Besides obviously knowing more, what changes do we undergo as a direct result of practicing a profession, trade or craft over a long period of time?
It's now well-known that progressive functional & structural changes ("neuroplasticity") occur in the brain (and rest of the body) of people who practice any skill eg musicians.
For thousands of years, "practices" such as sitting meditation, tai chi, qi gong, tea ceremony, ikebana (flower arranging), etc have been performed specifically to cultivate the practitioner's character or spirit. Sadly, present-day society - perhaps even in the East - is generally unaware of this highest form of "practice". The effects of these practices are meant to extend into, and transform, all of the practitioner's activities - her entire life.
Any activity, including one's work, can be - and ideally is - a "practice" in this deepest way.
"From the age of six I had a mania for drawing the form of things. By the time I was fifty I had published an infinity of designs. But all I have produced before the age of seventy is not worth taking into account. At seventy-three, I have learned a little about the real structure of nature, of animals, plants, trees, birds, fishes and insects. In consequence, when I am eighty, I shall have made still more progress. At ninety I shall penetrate the mystery of things; at one hundred I shall certainly have reached a marvelous stage; and when I am one hundred and ten, everything I do, be it a dot or a line, will be alive. I beg those who live as long as I to see if I do not keep my word."
Written at the age of seventy-five by me,
once Hokusai, today Gwakyo Rojin,
The Old Man Mad about Drawing (1835)
Quote from: Larry Rosenberg. Three Steps to Awakening. A Practice for Bringing Mindfulness to Life. Shambhala, Boston, 2013.
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| Near Eagle Lake, August 2014 |
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