8) Meditation in activity is a hundred, a thousand, a million times superior to meditation in repose.
The only difference between how I used to interpret this and how I do now is that I have a slightly better understanding of where it comes from. Although, admittedly, this is another one that I have had a tough time ferreting out a written source; it’s cited everywhere in different writings, but always attributed to “An Ancient Sage” or “A Taoist Sage”, but never with a name or other source.
So, with that being said, admittedly this is a really simple one to decipher – there’s no major research required, or even cultural understanding to bridge the gap. It’s simple – meditation while doing something is better than meditation on its own.
Most practices of meditation are focused on self-reflection and have a penchant for meditation in repose. Many people who think about meditation believe that it is sitting in a cross-legged position, hands folded in front of them mimicking the classic posture of Buddha trying to focus their thoughts… or let them go.
I don’t believe that this particular statement is saying that meditation in repose is useless – not at all. It’s definitely making a qualitative assertion that meditation in activity is better than just sitting. I would argue that this statement (likely coming from the Taoist tradition in China) is referring to the state of awareness or connectedness that someone with good Kung Fu feels when doing their particular favourite activity.
For those who don’t know, “Kung Fu” isn’t the name of Chinese Martial Arts or a particular Martial Arts system – it’s actually a state of being. Kung Fu (or Gung Fu) is typically the adeptness of a practitioner in something. Anyone can have good kung fu – an artist, singer, carpenter, driver, dancer, martial artist, etc. It just means a state of being, or being in tune, or (to use a common catch phrase) are “in the zone” when they do their particular activities…
I believe that this particular maxim is saying that this state of being attuned during activity is a far more advantageous goal than a similar state during inactivity.
For those practitioners of Martial Arts who study kata or toulu, this feeling of meditation comes from routine practice – the act of repetition, focusing on the subtleties in the body… Those moments where you bow in, say the name of the form and then the next thing you realize you are bowing out upon completion and have done the entire form… That unfocused reflex and the disciplined execution, the paradox of the mindful in the no-mind.
At least, this is what this maxim still says to me…even after all of these years.
