Gnosis Practicing NOT doing it...

This heading probably needs a little explanation, but once explained, I am reasonably sure most people will be able to relate.

A few years ago while practising Karate in class with the Sensei and one other student, the Sensei asked us to go through all the Kata (prearranged sequence of Karate moves) we needed for our next grading. Being the junior student I went first – when I finished the Sensei gave me some pointers and left me to practise.

When the other student (who I think was a brown belt at the time) had her turn, she got up to the 5^th Kata without incident. In that particular Kata there is a more difficult kick – a jumping spinning kick.

“Stop!” yelled the Sensei, so of course I stopped; only he was not talking to me. “What was that?”

“Jumping spinning crescent kick Sensei” was the hesitant reply.

“Show me again” “once more!”

“Have you demonstrated this Kata in your last two gradings?”

“Yes Sensei”

“That kick should have been perfect a long time ago!”

“I practise it all the time Sensei”

“NO! You are practising NOT doing it”

The Sensei demonstrated. “This is how to practise it.”

I watched the whole thing, amazed. He really hit the nail on the head, NOT Practising it.

It makes me wonder how many times have I practised NOT doing Gnosis? I have been given so many wonderful tools in Gnosis and so rarely have I made good use of them.

Recently I have started to learn how to investigate things better, and so many mistakes are becoming clearer. Pushing through, making efforts these things are not enough I need to really search, improve try different ways of practicing NOT doing Gnosis, until I discover the way to practice…

Now I Will judge my success by the results not by the efforts.

Martial Arts were they once more Spiritual?

Over the years I have studied several martial arts and come across many concepts that are very Spiritual.

It seems to me the root of Martial Arts is a Spiritual one.

My old Karate Club, Golden Cobra has a little history of Martial Arts which, every student learns, it go’s something like – in 70-543 BC and Indian Buddhist monk called Bodhidharma travelled to China to teach Zen Buddhism. When he arrived after travelling across India and china Bodhidharma saw that the monks were incapable of withstanding the severe physical and mental discipline required. He introduced some breathing exercises and forms based on animal movements… From there it moved into Japan…

The Japanese have many single words which describe the Spiritual; in English we use many sentences to describe the same thing…

Zanshin which, I first learned about while practicing Aikido. It is also very important in Karate and Iaido or the art of drawing the Japanese Sward.

Zanshin means to do each thing completely. Doing this does not mean to stick and hold. Sometimes, in sitting, you find yourself lost in a thought and then you wake up and cut the thought; then you find yourself going back to check if you've cut that thought. But that thought is gone and you are only trying to find a definition of yourself, you are only trying to become someone who has “cut the thought.” Instead, when you wake up from the thought, that's it. What now? Zanshin then means, a mind of continual readiness, like a mirror ready to reflect whatever is shown to it.

In the martial arts, Zanshin means having no break in our activity, because there is no time to take back a stride or block and fix it. It also means going beyond technique, because we cannot force the situation to conform to the technique. The angle of the strike and the force of the strike must be adjusted immediately to the energy of the partner.

In practice we must go beyond strategies of defense and hesitation. We must open up to the energy of the senses/mind itself as it expresses itself as seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, smelling and thinking. Penetrating into this energy, we must go beyond all barriers.

Another word is Mushin which again I came across in Aikido…

Mushin: Literally "no mind." A state of cognitive awareness characterized by the absence of discursive thought. A state of mind in which the mind acts/reacts without hypostatization of concepts. Mushin is often erroneously taken to be a state of mere spontaneity. Although spontaneity is a feature of Mushin, it is not straightforwardly identical with it. It might be said that when in a state of Mushin, one is free to use concepts and distinctions without being used by them.

In modern Gnosticism we Practice bringing our attention the the present moment not letting any thought or feeling distract us from the experience of the moment. this seems very close to Zanshin.

We also strive to experience the world as it is objectively free from the machinations of the mind free from its drives tis desires... it could be Mushin.

what do you think?

What seperateds victory and defeat?

A few years ago I was watching the Karate grading of one of my fellow students. He was a young man around 11 or 12 at the time. He was doing well and demonstrated the requirements of the grading to the necessary standard. He was looking pretty good - until he got up to the sparring section.

It was a junior Brown belt grading so there were about 8 minutes of non contact sparring, then 2 of semi contact. 10 minutes does not sound like a lot but if you think of it like sprinting for 10 minutes you get an idea of how tough it really is…

He was doing the last round and was getting pretty tired, and then the kid he was sparring hit him squarely in the solar plexus. Physically it didn’t hurt him much but mentally getting hit like that by a lower graded, smaller kid, in his brown belt grading…

He stopped and then looked like he was going to walk off the mat … the tears started and he hesitated, looking around. People were urging him to stay as he only had seconds to go. There was a lot of support - there were comments like “You can do it!”, “Only a little more!”, “Suck it up mate, you can do it”.

Then he ran out of the Dojo…

I was so disappointed - he was seconds away from achieving the goal he had spent years of hard training to achieve, and in one instant it was gone. I never saw him again after that.

I’m sure it was an event that will be pivotal in his life…

While attempting the spiritual work I have recognised this behaviour in myself. thanks to the teaching from Gnosis.

This theme has been written about in books and even some poetry, but it had no real meaning for me; until I saw it in myself then made efforts to overcome it and change my behaviour…

Kukulcan (Great Divine Instructor, Serpent with Feathers)

The feathered serpent must fly. When you know what the flight of the feathered serpent is, you will know what to do. Until then…make it clear that the message of the immortals vibrates throughout the centuries.

WAKE UP! KNOW YOURSELF!

The mysterious impulse which focuses your attention upon these manuscripts is nothing but the echo of the cry which has awakened the immortal essence of your own blood. And by invoking the glorious forces of life, simultaneously you have evoked the sinister forces of death.

The former and the latter are yourself, so do not fear.

Confront them, know them, subdue them.

Your destiny is to be master of both.

And even though you often believe you have lost the path which takes you to the awakening, you will never be alone. And your losing the way is nothing but a testing ground in which your alert intelligence attempts shy steps along all tracks, shaking off the lethargy of everything that is mortal.

It is necessary that you obtain experience.

Never ask anybody “What do I have to do?” because that is the most fatal question of all. If you ask a fool, one who is asleep, you will be inviting him to drag you into a dream and with it you will fall into a double foolishness and it will be twice as difficult to wake up again. And if you ask your question to a wise one, an awakened one, you will perceive how useless it is, because an awakened one will always answer:

“Do what you feel is best. If you put your heart in it, always acting in a state of alertness, you will gain a great experience”.

In the end you will make out of solitude and silence you most precious companions, immersing with them into the depths of yourself. You will gradually be astounded at the horror of your ‘dream’ which is your human slavery. And, by the same token your strength to fight back for your freedom will increase.

Not everyone chooses this path which takes you to the very heart of things.

If you have evoked your friends, you have also put your worst enemies on guard. The one and the other will appear within you, and in front of you, in a thousand different forms, and you will often confuse them during your first steps. Your friends will not always be the most charming or pleasant because they will deprive you of everything you regard as stable.

Then your jealous enemies, smirking, will display in front of your inner vision thousands of possibilities to elevate you to your actual condition. If you give in and bite the poisoned fruit which they offer, you will become tied up with the triple chains of illusion and of sleep that always takes over those who are naïve and do not know the value of experience and opposition.

Soon, however, you will know your friends in the infinite silence that you will throw yourself into, longing and thirsting for words of truth. It is then that you will feel that ‘something’ flowing, rough or smooth, depending on the circumstances, and the mere fact of feeling it will show you that you are on the path to the complete awakening.

Because that word that something is you yourself the Master the Creator.

From The Flight of the Feathered Serpent by Armando Cosani