Everyone has faced hardship in life, everyone has had to deal with difficult situations. The thing that separates the wheat from the chaff is in how well we deal with these things, how we approach them, how we allow them to effect us.
Conquering evil does not mean, necessarily, going out and combating everything we feel is wrong with the world, although that could be a huge part of who we are, how can we combat the evil in the world if we cannot maintain harmony within ourselves?
Do we see challenges or obstacles when something new comes our way? If we view something as a challenge, how far do we take it?
Each aspect of life gives us a lesson about ourselves, for which we should be mindful and thankful as a start, teaching us something different, something we may not wish to see, something that may just need to change in order to move on, but what is the key to success here? Dwelling on the issue? Again, it is in how we approach things.
Takuan Soho, author of the classic 'The Unfettered Mind' and friend of Yagyu Munenori, wrote the treatise for his friend explaining how to become a successful swordsman through the Zen Teaching of Non-Abiding.
In it he states, basically, that it is not good to zero in on one thing, to let the mind abide one thing at a time, but to focus, specifically, on the rhythm of the moment, of the situation, to abide in non-abiding, which leads to success.
Instead of seeing an opponent stepping in for an overhead cut, then a thrust, the mind simply feels the rhythm and responds accordingly, without holding onto specific things as though they were unconnected.
Everything is a deeply connected endless circle.
This relates to all things no matter what they are and living in non-abiding allows us to see things just as they are, without attaching any sort of concept, laid bare, we seeing their direct unfettered nature, their essence.
How can this be applied?
If we find ourselves frustrated by something do we stop and dwell on what it is that is frustrating us or do we acknowledge and let to go by in order to see a way through based on a focus centered in the rhythm of the moment itself?
You have a deadline at work or are failing to meet quota, what do you do? Most times if we stress over the issue and try to make it work out it seldom does and, if it does, it is usually going to feel rushed or put together haphazardly.
If we simply settle into the moment, allow ourselves to simply work, to flow, then everything will fall into place seemingly without effort.
This is not to say that planning and strategy are not important, no, that can be an exercise in flow unto itself, but when we enter the phase of implementation it is best to move beyond the framework and, as the saying goes, 'roll with the punches,' because no plan ever survives intact as nothing ever goes the way we would like it to go.
That is the point of abiding in non-abiding, letting go of what we think things will be and accepting things as they are so they may be met effectively, like a dance, each step has a corresponding response, but these are based in the moment, the rhythm, the principles play themselves out and are extremely adaptable, they need no extra help.
Understanding comes with mindfulness, patience, and abiding in non-abiding, simply paying attention to an endless sea of ebb and flow.
