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When you are fully
engaged in bravery with body and mind, an electric feeling results. It is
magnificence, embodiment, synergy. This dignity can occur anywhere in the
social spectrum. We take delight in eating good food and enjoying a drink. With
bravery in our lives, our body moves gracefully. We are free
from the habitual
neurosis of gossip and idle speech. The mind and body are not simply working
well together: they are like a well-oiled machine, or music from an orchestra,
or the perfectly matched steps of a couple dancing. When body and mind are synchronized
there is an overall sense of balance: no discrepancy between what we think and
what we do.
On the other hand, when
we are unsynchronized, we are unable to do what we think. We read inspiring
words and foster kindness in our mind, but then we find ourselves saying
something snide or negative about a coworker. In that moment, bravery of mind
did not translate into bravery of speech. This lack of synchronicity affects our
overall dignity. It is obvious to others and to ourselves.
If body and mind are not
synchronized, we could say that the problem is laziness. But the Shambhala
teachings generally emphasize positive themes, so we focus on the antidote. In
this case, we activate the fourth kind of bravery—realizing the dignity of mind
and body being synchronized. This antidote is about applying bravery as a way
of overcoming our habitual patterns.
Bravery makes obsolete
our self-perpetuated neurosis. What allows this synchronicity to occur is a
lack of hesitation and an openness to the world. Similarly, abandoning personal
habits allows one dancer to flow with another. This is bravery because there is
a lack of hesitation and an appreciation for other. Warriors who are able to
peer directly and unflinchingly at the nature and character of their own minds
allow any mental and physical discrepancies to be vaporized. Thus synchronicity
ensues.
This ability to be
synchronized comes back to the fact that the act of bravery eliminates
hesitation. The clear-seeing vision of the Great Eastern Sun brings confidence
in unchanging basic goodness. From such confidence, doubtlessness occurs. This
doubtlessness leads to dignity, which arises because our mind and body are
finally in harmony. Our body has good posture, since we are not slouching— trying
to lean our back against the past—nor hunched forward, wishing it were the
future.
The harmonious
relationship of mind and body is an evolutionary outgrowth of the previous
kinds of bravery: freeing oneself from deception, acting with abruptness, and
gaining the vision of the Great Eastern Sun. In particular, synchronicity arises
when we acknowledge a moment of suchness. We are willing to be brave enough to live
our life on the razor’s edge of nowness, continually cutting habit of mind and
body. Lethargy and sentimentality slide off the blade. This harmony has not
occurred because our body was here and our mind was there. Rather, we have
quickly realized that without synchronicity, we are only idling in the dark
age.
Through this fourth kind
of bravery we realize what power and potency can result when we synchronize
body and mind. When we are able to be here now, mind and body come together
instantaneously, and dignity abounds. If we do not realize this, mind and body
remain disenfranchised, and we do not manifest with bravery. Our
activity is speedy, unsynchronized, and without vitality. But when mind and
body are present on the spot, dignity will naturally arise. This synchronicity
manifests in our thought, intention, and conduct. When it occurs, there is
tremendous power, even when we pour a cup of tea.
Sakyong
Mipham is the spiritual leader of Shambhala, an international network
of Buddhist meditation and retreat centers. He is the author of Turning
the Mind into an Ally and Ruling Your World.
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