I believe that Martial Artists should always learn from those around them, and take a lesson from everything they do. This video shows the incredible power of balance. Watch it through to the end.
When the world around us is chaos, or we perceive it to be – which can be more damaging than actual chaos – sometimes the best way to navigate it is to find one thing you can control, and balance it. That moment of balance acts as a beacon, and other moments of balance can follow suit – with mindfulness on these moments, they can build.
And as the world is what it is, we must also be aware that the feather can be knocked at any time… Take a moment to realize the beauty of it, the impermanence of it, and then focus on balancing the feather again.
As a Martial Artist, we seek balance in our everyday lives – work, school, family, training, just to name a few. We also seek balance in our forms, our patterns, and our practice. When we start training, we are learning to put the feather on the first stick – and we repeat this many times until it becomes natural. We challenge ourselves to add extra sticks, and again repeat until it becomes natural. These repetitions come from not successfully maintaining the feather and additional sticks… we learn more from our failures than simply our successes, so do not get caught up in the expectation of perfection. Each step is learning, and every time you do it again, you’re getting better. You’re improving the balance of the movements, and the focus of your mind.
When you get caught up in failure, you not only drop the feather, but you interrupt the subsequent attempt to balance – making the feather or sticks more difficult to balance, and you’ll be stuck at whatever level you allow yourself to be frustrated at… and will have to refocus on each step, allowing yourself to find that balance again to fend off that frustration.
There are two analogies here, and each mean essentially the same thing. This beautiful display was not perfect at the beginning, nor at the end – but every step of the way added wonder and excitement! And you know that this was not her first time performing this…
How do you eat an elephant? And how do you build a brick wall?
One bite and one brick at a time, respectively…
