3 March 2005
I’ve found the key to thing I’ve been searching for – the elusive goal. I’ve known this thing in the past, but have not known it enough to name it, only to experience it. In fact, it is nameless. People have tried to name – I have tried to name it, but labelling it only negates it. And now I have run across it again in a passage from the Inner Game of Tennis:
The Inner Game is the moment-by moment effort to let go and to stay centred in the here-and-now action which offers the real winning and losing, and this game never ends. The Inner Game frees the player from concern about the fruits of victory; he becomes devoted only to the goal of self-knowledge, to the exploration of his true nature as it reveals itself on level after level.
In the true nature and style of Zen, this concept is best understood in the manifestation of the physical. For example Zen and the Art of Archery, Zen and the Art of breathing, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Zen and the Art of Flower Arrangement etc. As Miyamoto Musashi said: “To learn one thing is to learn ten thousand things.”
” Before enlightenment – chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment – chop wood, carry water.” — Zen Buddhist Saying