At such times we have a pleasing sense of fullness and great potential. We do not attempt to eliminate or control our thoughts, feelings, or actions, but rather we move with our thoughts, and feel into our experience. Breath, movement, action, and rest. Breath, movement, action, and rest. So when I say above that I want to talk about peak performance states and how we can live our lives with a greater sense of ease, grace, and power, I am referring to how to enter into a special learning state where our thoughts, actions, and feelings occur simultaneously and spontaneously.

This state of "mushin" is one that we very much strive to experience in Aikido (and in other Japanese arts as well) knowing full well that it is not a state that we will maintain throughout course of our everyday life. Indeed, what we do when we find we are NOT in a state of embodied presence and instead mired in a difficult situation, tells us much about our spirit and our deeply held beliefs. Mushin is an ephemeral state that is to be experienced and released. An experience that is meant to be lost and found a gain, many times over in course of our life. Please be certain that I consider peak performance states to be an enjoyable quest and not just for some special few who are professional performers of one sort or another.

When we enter into mushin for even brief periods of time we find that we receive what I call "a residue experience." By this I mean that even when we enter back into our everyday mind, we find ourself living our life with a greater sense of vitality and well being. Our relationships with others tend to be more heartfelt, compassionate, and aware. We find ourselves feeling more connected to our "self" and our everyday experience, while living our life with a greater sense of meaning.

If you are at all like most of human beings I meet every day, and one that I meet in mirror every morning, during much of your life your thoughts, actions, and feelings occur somewhat independently of each other, and you lack a certain sense of spontaneity. To some extent this is part of human condition, and yet we can definitely also achieve from time to time, a much fuller way of learning and living.

One of unique aspects of embodied presence is that we do not have internal dialogue when we are fully present in moment. By "fully present in moment" I mean remaining relaxed while fully engaging in an activity, without internal dialogue taking up any of our attention or awareness.

Mushin = Embodied presence Embodied presence = Fully present in moment Fully present in moment = Michael Jordan during an NBA final; Tiger Woods at Masters; My daughter watching her Saturday morning kids program.

I think that being able to be free from internal dialogue at times is quite an interesting phenomenon. One of main questions I always ponder in this regard is "Who is talking to who?" during internal dialogue. Another thought that I often have is "Why in world do I need to tell myself what I am feeling? Why not just feel?" And of course asking myself such questions is just another form of internal dialogue!

Now, this was no normal book. For one thing, it only had two pages. And each page was woven tightly out of wicker, in complex and intricate patterns. Somehow man knew that there was something special about book, but he didn't know how he knew, and he didn't know what.

For many months man puzzled over book. He began to notice that, as he puzzled, he felt patterns with his fingers and knew somehow that they had meaning. He came to notice subtle intricacies of shade and shadow within book and as his fingers ran lightly over knots and weave he would hear gentle sounds.