Housekeeping:
Happy New Year!
2024… Writing that, I feel like I should have a flying car. At least.
This is a rewrite of a couple of older pieces with some new material thrown in so that will, hopefully, account for any feelings of déjà vu you may experience in the next few minutes, not a glitch in The Matrix.
Close one.
Yes, I know that’s not The Matrix, I meant it as… forget it. It’s the future. Let’s get into it by looking back. Waaaay back….
Reaction Time
“You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day. Unless you're too busy, then you should sit for an hour."
A Zen saying (unattributed) that typically provokes a reaction:
- As. If! Yeah, sure. If I only had one robe to wash and some temple stairs to sweep, maybe! Stupid monk.
And another pearl goes cast before swine. Because there's an odd confidence underpinning this dismissal: the idea this particular nugget of wisdom doesn't apply to me.
Yeah. For any number of reasons - how long have you got?
• I work two jobs
• I have 3 kids. And a dog.
• I’m not Buddhist
• I don’t/won’t/can’t meditate
• I’m not a monk
• etc.
• Insert your own
Sure. But none of which address a couple of critical points.
1. Is the advice given to make you miserable? To make everything more difficult?
I don’t think the nice monk is looking to make your life harder, do you?
So why operate on that assumption? You might consider rephrasing it as:
- Do you want your life to be easier?
Your answer:
- No, thanks.
Okay, then.
Here, I’ll somewhat belatedly point out, that I’m not pointing the finger and when I say ‘you’ I mean ‘us’. This is the human condition. Whatever sensitivity I might have to it comes courtesy solely of the heightened awareness one comes to enjoy after decades of meditation.
Ahhhhahahahaha, just kidding.
It’s a byproduct of 13 years of coaching. Looking at is way more obvious than looking out — indeed it describes the primary advantage of coaching— and I'm fortunate enough to see it in others.
All. The. Time.
It's reflexive. Defensive. After all, right where we're expecting some sort of revision to be — okay, just do 5 minutes then — they don't even double down, but triple it!
WTF!
But, if we can pause for a moment and let that reaction pass we open a whole world of possibilities.
And—even if we arrive at the same result— all of them are far more useful.
First, we might consider that 2500 years is more than enough time to either amend this particular directive or quietly sweep it under the temple steps. Indeed, the specific time increments suggest it has been given a modern makeover but, as with any advice that stands the test of time, we can safely say it’s no accident.
We can trust it's just right. Just how it is.
Nevertheless, that doesn't change the fact they've taken your (perfectly reasonable and watertight, goddammit!) objection - a lack of time - and thrown it back in your face. With interest.
Given the Buddhist precept to ‘respond not react’, you might argue this is by design, purposed to provoke. I think that’s perhaps partly right, but not as a deliberate antagonism we might (hopefully) learn to deal with better: not as a training tool.
For all its apparent impenetrability, Zen Buddhism is not aiming to be obscure. Even with the koans. Whatever your interest, or lack thereof, in the sound of one hand (clapping) or a tree falling in a forest, these are not riddles. The intent is not to deceive, entertain, or even puzzle.
Although even years of dedicated study might still have us struggling to grasp these concepts— especially the more esoteric ones— the purpose is purely to shake you awake.
My experience with meditation is mostly Vipassana1 and I have no direct experience of the koans, but, as described here by Adam Frank on Big Think, the idea is:
...to cut through ideas and concepts about the world and the self... to stay close to just this.
But the example above is not a koan. Here— and many more besides— not only is there nothing ‘tricky’ about it, but by pointing DIRECTLY at what you are not seeing when it’s right in front of you, it is the exact opposite of sleight of hand.
It's flipping the script on your expectations not to dismay, but to disturb your instinctive reaction. To derail your default line of thought— I can't do that.
But it can only do that IF you pause to wonder why your meditation instructions suddenly went from bad to worse.
2. That’s right. YOUR meditation instructions.
Whatever reason(s) you cited for NOT following this advice are the very same reasons you must. I told you these Buddhists were tricky.
[With the important caveat, neither I nor the mystery monk are speaking to those who are exceptions and have been advised against meditation for whatever reason.]
There is no temporal, geographical, social, religious, or any other justification that might hold you as the exception. You don’t have to listen, of course, but make no mistake, it is speaking to you. Specifically. In your life. Right now.
It then follows it is both for us and for our benefit. Lucky us! Would it not then pay to at least unpack it a bit? And you'll notice we can go this far with no meditation required - we're still not promising anything.
Okay, what is the instruction aiming to get you to do?
Mediate, sure.
But what else is it pointing to?
Maybe:
If you’re so busy you can’t spare even 20 minutes you are that much more in need of it than somebody with time to burn. We might then start to wonder if being ‘busy’ is a good idea. And what we might do about it.
If you can’t spare even 20 minutes, perhaps one way to affect that might be the addition of an extra 40 minutes of meditation. It sounds paradoxical, but only if you think meditation is the act of going to sit in a corner.
Meditation, with practice, is not something you visit and leave on a mat. You practice it there, so it can then seep into every corner of consciousness.
With some (or more) meditation you might find:
• You got everything done anyway— improved focus and concentration will dramatically increase efficiency.
• You missed some things on your schedule (yes, you did tell me that would happen). But nobody died. Can you reassess the importance of some things on your to-do list?
In any case, some shade of ‘less busy, more meditation’ — all variations thereof — is being proposed to you—ancient wisdom, don't forget— on the basis that your life might become what…. that’s right, easier.
Better.
And if you can acknowledge that, it points to something even more useful than meditation:
That you can cultivate a mindful and intentional response rather than reacting impulsively based on conditioned habits or emotions.
That doesn’t sound like you at all? Okay, give the next drill an honest attempt.
COLD SHOWER CHALLENGE
Here's the deal: Just three times in the next seven days, start your shower with full cold water for 10 seconds only.
That's it. 30 seconds of cold water. It's laughable.
Yes, you'll get wet and cold, briefly, but really, it's all mental. You don't even need to try to confirm that. You read about it 4 seconds ago and— if you’ve rejected it— your mind now stands ready with a list of inventive reasons as to why you couldn't, possibly, do that!
And, if we can assume you're neither the Wicked Witch of the West nor a gremlin, there’s not much in the way of supporting evidence.
The good news is you can relax, you've just completed the drill. No cold water required. The point being to simply notice the reaction. At a grand total of 30 seconds over a week, you can hardly claim a lack of time for this one but you will have creatively conjured a carte blanche on the spot.
- I'm not cut out for that cold shit.
Yeah, like some people are. Except, no, they aren't. There are exactly zero people who kick off a cold shower routine unruffled. It's thoroughly unpleasant. Not just for you. For everybody. We have enough bullshit coming in from all other quarters to daily negotiate, but this is wholly self-generated. All yours.
Instantly self-disqualification. And rarely revisited, so you’re making what amounts to a final decision for no real reason. And from the worst possible vantage point.
Is your decision not to meditate really making your life better— for not even trying it?
You can't answer that, because you don't know. The only way to make an informed decision: as to whether this might be something, not that you'd tolerate in your life but welcome, is on the far side. After you've done it for sufficient time to move the needle.
It’s possibly even of the I-can't-believe-I-lived-without-it, variety. But you'll never know if you summarily dismiss it.
Equally, you have no idea whether 'you're cut out for' cold showers before, or even during your first. Or, probably even your tenth. The only way to know is to persist. But you make that far easier by applying the logic absent from knee-jerk declarations of unsuitability:
This sucks.
For everyone.
But some people do it every day.
Why is that?
When it sucks so much?
Maybe they get something out of it?
…
Whatever that something is, it must be damn good to make this shit worthwhile.
And, finally, we arrive at a conclusion with some substance.
Response Time
I'm not suggesting suck-it-and-see as your go-to form of evaluation for everything, obviously. It may surprise you to learn I'm not suggesting you meditate.
The point is to be aware of the stories we manufacture in the moment, with little basis in reality, when they may not be in our best interests. Non-reactive awareness. And the further point that some things, unlike meditation and cold exposure, are not nearly so discretionary.
- I'm not cut out for this fitness thing.
Okay. Well, I'll be the first to agree that fitness, as it's typically offered, isn’t exactly alluring. Worse still, there’s rarely any rationale under the wrapping, so I get it. It makes me want to curl up with a good book as well. The standard dietary rubbish makes me want to curl up with a good book and a cheeseburger.
But if, conversely, you’re suggesting you're somehow cut out for unfitness, then I stand corrected. You are an exception. And truly unique in the animal kingdom. That is a singularly human hubris and, of course, the source of far greater net discomfort than any cold shower or mat time.
With discomfort being a feature inherent to the best tools for many jobs— and the process of change itself— I hear this sort of thing a lot. And, I’ll repeat, I do it myself.
That even when it comes to clear-cut universal laws, physiological principles, and well-worn, battle-tested counsel, our immediate, default reaction is to raise our hands and say - yes, BUT not me, because…
And we are often shrugging off this guardrail wisdom while heading for, or going through, the nearest guardrail.
But while the rewards from meditation and cold exposure are hard-won. The upsides from fitness—when it’s done right— are immediate. Yes, there are the immediate downsides too, including discomfort and finding the time. But, with a Leftfield approach, from Day 1 you are in dialogue with your body and mind.
And you’ll know it.
You can trial it FOC, and you’re covered by a 30-day guarantee so it’s easy to make an informed decision. In-person or online, there is no temporal, geographical, social, religious…
Anyway.
While I’m far from a wise old monk I can tell you, it’s fitness for you. Specifically. In your life. Right now.
It’s fitness minus the bullshit.
- OLI
Translated as ‘clear-seeing’. That of direct perception and — excusing the irony of having read just read an argument for it —as opposed to knowledge derived from reasoning or argument.