C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

  A “Nothing to Do, Nowhere to Go” Practice for Contemporary Budoka      In my last “Budo Zen” article on hard work, I mentioned at the end how a lot of practitioners don’t like—or, at the very least, don’t know what to make of—the goalless practice in Zen of “nothing to do and nowhere to go.”  If there is nothing to do and nowhere to go then what is the point? This is a common enough refrain, and it’s what I would like to explore a little further here.      Goals are needed in life.  That’s the first thing that needs to be understood.  You are not going to achieve much (in many aspects of your life) if you don’t have a clear goal, and a means to get there.  Often, when it comes to lifting, I discuss on this blog how too many lifters—bodybuilders, strength athletes, and, yes, martial artists, too—will often allow the means to justify the ends .  This is the wrong approach.  If you allow the “means” (...

Entering Deeply into Practice Bodhidharma (a.k.a. Da Mo), first patriarch of Zen*       “ While you are continuing this practice, week after week, year after year, your experience will become deeper and deeper, and your experience will cover everything you do in your everyday life.  The most important thing is to forget all gaining ideas, all dualistic ideas.  In other words, just practice zazen in a certain posture.  Do not think about anything.  Just remain on your cushion without expecting anything.  Then eventually you will resume your own true nature.  That is to say, your own true nature resumes itself. ” Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind      In a past blog entry on Zen, martial arts, and building muscle mass, I made a brief mention of entering deeply into practice .  But what does this mean, to “enter deeply into practice”?  First, and for some odd reason this seems to be a poi...