Taking things for granted and the smallest of movements Day 727

Taking things for granted and the magic of the smallest of movements.

One of the things I realized in my journey of playing the violin was at the end, withiin a degree of mastery, the importance of remembering the smallest of movements as being the means to the end.

What does this mean?

I had learned to play, and allowed this to become automated, meaning I took what I did for granted and, in a way, lost myself within what I did. I could not catch up to myself- even within other influences being present of my own acceptance.

I had to basically, go back and re-invigorate myself into the smallest of movements, those tiny tiny little itty-bitty measures. I had to remember them, acknowledge them, which really did not take much time, it could be done in a flash, yet this form of constant cross - reference sustained an awareness that could become automated and as such taken for granted.

This revealed that the smallest of movements, was in deed, the means to the end. Therefor, the smallest became the biggest in importance, and the most satisfying, as that tiny movement was the means to show the greatest subtly, it was as though the smallest gave license to the widest range of expression.

I can understand why masters of disciplines revel in the small, and understand that teaching the smallest of movements, that a person may believe to have no real context - because they have not yet mastered the context - would see small practices as not making any sense. Yet, the smallest is the most precious, because it is the means to the end, in having control within something, as it is the starting point to sense and direct.

I look at this in relation to parents in our present society construct. I have a young dog, who has spent a lot of time playing with water. It appears that he revels in sticking his nose into a bucket of water, again and again and again. He still does this from time to time, yet it is not as intense as it was. For me, it is as though, he revels once again in a past discovery, enjoying the small.

Parents, in our society, tend to forget the small and the awe that a child has in discovering the quality and nature of something, be it water, or an object etc. Where a parent might be folding clothes, teaching a child to order their clothing etc. a parent may do this in a limited time frame in accord with the parent’s idea of how long something may take. The child may come across a piece of fabric, they have never experienced, and may want to take that fabric and revel it. This would play out with the child slowing down, running their hands on the fabric, throwing it into the air, running through the room with it, etc., all in discovering of how this fabric moves, feels, floats, falls, lands, buckles etc, And the child revels in the nature and discovery of this movement, the tiny movements that fabric makes as it interacts in its motions with the environment.

Yet this movement in discovery, does not fit into the parents ideas, and time frame. And, the parents no longer remember the discovery of the small, the joy of the small that builds understanding about and of the nature of reality as the things within it. They have taken this for granted, move in automation and assume the child will suddenly have the sense that the parents have (or never had the opportunity to have, perpetuating a lack of real development!).  Thus, the parents are running on automatic, and become irritated when the child does what is natural and what is necessary to revel in the small, to build a sense of reality- those really small movements that show how things by their nature move in this reality. Those small things that are the details that build this reality- an ignorance of and as creating a person who lacks awareness of how this reality functions leading to a person who lacks real processing of in-formation in ways that they can create, from the smallest of means to an end in any real time goal setting and the necessary steps towards creating.  

Ironically, as masters of things realize, that it is the smallest of movements that are the means to the end, and therefor the starting points that are what is used, in the end, to build the expression.  I mean, have a look, how does one learn a new language? Does one not start with noticing the smallest of sounds, the most subtle of movements, and is not mastery of this the means to the end? Therefor, the small is the means of empowering the self in effective and clear ways!

In some ways, the very design of reality is perfect in form. As the children ( or pets ) come to remind us of the small, to move us into mastery of this world, of this life. Thus, it is important to realize that the presence of the starting point, as realizing the small, as that child, is a gift to and towards self mastery. How awesome that what is here, is the means to the end! We need only slow down and take the time to revel in the smallest of things, as they are , in the end, the means to the end!