The greatest modern sin
Published: Sat, 01/09/16
I have a student who attends on Monday evenings. He is in his late twenties and lives in supported accommodation as he has quite serious learning difficulties. It would be reasonable to say that he will never be a great martial artist but he attends regularly, tries hard and says that he very much enjoys his Stav training each week. That is just fine with me.
At each class he comes with which ever carer is on duty that evening. There was a new woman on duty this week whom I had not met before. It was rather cold in the Stav Centre on Monday, fine if you were training, but chilly if you were just sitting there in a jumper as this lady was. Half way through the session I had to put one of our heaters on to warm her up.
I always invite the carers to take part in the training if they want to but none has taken me up on it yet. (To be fair, the carers are there to keen an eye on their charge, deal with him if has an episode and be ready to take him home if he can’t cope any more. This has happened a couple of times in the past year he has been coming.) I still make the offer anyway. The new lady was no exception in declining and commented that the training looked much too complicated for her.
This is not the first time I have heard that objection to trying Stav training. I always find it rather amusing as a response because I remember from the time I first met Ivar and discovered Stav that the aspect that appealed the most was the simplicity.
Essentially Stav is very simple, sixteen runes, five principles, nine lines of the web and everything constructed from there. Nearly all teachings in Stav can be expressed using the three lines of the Hagl rune.
The real problem is that complicated is interesting and simple is boring. Having lots of complicated things to do keeps life interesting.
Mastering one simple thing by repetitive practice is boring and there is no greater sin in our modern world than being boring and no worse torment than being bored.
However, real sophistication comes through a process of simplification until the absolute essentials are uncovered and understood. If you would achieve true sophistication in any aspect of your life then the first challenge you are going to have is in overcoming the boredom involved in mastering simplicity.
I wrote my little book on Self-defence ‘Peacock Kung Fu’ when I realised that an overgrown pheasant had actually mastered the real essentials of self-protection. Birds such as pheasants are really rather stupid so everything they do accomplish in life has to have a rather elegant simplicity. Such creatures simply don’t have the mental capacity to make life complicated.
The problems with intelligence of the human kind are:
Either, we think life is either too complicated because we think we don’t understand what we are seeing. Or, we think life if too boring because we think we do understand.
Either way we think our way out of really thinking about how to get the most out of life.
Henry Ford apparently said that. “Thinking is the hardest work there is which is probably the reason so few people engage in it.”
I would qualify that slightly. Unless you are dead you are thinking in some way or another just as your heart is pumping blood around your body. The question is:
Are your thoughts is focused on some useful purpose which will actually benefit you and your development as a human being?
Or, are your thoughts constantly distracted by novelty and entertainment to avoid the curse of boredom?
I personally found in Stav a framework for focusing my thoughts towards simplicity and sophistication. Does the simplicity of such a practice get boring?
Sometimes. However, I see boredom as a challenge to be overcome, not a monster to escape at all costs. Once I have overcome the boredom of doing the daily stances, doing my training, thinking about how I can most efficiently achieve whatever task is in front of me then I know I am another tiny step closer to achieving true sophistication in whatever I do.
Simplicity leading to sophistication is the intention of all I teach too. You can find out for yourself at my next seminar in Crewkerne on the 23rd of January or see the full programme at http://www.iceandfire.org/calendar.html
regards
Graham