The division between practice and non-practice

[ZenMondo Wormser]

Training does an interesting thing: it changes us. 

It almost seems so obvious, that it is silly to write it out.  That, many will say, is the entire point.  But what is not so obvious is that practice is not just something that is picked up and put down.  Well, in the beginning it is.  We do things that put us in the frame of mind to work towards what we aspire to.  "Now I am acting as a companion," we think as we don our colors or attend a class.  "Now I am just myself" we think when we leave the floating world and return to the mundane.

And then it begins to happen.  We leave the space where we train, but our practice persists.  We notice as we are serving tea to a friend that there is something different.  There is an elegance and friendliness that was not there before our training, yet we had to do nothing special to express it. 

Our training becomes integrated, and we find ourselves applying our training when we are not consciously practicing our art.   There comes a time where we stop practicing our art, and when our lives are a reflection of that art.   This is the time where identity and practice become one and the same.  We may be many things in our lives, but when we train with a sincere heart, we become this thing we train in, no matter what we are doing. 

[Beeflin Grut]

Well put! And true.

[Lysana McMillan]

*smiles, remembering such moments in her past and seeing an element of her hopeful future*