Quiet, Please

Any intense effort, such as with a bow and arrow, Tai Chi reenactment of nature's movements, or even swinging a golf club, can be a vehicle for bringing a mindfulness of the mental/physical aggregates of our existence into a clearer focus in the service of crossing a great river of life that, as ancients postulated, separated unwholesomeness from wholesomeness where freedom from suffering awaits. Realities of what comprises one's self and the fantasies of others can both be arenas for opening minds to pondering both life's unexplained mysteries and a path bringing life's known building blocks under self–control.

Golf happens to be taken as the outward direction of the path, appreciation of gravity, and the centering of oneself as the underfooting of the path and a glimmer of a calm, alert mind as the destination. The present effort, inspired by actual experiences throughout the world, captures tales "outside of the spectator ropes"––some fantasized, some real––that hinted of essential elements of Eastern psychology underlying the aggregates of our existence and self–help aids such as practicing breathing meditation or mindfulness.

-- Gerald Ericksen