Here’s an interesting exercise. Be still and become aware of a thought. Try to catch your thought at the moment of its inception. When does the thought actually begin? Once it’s verbalized in your brain, the thought is already old. It is a narrative thought which is a commentary on the thought or experience that has already occurred and thus is not a present thought. There is a moment when the thought actually arises that is pre-conscious and pre-verbal where the Source exists. If you can get quiet enough and focused enough, you can find it. More and more, as you still the narrative thoughts bouncing around in your head (a.k.a. “being in your head”), you are able to be present and concentrate on what is. When you can move beyond the narrative thought to the original thought, you have moved into the present moment and then, you’re cookin’.
When you meditate regularly, you start to move into that place where thoughts begin. That is the place you need to access on stage. It’s the place where you’re not stressing, creating/doing, and putting forth effort, but are being bathed in the music of the Universe. You stop working and are free to just be and truly discover. One of the first things you discover is that the original thought does not come from you or from any effort you put out.
It’s actually a much easier place to exist as an improviser and as a person, but because we’re so habituated in life to doing and controlling, it seems much harder. You do have to practice to get back to that place which is entirely natural. Meditation is the tool we use to retrain and focus our mind. Eventually, when we have habituated ourselves into being in the Present Moment, it becomes easy and natural to access the Source.
Imagine a gibbon (a long limbed great ape that is at home swinging through the trees). It is a magnificent acrobat and fairly flies from limb to limb. Without thought or premeditation or any question of trust or distrust. It lets go of one branch and reaches out to find the next one as its trailing hand lets go of the previous branch. This is the image of Effortless Effort. Imagine being able to live your life in this way. Imagine being able to perform in this way. Without thought or self-consciousness. Without hesitation. Every moment lived in the full embrace of the constant flow of transformation from one state to the next. This is the ultimate surrender to the present moment, where we can connect to the Source.
That’s where Craft becomes Art.
To find out more about Zenprov, you can follow them via their Facebook page, their website www.chicagoimprovassociates.com or their podcast at www.cia.libsyn.com (also available for free via iTunes).
Muy prtonto la traducción
