The first movements of the form, as the beginning of a prayer for clarity, balance and inner peace, should, as much as possible, occupy one’s full attention. To whatever extent possible, for better or worse, any attempt is always acceptable.
Any prayer, if sincere, is always acceptable. One size does not fit all, and judgmental attitudes, wherever they come from, are not appropriate or necessary here.
Do not fall into the trap of any requirement of perfection keeping you from your attempts to practice, for these requirements may make the path far more difficult than it needs to be. As the shoe manufacturer Nike has said, “Just Do It.”
Perfection will come in it’s own time with practice, and to require it in order to begin may often create unnecessary and sometimes insurmountable impediments to that key ingredient, Practice.
Just try, without carrying that extra baggage of thoughts like “I can’t do this”, or “I’m not good at this”. These extra movements throw our balance off, just as surely as physical extra movements change our physical balance.
These extra movements may be countered by thoughts such as “If it’s meant to be, even my poor performance won’t keep growth from occurring. My job is just to make the attempt. Let the cards fall where they may.”
The results of our efforts may not be within our control, but the choice to attempt a task is often on our side of that boundary.
Acceptance of where we are when we start does not limit where we may finish!
Cumulative Effort
My friend Mitch recently told me that learning and remembering songs is like when the Japanese plate spinners have several plates spinning atop sticks, and they have to keep going back to each plate, and spin it some more, before it slows down and falls.
