just be it It’s about the work involved in establishing a dedicated practice to feelings of a bigger belonging through practices aimed at increasing feelings of compassion, gratitude and forgiveness

Peak Performance Training

Published on 20/11/08
by randy

There’s general acknowledgement of a ‘shift’ in the way we process our involvement in the universe.  This change had been forecast thousands of years ago and now we can literally sense a quickening or acceleration of this new way of experiencing things.  This change dramatically affects our relationships not only to one another, but to all elements of nature.  We find ourselves relating in a very different way to plants, animals and the various gifts that contribute to our very breathing.  There’s an experience of connectedness and with this experience comes a dramatic change in the way we process our moment-to-moment living.

We stand outside the old paradigm need to control.  There’s a trust or accepting in the unfolding of events and we come to see the damage caused from our previous attempts to fix things we thought were wrong.  We come to a deep appreciation for each moment, for the very gift of breath, and discover consequent joy and happiness in breaking the chains of comparison, judgment and criticism.  In the new paradigm we take responsibility for our thoughts, speech and actions, in full recognition to our creation of reality.

So how does this relate to ‘riding’?  Isn’t all of our life action about movement within the moment?  Whether riding a great wave or driving our car or engaging another in dialogue, there’s an element of courage involved in our surrender to receive what’s presented, what’s present in our awareness.   So when approaching an ocean wave, the old paradigm has one divided from it, somehow in a competition or war that’s aimed to conquest.  The riding style of the old paradigm is more aggressive, driven by ego’s desire to conquer, compete and somehow receive validation through another’s approval or praise.  It’s more taken with notions of one’s doing-ness and achievement.  New paradigm riding involves a much deeper listening to the unfolding events.  The water and wave are approached through a notion of love and surrender.  All boundaries of separation are broken as the rider literally experiences his/her ‘wave-ness’ within the core of the heart.  The rider does not separate from other brothers and sisters engaging the wave, and he/she intuitively moves to stay out of another’s way as the process unfolds.  All notions of ownership, blame, inferiority and superiority vanish as the rider meets the moment in full wonder and gratitude for the opportunity to participate.  We’ve shifted our paradigm from ‘just doing it’ to ‘just being it’.  At this moment of stepping from our separation we move just past the edge of our ability in creative response.

From Lao-tzu’s Tao Te Ching:

The Way abides in nonaction
Yet nothing is left undone.

From The Heart of Being by John Daido Loori:

What is the right view and the wisdom that allows the barrier to be broken down?  It always comes back to Be the barrier.  That is the right view. Be the barrier. That is the right wisdom.  This is because, from the very beginning, the barrier is nothing but yourself.  There is no barrier.  When you realize there is no barrier, the barrier becomes a dharma gate.  If the barrier is Mu, be Mu.  If the barrier is the koan, be the koan.  Anxiety?  Be the anxiety.  Fear?  Be the fear.  When you are the barrier, it fills the universe.  There is no longer a reference system.  There is no separation—no self and other, no self and barrier, no self and Mu, no self and the koan, no self and the breath.

From The Life Divine by Sri Aurobindo:

When we withdraw our gaze from its egoistic preoccupation with limited and fleeting interests and look upon the world with dispassionate and curious eyes that search only for the Truth, our first result is the perception of a boundless energy of infinite existence, infinite movement, infinite activity pouring itself out in limitless Space, in eternal Time, an existence that surpasses infinitely our ego or any ego or any collectivity of egos, in whose balance the grandiose produces of aeons are but the dust of a moment and in whose incalculable sum numberless myriads count only as a petty swarm.

From Returning to Silence by Dainin Katagiri Roshi:

Each movement was beautiful and completely independent, but simultaneously each movement was connected.  There was no gap between her and the ballet.  Within the limitations of her life fading away, she took care of each form with wholeheartedness.
There is no gap between her and the dance.  They are just one.

Wholehearted Living by Somebody Else:

When doing life wholeheartedly we touch being.   Meeting eternity within each moment, we experience impermanence and our interconnectedness.  Within this experience, we are the full expression of our action, outside any mental formations of separateness.  Wholehearted living comes from the spirit of what’s best for all, with harm to none.  There’s a deep sense of stewardship, of engaged action dedicated to ‘taking care’.

Wholehearted living doesn’t just happen.  The deeper we touch our actions through disciplined practice and resolve, the closer we come to surrendered performance that touches the fabric of all.  The past no longer spits out our capacity to touch the present.  When doing is wholehearted there’s great ease of performance leading to what some have called style.  Outside of cognitive noise, the mind/body meet the moment fresh to it’s unfolding…each ‘doing’ new.

Wholehearted living always aims deeper.

Workshops on peak performance in sport and music will be scheduled periodically.

Check the calendar for dates.

That's it. What Next?

Please leave your comment so we know what you think about this article. Trackback URL: Peak Performance Training.