind is useless and may stimulate even more thoughts unrelated to your goal. Returning your body to moving toward your goal is often helpful in reducing the distraction of stray thoughts.
Enlightened awareness of delusions does not free you from delusions. It may help free you of some of the power your customary thinking has over you. It may make you aware of ways to use your body, your actions, more realistically. It may help you have more moments noticing what is going on around/within you. Don't get the idea that some experience, however moving, will make your life endlessly clear of suffering and confusion. You may learn to accept being ordinary, nothing special.
The thing you call "a car" is not a car. The things you call "suffering" and "neurosis" and "hunger" and "desires" are not the things themselves. Furthermore, they are not "things" at all. Labels point at other labels. Your "mind" is "labeled." I'm merely stringing labels here to "explain" more labels.
Is it possible to step back from this labeling and perceive reality in its raw form? I don't know. I don't care. It is enough for me to recognize the tendency to label, to organize and store information in labeled format. This recognition offers me a new (meta) set of labels with somewhat more "freedom to act", whatever that may be.
We are surrounded by space and included by that space. So of course what you do affects both you and your surroundings--all one. Your mind interprets that space, including your mind. Mind interpreting mind interpreting mind and so forth. Where would you be without it?
Something informs you about what you need to do. It might inform you to analyze the informing. Again, mind interpreting mind interpreting mind and so forth. Just do it--borrowed information, borrowed methods, borrowed resources, borrowed body, borrowed doing. All inclusive. Give it all away while doing it.
Blanking the mind with the mind takes effort that produces moments of quiet. Accepting the whole of it, mind and all, produces moments of transcendence. "Accepting" here means a kind of immersion, not mental effort. Immersion is inevitable anyway. You can't stand outside reality. You can't do anything on your own.
Immerse yourself in these words, or don't. My task was to put them in this form. Just another doing. Thank you for the loan of your attention. Meanwhile, I'll continue to do what needs doing.
Of course, you are welcome to check with what others think about CL. You will just get more talk, somewhat different from this talk. A more sensible course is to see how well CL works when given an experiential try. The experience goes beyond words about it, though some will try to explain CL in ways that might satisfy you. Your behavior will be your fine teacher. The more you immerse yourself in CL theory, the further you get from it. When you have experiential understanding there is nothing we can teach each other and no need to do so.
What stories will go on after we are dead?
The end