In training the body, we cultivate resilience, not rigidity. Beginners hold tension in the opposing muscles as they move. They do not notice it. As a result, when they throw a punch, they resist their own motion by holding tension in the arm flexors, slowing their punch, reducing their power. When pulling their arm back, they hold tension in the extensors, also impeding their power and slowing their punch.
Resistance in the opposing muscles also hastens fatigue – locally, and through the whole body. If someone points it out, the student can overcome it. If the student has lots of enthusiasm but lacks good instruction, they will train with this error. They get disappointed in their performance. They feel their training did not work. They are tempted to quit.
Mental rigidity undermines martial performance the same way. It impedes the will, interferes with perception, and disrupts spontaneous response. That leads to poor tactical choices, including anticipation, hesitation or indecision.
Holding tension in the mind interferes with developing calm, clear attention.
In training the mind, we want to be attentive and alert and at the same time calm and flexible. As you go deeper into your training you see that the body and the mind work in the same way. They are not just analogs. They are one system.
We train hard. But we follow the middle way of practice: Not slack. Not burning out. Balancing energy and patient persistence. It takes a while to get the feel for training this way. But that is how skilled practitioners do it. Contrast this way of practice with the trendy appeal of extreme sports, and with popular martial arts in which participants suffer frequent injury.
We can get guidance on the middle way of practice from the simile of the guitar string, also known as the simile of the lute.
In one sutta the Buddha gives advice to an overly enthusiastic, inadequately trained new monk, about how to practice mind training properly.
Before the exchange, as the story goes, the young monk was practicing with maximum intensity. He was totally into it. But he did not really know how to practice properly. He has not gotten proper advice, and had not been in the presence of accomplished practitioners for long enough to understand what they were doing.
His hard training did not yield the quick results he was hoping for. So, he contemplated quitting.
The Buddha (whom the young monk named Sona respectfully addresses as “bhante”) understands Sona’s mind. The Buddha understood that Sona aspired to liberation, but failed to reach his goal. The Buddha knows that Sona is considering giving up his vows and returning to family life, doing good deeds and enjoying himself, giving up the hard discipline of a monastic life devoted to training.
The Buddha says:
“Sona, when you were alone in seclusion, didn’t the following course of thought arise in your mind “I am one of the Blessed One’s most energetic disciples, yet my mind has not been liberated from the taints by non-clinging.
“Now there is wealth in my family, and it is possible for me to enjoy my wealth and do meritorious deeds. Let me then give up the training and return to the lower life, so that I can enjoy my wealth and do meritorious deeds”?
“Yes, bhante.”
“Tell me, Sona, in the past, when you lived at home, weren’t you skilled at the lute?
“Yes, bhante.”
“What do you think, Soṇa? When its strings were too tight, was your lute well-tuned and easy to play?”
“No, bhante.”
“When its strings were too loose, was your lute well-tuned and easy to play?”
“No, bhante.”
“But, Soṇa, when its strings were neither too tight nor too loose but adjusted to a balanced pitch, was your lute well-tuned and easy to play?”
“Yes, bhante.”
“So too, Soṇa, if energy is aroused too forcefully this leads to restlessness, and if energy is too lax this leads to laziness. Therefore, Soṇa, resolve on a balance of energy, achieve a balance of the spiritual faculties, and take up the object there.”
This dialog is from the Anguttara Nikaya, Book of Sixes, Sutta 55. It also appears at Sona’s Theragata, 638–39). Thanks to Bhikkhu Bodhi for pointing this out, and for his translation.
The advice given in the simile of the lute applies to mind training and to combative skill.
On a stringed instrument each string has its own proper tuning. They are not all the same. That holds true for the members of a group of practitioners in a class or a team in an operating environment. Through collaboration between the teacher and students, or leader and team, the precise tuning – the proper quantity and quality of pressure and challenge – can be established and maintained, in training and beyond.
Finding the precise balance of energy and calm persistence in practice is the task set for each of us – in mind training, combative training or any high-performance skill.
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Post copyright © 2024 Jeffrey Brooks
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