Accidental Sagacity does not seek to inspire you to shave your head, don an ochre robe and go chant on a mountain. You don’t need to become a monk to activate the endless joys and possibilities of Zen in your life. In fact, Zen is easier than most people believe. It is also completely applicable to horsemanship and a path toward greater understanding and harmony in everyday life.
Zen is the focus of attention on a given activity- breathing, walking, riding or driving- awareness of the activity is engaged, bringing the mind and body into the present. The mindfulness that results can help to instigate correct form and therefore function creating voluntary and involuntary activities that are more moving and fulfilling.
Ponder a moment on the incomprehensible beauty of breathing, of walking, of riding, of driving a horse. Simply by concentrating on the practice improves the practice and elevates it to an art form. By adopting such activities as an art, we can relax into the fluid execution of them and connect to our surroundings producing a serenity and harmony with life itself. Finding it hard to see cleaning a stall as one of life’s masterpieces? Imagine the ability to do it taken away from you.
In Surfing the Himalayas, a monk enlightens a snowboarder on how to perfect his craft. “You’ve got to be the board,” Master Fwap says. Apply that to riding and be the saddle, or carriage driving and be the harness, or be the bit and the reins, be the horse. In connecting to the vastness of the experience, through awareness and mindfulness, you connect to your surroundings; to the very ebb and flow of the life around you. Zen is about oneness. In riding or in carriage driving, do not separate yourself from the horse, become one unit of movement, unite.
Sounds lofty? Or like I've discovered religion? Nah, not really. My most profound moments of joy as an equestrian are times when I am riding/driving/working a horse and I hear a luv-duv, luv-duv, luv-duv sound. It isn't out loud. It is there, permeating my awareness, gently, rhythmically. Luv-duv. Luv-duv. I think it must be the sound of my heart beating in time with the horse's. The work or exercise becomes easier, the footfalls lighter, the reins become gossamer threads of energy exchanging between the horse and myself, timelessness and spaciousness wrap their empyrean dimensions around us.
I've heard it called...nirvana.
And that, is a moment of Zen.
Kind Regards,
Michelle Blackler
Serendipity
www.hossbiz.com
Serendipity is an Accidental Sagacity Corporation company.
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