Engagement & Calmness

[IcyCosmic]

Namaste,

In your opinion how do you garner the skill of intense engagement (with life or a task) while at the same time being calm and composed.

There is a speech where Sadhguru talks about the beauty of Soccer being in the engagement with the ball. The engagement with life. The intensity of the whole affair.

Even though people usually equate meditative states to calmness, I'm well aware that it is instead seated in intensity. Not necessarily out-of-control intensity. Intensity that is focused.

How would one do both or focus intensity in such a way that it does not hamper the level of equiposition/detachment you have.

For e.g. : If I'm driving a car, I can either be intense, hands-on body language, attentive to every little detail, and so on. However this would mean I'm not calm, relaxed, and I'm probably driving in a rigid or restless fashion.
However, if I'm too laid back, I will likely reduce my attentiveness and observation by a large amount, making me slow and careless.
Where is the balance? How to achieve focused intensity? How to be calm and attentive/intense at once?

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam Icy: Tough question. There is a certain intensity, yet calmness in a lot of things. Many sports with a mental aspect like golf, snooker, darts, or curling all have that component. Even track athletes and swimmers are coached how to run or swim relaxed, as being too intense actually slows their times, due to loss of technique. (Particularly true of swimmers.)

I don't know the answer, yet I do know the feeling. Alert, but not excited. Calm but not dulled. So all I can say is if you ever do get the feeling of it, try not to lose it.

Aum Namasivaya

[markandeya 108 dasa]

Namsate IcyCosmic Ji,

Suchness is a state between attachment and aversion. If I get more time later I will try to explain more in the best way I can. Its a great deliberation

In fact I am just going to leave the word Suchness out there for deliberation, its enough and I will more than likely spoil the meaning if I try to type it out

I will add however at the time of the Siddhartha's awakening it wasn't as if the flow of conditions ceased, but he ceased to react. The answer is in there somewhere I am sure .....

OK, something just popped up which may help.

In the film The Last Samurai with Tom Cruise there is a scene where he is being taught how to sword fight, but he kept getting it wrong and looked awkward without any a natural eb and flow, trying to hard, the Samurai who was teaching him simple said " To many minds" meaning to many thoughts.

Thoughts mostly separate us from the experience, when we do whatever we do with little or no thought there is only awareness which embraces every experience but without attachment and aversion.

Also I listened to a talk by Rupert Spira the other day and he was talking about going back to our awareness, then the interviewer asked about his passion for Manchester United and football and how he reacted when he saw them loose to Barcelona in the Champions league final, and RS replied that he totally absorbs himself into the whole thing but in a non reactive way but at the same time he feels every sensation and emotion and is totally engrossed. I'm a bit of a football fan myself and still play and I get totally immersed, so I understand what Sadhguru and RS is saying. Swami Laxman Joo said the same thing, realization can come even while flying a kite.

Its an art well worth cultivating that should be applied where ever possible and is the essence of Satipatthana IMO.

So football and kite flying it is rather than all this hard work in Sadhana, joking aside I think the meaning is be totally intense with everything you do, but centered within awareness which in itself is calm, so we need Sadhana to get this energy

[surrenderindailylife]

Namaste IcyCosmic

Hari Om

In your opinion how do you garner the skill of intense engagement (with life or a task) while at the same time being calm and composed.

Human beings go through almost all tasks with thoughts of either anticipated gain or some baggage of past thoughts. If one is somehow able to free oneself from past & future and just "enjoy this moment" then calmness "happens". IMHO calmness & composure are "outcomes" of being fully in NOW & enjoying NOW. Thus you cannot aim to achieve a calm & composed state rather a goal would be to develop a deep desire for your work/subject matter and just lose yourself in the task - this will automatically pilot you to a calm & composed state.

Om Namah Shivay

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam: Upon further reflection, I realised that in all the other activities outside of meditation, confidence plays a key factor in the ability to remain calm with intensity. What enables confidence? Practice, of course. So a New York City cab driver (or better yet, and Indian driver) can stay calm despite all the traffic chaos. But a newcomer? Not a chance.

Aum Namasivaya

[markandeya 108 dasa]

I would have thought if newbie Indian went to New York and became a cab driver the driving conditions would be a walk in park

[IcyCosmic]

Thankyou for all your input gentleman. Much appreciated. I have read and considered all your replies.

There is another quote from Sadhguru

''In tension you can not perceive
in laxity you can not perceive
only if you are intense and relaxed at the same time
you can perceive everything the way it is''.

What a pickle.

[markandeya 108 dasa]

Life is a Koan

[Eastern Mind]

I would have thought if newbie Indian went to New York and became a cab driver the driving conditions would be a walk in park

Vannakkam: Other than breaking 30 traffic rules in the first half hour, Lohit would do fine. Chaos with rules, and chaos without rules are both chaos.

Aum Namasivaya