We often associate meditation – especially Buddhist mind emptying – with Tai Chi and now when we are forced to practice on our own it is a good opportunity to explore meditation as an aid to our movement.
Let us consider for a moment watching the birds in our garden or lemurs on a nature program – do they think analytically/intellectually/consciously about how they fly between the branches or swing from one to another? Our conscious mind is a great advantage when we have the time to use it but when negotiating branches or when enmeshed in a fight we simply do not have time for conscious thought – we need to release ourselves from our consciousness simply in order to do some things at all.
If the ape considered carefully whether the next jump was possible it would simply be too late and they would probably get it wrong.
The time for conscious thought is in exploring carefully – like doing lots of training runs before going for the best possible version.
So with that in mind let us by all means practice at a glacially slow pace – but then occasionally speed up and practice fast – fast enough so that your conscious mind cannot keep up – and then go faster to find out where your movement breaks down.
