MAC week 4 blog 1 reading: The
Art of Possibility by Benjamin Zander
and Rosamund Stone Zander
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| Used with permission from: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1387982 |
What if we were the circuit board of our life?
Perhaps this book is all
about being Zen. I particularly like the
portion of Zen that explores the lack of people living in a bottle. I find that at times I am guilty of
the desire to be unaffected by the outside world. I like isolation, which is
witnessed by the National Forest surroundings of my home. I find that too many people clutter my
thoughts too easily. Yet despite this
isolation we affect each other, and we are part responsible no matter which
direction the outcome. I would like to
be more efficient in the game of chess, but the concept of being the board
seems harder for me to grasp. I
understand that actions and reactions occur, and most of the time I do not assign blame. There are times though,
when feeling low, that I am bound by insufficient thought and overwhelmed with
negativity. When those times occur
action is required to re-establish a positive mode of thinking and being.
Wonderful personal reflection... in the literal sense... I see that spirit of stillness in your reflection. Thanks for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteFaith, I understand why being the board is hard to grasp. Sometimes we don't realize that we have the power to take control of our situations and change them for the better. We have to realize the reality of our situations then control them in a way that the outcome is one that we want. If we don't believe that we can control our 'board' we usually won't even try. I like the example that Ben and Roz used in the book about the the rained out Florida vacation. The rain is a reality, you can't change it. You can stay and complain about the rain, you can go inside and enjoy some great movies, or you can catch the next plane to a sunny place. It's all up to you, you control the 'board'.
ReplyDeleteHi Faith;
ReplyDeleteChess is a game about strategy. In fact, it's the ultimate strategy game. Ben and Roz used the chess board analogy as a way to explain that each of us have our own board and we control "our" board. The will be situations that you cannot avoid, for example Bishop takes Pawn. Bishop moves different from Pawn in the game. it has a better range compared to Pawn. There will be days where "your" pawn could be overwhelmed by the "bishop" (a problem). It is how you move the situation to your favor. How can a pawn can take over the bishop with the right move. That's the reason why chess games are so lengthy. Chess players don't look at one movement, they look at the whole board, all possible moves that can affect the outcome of the game.
In Internal Martial Arts, such as Bagua, Taijiquan and Xingyiquan we train our body to use as a whole, not as a individual entity. We channel our energy thru our body, therefore eliminating "outside" interference like stress & sickness. Although a common cold is not avoidable, we can prevent that cold could get worse.
HI Faith,
ReplyDeleteSometimes are circuit boards are not seated tightly in position. The thousandth of an inch it is off can lead to many things that don't work or need to fixed. When we are not grounded we can feel that way, that lonely overwhelmed feeling. One can trust in finding the proper seating by surrounding themselves with the ones they love, and with passion I believe.
Your board maybe out of sink at times, but I truly believe that your sense of passion for life will always get you through. Your circuit board is strong and seated correctly most of the time :)
David