You experience life from where you are.
T.S. Monson said, “We can’t direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails for maximum happiness, peace, and contentment”.
So the winds are a fickle thing.
They are always changing, and come invisibly from some distance.
If you could harness the wind, or feel its arriving influence while it was still at some distance from you, you could then have more time to be exactly in the right place for its arrival.
And when it reaches you, you would already be in the best position.
With few surprises.
You would be steadier, safer.
It seems like there’s not much time to adapt, though.
Disclaimer: Do not attempt base jumping or wingsuit flying without proper training, proper conditions, and equipment. Base jumping and wingsuit flying are dangerous, can be hazardous to your health, and may result in injury or death. Don’t wingsuit without a wingsuit. Do not attempt to jump or fly in any way shape or form. It is too dangerous, and you might die. Please read and follow all disclaimers.
Table of Contents
Changing Conditions Can Happen Way Fast.
There is a way that you can, set things up within the human frame like a scale, or like the way the image stabilization in your camera works, responding instantly to keep steady.
Or the way that a rodeo rider on a horse doesn’t wait around to be bucked off, and then mismatching the moment, wait around to respond, but rather, is so dialed in, that it seems hardly possible that the change can arrive too fast for them.
It’s called being in the zone.
When things are done right, the person will be spot on, relaxed, fully arrived, and all together. Exactly on track to comfortably respond to the continuing changes as they present themselves.
More capable of adapting to life, and handling it.
And comfort is possible from being on track.
You’re gonna go thru life, and get things done anyway.
Why suffer?
If you didn’t have to keep mismatching the world, being off track, and having to redo things, your life could be a lot better.
What if you could just tweak a few things and train and have your responses so in gear and on track that you could have less wear and tear on your body mind and spirit.
That is what setting up the equivalent of a scale, and surfing the place between opposites is about.
From Exactly Where You Are, The Manifold Creation Ceaselessly Arises And Falls.
Life presents itself before you in ever-new ways.
Each presentation is a unique invitation to either abide, or go out.
That is the game of life.
If you go out, it stirs things up in the world, creating more things, more unfinished business.
If you abide, you participate in reconciling the world.
We Are Pilots Of The Human Frame And Intention.
When someone is dressed in a wingsuit, the wings of the suit extend out from the sides of the body.
This effectively divides the body into front and back.
It is possible to surf and abide in the place between up and down, between too high and too low.
It is possible to surf that sweet spot, the place between early and late, between up and down.
It is possible to experience something similar to using a wingsuit, but without doing anything dangerous; without jumping out of a plane or off of a cliff.
It would seem that knowing how to abide in the middle of a changing world would require the most exquisite attention to every detail of life’s 10,000 changes.
All sights, sounds, feelings, tastes, smells, and thoughts.
But there is a shortcut, a way that by taking no thought, you can abide and rest comfortably in the changeless place between opposites.
This article is a continuation of the information in How To Surf Or Skateboard Without A Board.
If you haven’t read that yet, I will put the link to it at the bottom of this article.
How Relaxation Buys Time.
Riding a car stiffly on a bumpy road will rattle your teeth.
But relaxation is a spring, a buffer, a way to buy time.
Because the change arrives contacting at first the outer levels.
And where there is softness there is time.
Soft time before it arrives at the center.
In that soft time is the space needed to move, align, put ducks in a row, prepare, and respond.
Rodeo riders use this principle to buy time, to be spot on.
You’ve seen it yourself.
When they are stiff, they go flying off like a statue in one awkward piece.
If they hit the ground, like that, something might snap right off.
But if they are relaxed and flexible, they aren’t stuck in the one position.
They can continue to position themselves, over time, on a gradient, throughout the arrival of each inquiry of pressure arriving from the external world, and they can move within that softness to return, and hold to the place of balance.
They for sure benefit from flexibility and softness.
And so does a fighter when relaxing away from punches that would land, finding time to move out of the way.
Zero Gravity Planes and Mystically Air Surfing, The Wingsuit Of The Tao.
From zero-gravity planes, we learn that it is possible to enter into, and surf the place that exists between up and down.
An unearthly place seemingly beyond the reach of earth’s gravity.
The ceiling and floor, and the two walls of the zero-gravity plane correspond to the scale which we set up within the human frame.
If a person knows where to look for it, how to obtain it, and then can surf it, they can abide in the sweet spot between opposites, relative to the interior of the diving plane.
There is a left and a right, there is an up and a down.
And without a plane, it is also possible to find the place between opposites, and to practice abiding there no matter how the world moves and changes.
In the zero-gravity plane, while within the bounds of gravity, it is possible to go beyond gravity, to a seemingly unearthly place transcending the opposites of up and down, and to surf the sweet spot in the midst of those opposites.
Hovering as if weightless between the ceiling and the floor of the plane.
There is a difference between the zero-gravity plane, and surfing the mystic scale though. In the zero-gravity plane, the pilot controls the up and down, the right and left.
So something external has control of that.
The pilot can duplicate and arrive at that place on-demand; like clockwork.
When you, however, set up the mystic scale, you get to establish the right and left borders, and the borders of too high and too low.
And you get to fly the plane.
So the flying of your life’s plane, your orientation in life, is under your control.
You also can duplicate and arrive at that place, the place between opposites, on-demand; like clockwork.
You are free to experience it anywhere; in any direction, at any speed.
You fly it. You have control of your abiding place relative to up and down, right and left, relative to the external changing world.
We’ve already talked about the right and left in the articles about surfing.
And we have talked about the idea of setting up the equivalent of a scale by using the human frame to gather the two points, and surf the center, the place between opposites.
Establishing this, essentially forms a flat-on facet, like that of a gem that can be kept squared up, held to, devoted to something, no matter the changes in the surrounding presentations of life.
In devotional practice, you get dialed into this place, and square it up to the changeless; its borders are formed by the selection of points, which is the same as “Gathering two or more in My name”.
And holding to it.
Chuang Tzu’s Example Of The Butterfly: (Its Mystical Meaning).
Just turning the head or lifting a fingertip affects the whole.
This is experienced in a wingsuit.
This matches Chuang Tzu’s example of the butterfly, which just by flapping its wings, affects, and influences the entirety of creation.
The butterfly has two wings, one on each side, and gathers them towards the changeless place at its own Heart, and extends them equally, evenly in flight, net change equalling zero, as it samples the world.
It rests essentially unchanged, evenly between them, in the midst of the wings, in the place of it’s very self.
The slight variations in this, affect and influence its place in creation outwardly, as changing sights, sounds, roll up around it, presenting new samplings, and to its place, literally a new world.
Just like the slightest lift of a finger can influence the flight of the wingsuit, it is possible to sample, or hold two points on the body by placing one’s mind on them.
You can practice abiding in the place between front and back, up and down.
Though not visible, you too have a side plane.
A place between front and back.
Lift the arms to horizontal.
And you form a cross.
The horizontal arms represent the horizontal axis, the place between up and down.
The vertical axis represents the place between the right and left.
This forms the real mystical cross.
It can be experienced flat-on facing creation.
As the pure, untouched facet of a gem.
When changes arise, surf the place of the mystical cross, just like in a wingsuit.
Modify posture so the net change is zero, and abide.
Hold fast to the center.
Perhaps you would have bigger adaptations or modifications at first, with overcorrections.
Then they become smaller and smaller as you get better at it.
Earlier and earlier sensing the arising of change and surfing its exact remedy.
Bringing it back as at the first-arising of that which would depart.
Conserving time.
You can sample anywhere that you can set up the equivalent of the scale.
It can be smaller than an ant or as big as the widest creation that you choose.
You can also devotionally set up a correspondence to an object of external devotion; a direct matching, to the walls of a sacred book, a church, or temple.
You can choose any place that you’d like, and abide there.
The Mystically Draining Bathtub Drain: (What It Means)
The world can be reconciled as if steadying the water in a mystically draining bathtub.
The old way was to slosh the water and get all wet.
The new way is that all sloshing is neutralized.
There is a countermovement for each would-be slosh of the water, and that steady place can be surfed, with the net change being zero.
Without sloshing, the steady water forms a vortex or whirlpool at the drain.
And at the center of the whirlpool, you can look straight down and find a central place, located exactly between opposites, that is beyond change, that doesn’t even get wet.
This represents what you have and are, the Heart or center.
The treasure hid in a field.
There is a correspondence set up between it, the water, and the borders of the tub.
This center that doesn’t get wet, at the vortex of the whirlpool, is a model of how to be in the world, but not of the world.
In the tub of the world, but not of the tub of the world.
Ever untouched.
The empty place isn’t only at the drain though, it is beyond the water, beyond the tub, and beyond creation itself.
Problems Can Shrink And Be Neutralized With The Size Of The Sampling.
A person could fly over the earth in a plane and try to spot just one troublemaker on the earth below.
There are none to be found in this new place, removed by the size and location of the sampling.
When you set up the scale, you can sample any points in existence, any size.
You can change your focus and place it anywhere.
Life becomes interesting.
You can look at a beautiful mountain.
You can also take a smaller sample and travel to the Heart of any object of consideration.
You can travel to and experience that place, as described in the article, called Silence Of The Tao: (The Spiritual Exercises).
It depends on the sample.
The points you choose to abide within.
Your sample could be as wide as all that is, but then being that wide, there is no border or flaw remaining to be grasped in order to make such a sample.
Just existence itself.
You are in that state now but may not know it.
Why Are Skateboarding, Surfing, And Doing Boardsports Considered Spiritual?
It is one thing to witness plenty of things being stirred up in the world of creation.
But things can also be unstirred and reconciled.
This reconciliation happens in boardsports with the practice of balance, surfing the changeless place between opposites, and abiding in the center as balanced.
Not that any of it is necessary, but it is an offering to creation itself.
That is why surfing, skateboarding, and doing board sports are considered Holy.
The sampling of creation, and surfing its sweet spot is a devotion, a service, and a gift.
It is like a sail with its border on each side.
Hoisted and turned to the changeless.
It works whether the sail itself has any particular religious name printed on it or not.
Because this mystical key, this philosopher’s stone, is locational and not doctrinal.
It is like simply setting up a movie screen and turning it flat on, to the face of the changeless.
There is no guesswork here.
It is like the facet of a gem.
Facet essentially means Face.
The face of the changeless.
As with the Hubble Telescope, simply dial in the coordinates- exactly midway between the opposites. turn the facet of this sacred place to square up with the original timeless face of the changeless, between the points that are sampled.
Then all you do is just surf that place, and keep it exactly on it.
You know the coordinates, you know where it is, it is self-evident when you are off course, and self-evident exactly how to return, to correct it.
That’s what this practice is.
The Example Of The Bucket Submerged In The Well.
Establishing the scale, and holding to these points is like holding to the walls of a bucket completely submerged in the water of a well.
In this example, you can use the walls of the bucket as these points.
You choose the borders that you sample in creation, and establish the points for the right and left by gathering them.
By holding the points evenly, the bucket won’t collapse wobble or waiver.
And later, the walls of the bucket and the bucket itself will disappear.
For now, though, you can sample both sides or borders of the bucket.
These are used as a steady reference to apply effort.
The effort of all of your heart, might, mind, and strength.
It isn’t an actual bucket but represents using the frame of the human body to set up the equivalent of a scale by gathering two or more points and abiding in the midst of them.
I described how to do that in the article: How to Surf Or Skateboard Without A Board: (The Spiritual Exercises).
I put the link for that below this article.
The walls of the bucket represent these points.
Holding the points evenly, there is no sloshing.
As the world presents itself, the mind may drop away from the coordinates of the bordering points.
Your task is simple.
Surf it.
Hold to and surf the center.
You simply rest in the center.
With something on each side, your treasure is found in the Heart, in the Center.
Within.
From where you sit, you can also extend the practice to the borders of any object of devotion, an altar, a sacred object, anything.
“You prepareth a table before me in the presence of my enemies.”
The table is as an altar in the place between right and left, front and back, up and down.
The term, your “enemies” simply refers to those things that would draw you out, away, to get caught up in the distractions of the world and its missings of the mark, in the world of opposites.
They are those invitings that if followed, would generate more unfinished business in creation by having you feel that you miss the bullseye.
By having you feel that you miss the mark.
But “Where two or more are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of them.”
You can find and surf this place.
This is the link I was telling you about that teaches you more about how to do this: How To Surf Or Skateboard Without A Board: (The Spiritual Exercises).