I was reading one of my ubiquitous and often rather silly fantasy books a week or so ago, and one of the repeated themes in it was to look at things in different ways -- anything, all things. Something appears to be one thing, and it is, but what else is it? A book, for instance, can be a book, a story, a bit of wisdom, a paperweight, a chock, an experience, a flower press.... The point is to train our vision to see things in multiplicities rather than singularities. The more ways you can see a thing, a person, a situation, then the more ways we have of dealing with it.
Steven's recent post reminded me of this topic, since he was relating the way learning about bonsai has made him see trees differently, caused him to notice ways they grow. A tree is many things as well: a plant, a resource, firewood and warmth, housing for wildlife, food for bugs ... and art. A bonsai tree can be a source of meditation, a representation of wisdom and patience.
Martial arts can be a simple exercise. What else?
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One of my Zen books discusses the idea of connectivity. Your posting reminds me of that concept. For instance we could meditate on an orange and see its whole history. We could envision the sun and rain within each slice and think of the person who plucked it from the tree, and the tree and how it grew. Then the simple orange becomes so much more, especially when we eat it and it becomes part of us. Martial arts can be a personal journey of self-discovery. I also like to imagine that the form I am working on carries the essence of my teacher, and of his teacher and of his teacher.
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