Obviously I have an interest in things spiritual, and there are certain authors I turn to regularly and whose new books I look forward to them – among them Thich Naht Hahn. Recently the Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk had a new book out and I made one of the biggest mistakes anyone can make – I scrolled down the reviews on Amazon.
Now, there is a law, named after Mike Godwin, which he coined around 1990. In short it says that as an online discussion goes on (regardless of topic or scope), the more likely a comparison involving Nazis or Adolf Hitler and, with long enough discussions, it is a certainty. With the exponential growth of the use of the world wide web since the term was first used, in a slightly whimsical fashion, it has become a more and more accurate description of what goes on in the comments section of anything anyone dares to say on social media.
So, Thich’s book: it had four and a half star ratings, and I saw that it had a one star rating. I am always puzzled by one-star ratings on books, because, by and large, if you buy a book, you know the author already, or you’re familiar with their work, or a friend has recommended it. And if you are buying it digitally, you can download a sample first. So, I thought, a book has to be pretty bad to get one star. I scrolled down and read.
The reviewer’s complaint was simply that it was just another book on being in the present moment by following the breath. Since the title of the book implied that if you read it, you would learn something that would make your life better, I imagine that the reviewer thought they were going to get some secret teaching they could use, not just more of the same boring old “follow your breath”.
This is the same problem you often see in the martial arts. Amongst a certain type of student there is a belief in secret techniques that you will be taught once you gain your black belt and provided you remain loyal to your teacher. I have even met and trained with people who claim to have received these secret teachings, but I have never felt any difference between their techniques and someone who just turned up to practise.
Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido, said:
“Progress comes to those who train and train;
Reliance on secret techniques will get you nowhere.”
This is ironic, considering that Aikido is one of the arts most awash with “secret techniques.” Now, while it is true that there are people I know and respect who say they have experienced such techniques, including being thrown without being touched, I have never had the experience myself. I have, however, run across a number of people who claimed they could throw or hold someone down without touching them, but generally speaking, they tend not to use their skills on people like me – my ki is not strong enough to cope with their ki, I’m told – I might die apparently!
Most people who claim to have these types of techniques seem to have disciples rather than students, and most people who believe in secret techniques want to be disciples rather than students. The people who make the best Aikidoka are the people who keep showing up at the dojo, who keep practising, going to seminars and different sensei, who read books and study, and simply talk with fellow students, and suddenly forty years have gone by and what they have learnt is that every step of the path is the path. There are no cars or aeroplanes to get them to their destination any faster, because there is no ultimate destination.
This impatient desire to arrive is what leads to the search for secret techniques, and therefore creates the unsettled state of mind that leads to the impatient desire that seeks secret techniques, which causes the unquiet mind … and so on.
The trouble is, what else can you do apart from accept that this moment is the only moment you’ve got. The past is behind you, and the future hasn’t happened yet. And much of the past, you wish was different, and when the anticipated future arrives, much of it is a disappointment, or at the very least, not what you expected. All you can do is try to make the very best of what is happening now.
“Focus on the breath” is shorthand for “pay attention to what you are doing now and stop getting lost in your thoughts.” But in a complicated twist, your thoughts are also what are happening now, so they need to be acknowledged too and something to become frustrated with.
Another of my favourite Buddhist writers, the nun Pema Chodron says that we should not think of spiritual awakening as a journey to the top of a mountain where we will transcend all our worldly woes, but rather, a journey to the centre of the earth, towards all of our doubts and troubles.
Basically, the spiritual journey is not one that is away from life, but one that goes towards the heart of it. As Thich Naht Hahn says, “No mud, no lotus.” And searching for secret techniques takes you away from life, whereas just sitting and breathing makes you live with life, because although we might find ourselves doing different things in each moment, it is the breath that links them all together like pearls on a thread.
Life isn’t a test to be passed, overcome or solved. It is rarely overcome or solved and the only way we pass it is by passing out of it when we die. So it seems to me that the best solution is to pay attention to it, recognise all of it, the good and the bad, as it happens, and following the breath is certainly one of the oldest, and probably the easiest, types of meditation for sharpening our awareness of the present moment.
So, one-star reviewer, don’t waste time searching for secret techniques that may or may not be there, just enjoy each day as it comes, and enjoy following the breath and enjoy enjoying it without any other expectation than enjoying it, and you might just enjoy it.