Conversations with Avant-garde Sages - The Wizard LLC

Conversations with Avant-garde Sages
does exactly what it needs to do in order to make certain instances,
like kicking a 50-yard field goal into let's just say a 20 mile an hour
wind. One would think that that would be almost impossible for
most people, yet if the attention moves back into the self, which
basically has control of the elements, the wind, the body,
everything included, then of course there need be no sense of
doership or effort whatsoever. So as long as one can remember
that in a game situation to be able to move their attention into that
presence, then it really doesn't matter how well conditioned they
are, or trained. Of course that does help somewhat, but on the
higher levels there's really very little difference between say a
collegiate athlete and a professional, other than one has tweaked
out the limitations that tend to arise in the mind, because they're
able to stay in that if you will, zone, in the presence more
consistently.
TRIP: So you would say that's true of a professional regardless of
whether they've gotten teaching in that, they have that as a natural
or as a developed trait, you would say?
NICK GANCITANO: Yes, I think it's more of a default setting,
because in a lot of instances athletes find that zone because in
athletics there's a certain avoidance of life, or difficult situations
whether it be their family life, or their personal life. They tend to
turn to athletics and sports because they're able to focus and be so
present that that state of consciousness naturally arises for them,
not even really knowing what it's called or why it happened. Often
when they leave the athletic field, they tend to fall back into that I
guess you would say habitual thinking. And so when they step on
the field though it's almost like a switch that goes on where,
because they feel comfortable, and they feel confident in their
ability to execute then they naturally fall into the state of presence
because there's no reason to really over think anything because it
never requires it. This creates the arena or the space, for that
stillness to occur, and for the mind to sink into the heart
temporarily, and then of course the body just does what it's been
conditioned to do.
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