The Enemy of Perfection

[benos]

Thought obscures perfection. Therefore, allow whatever you are doing to be all that is happening.

Listen!

When you are not doing anything, listen. What is appearing in your mind? Remain in that highly alert state.

Be alive, be alert!

Be alive and alert to everything. Thoughts do not arise when you are truly alive. In the alert state thoughts do not continue on their own. The thought train continues only in the unaware state.

Allow a noticing mind.

Know if you are thinking. Don't worry or care about what a thought was "about." Just know whether or not you are thinking; knowing cures all ailments.

Notice! Let go! Over and over.

That becomes the practice. Be comfortable and familiar with the silent, listening state. What is its nature?

Be aware of the nature of your mind when you are listening, but haven't labeled a sound or form, or recognized a thought.

Be aware of the nature of your mind when you are looking for your keys, but haven't found them. Remain in that state. Keep the looking.

be

[tackdr1ver]

YES!

Letting go is where it's at. There is a noticeable difference when you just simply do rather than, try to do. In the past, I have caught fleeting glimpses of this state of mind while shooting. The buzzer sounds and you go into action. Before you know it, it's over - it just happened.

Today is a match day, i'm going with this objective in mind! You're the man, thanks!

[daves_not_here]

"Not Trying" The Path to Perfection?

A part of Letting go is what I call not trying.

I really don't see any shortcuts to mastery. Learning mastery seems more important than actually being a master. It's as if the struggle and making mistakes is a crucial part of the path of mastery. Mastery may lie in the struggle and failures.

Paradoxically all the hard work and effort is towards a state of "not trying"

The way I see it right now:

We start out in the karmic cycle

sense-think-judge-decide-do

(see sight picture, check that it's good, tell oneself it's good, trigger press and follow through)

I feel this is necessary to learn even if one is fully actualized. I also think we can have any combination of these things happening. I saw that no-shoot and decided to engage it. Thinking would've helped that decide step...

Once something is learned to a certain level we can

sense-decide-do

(target, engage and shoot)

When we have finally ingrained the training.

sense-do

(see target and put bullet in it)

Then true mastery is

-

"mu" (the bullets manifest themselves in the targets)

This I assume going through these stages can happen faster for masters. I see that no one is a master of a "trick" but master of form. Once it is mastered learning happens quicker, perhaps instantly.

The gun is no longer a gun. The proverbial selflessness where the gun is an extension of the arm, and the arm and body just exist without name or judgement. The holes in the targets appear. The concept of "self" is dropped and there is only the shooting of the gun and it is merely the gun going off. No aiming, no reloading, no transitions, it's where things just happen.

At last Sunday's match there might have been some glimmers of sense-do. After shooting a couple stages I had to go back and check some of the targets for holes. I didn't remember engaging the targets yet there were nice tight groups in down zero. It all just happened sometime but I know I sensed the target and I'm not "there" yet.

I am resisting the urge to get into the "I'm going to try to do that next time" because I know that will ruin it. I know it should be something that feels ordinary not cosmic.

What is your ritual of getting to "not trying"?

What is your "felt sense" that you're preparing for "not trying"?

Where is your focus when "not trying"?

Am I totally off track?

Thank you,

Grasshopper (DNH)

[benos]

What is your ritual of getting to "not trying"?

What is your "felt sense" that you're preparing for "not trying"?

Where is your focus when "not trying"?

Am I totally off track?

Not at all.

What is your ritual of getting to "not trying"?

Carefully, eliminating all doubt. This is huge, and may take 10 years or so of experience to fully comprehend all its realms and subtlies.

Some of the realms: Equipment; gun, mags and ammo - all tuned to perfection. Stage rehersal: You know exactly where you will shoot each target, and you can close your eyes and visualize navigating the stage and shooting every target in complete detail. Shooting: you have no doubts about what you will see to shoot every target in the middle, the first time. Then at the buzzer you let go of any idea of time, and all forums of trying, gross and subtle, and allow what you have created to manifest in action.

What is your "felt sense" that you're preparing for "not trying"?

I'm not sure quite what you mean by that one. My first thought - there will not be any sense of rushing. There will be a calm witnessing of the action unfolding.

Where is your focus when "not trying"?

That's super hard to describe. Even though I am (of course) seeing out of my eyes, it felt like, from an area about an inch above the center of both eyes - everything is happening from there. That area "held the calm," and "saw everything."

be

[daves_not_here]

Must Keep Not Trying!

Brian,

The "felt sense" you describe in response to Where is your focus when "not trying"? sounds like you're experiencing the "third eye" phenomenon in your shooting. I've read about a "third eye" concept in eastern mindfulness practices. I think it's a tricky and long road to get to that point and one could easily become decieved if they tried to look for the "third eye".

Our internal stories can convince ourselves we're relaxed, confident, without doubt or using our third eye but that is only adding a layer of trying on top of things. "Sugar coating" things can psych yourself up and is useful but can also be delusional and also dishonest. Just telling yourself you're better than you really are doesn't work in the end without the actual work.

Allowing the noticing mind is the jewel in what you describe. True doing must be allowed. We allow it to be all that is happening because if we try to make it all that is happening we become disconnected by the trying.

Allowing can take a lot more effort and concentration than trying. However, the masters make it look so effortless after their years of endless effort.

Allow, not make, your mind notice.

Allow, not tell, yourself allowing.

Allow, Perfection

Thank you,

DNH

[benos]

+1 to all that DNH.

The trusing mindset comes with the allowing mind. It's not possible to trust completely if you have doubts, known or unknown.

Trying is the result of doubt or uncertainty. Once your skills are mastered and you are doubt free about what you are going to do, you will find that trusting is where it's at. Trusting in the sense - to perform to your current potential, you know you don't have to try to do anything other than exactly what you have planned to do.

After living in trusting for some time, the magic happens. Absorbtion spontaneously occurs: The tool, the actor, and the action merge into one activity, which is witnessed in a strange way. Once I touched that place, that's what kept me coming back. Shooting was no longer shooting as I had thought of it for many years; shooting was just shoting.

be

[phm14]

Guys,

I've got a good start on Brian's' book "Beyond Fundamentals". I'm very impressed with his method (and I'm not easily impressed). Not even 1/3 through it, and it's already improving my shooting. Looks like I'll be reading this one more than once. Thanks Brian. When I'm done with this one, I'll be looking for more.