Most people live boring and complacent lives; by the time they are 30 or 40 they think that there is nothing new under the sun. They have seen it all and done it all. The Universe is endless, endless perfection; there are endless possibilities. Winning is doing what you want to do, essentially. Part of Zen is being able to understand precisely what it is you want to do, and a lot of people don’t know. They think they know, because they have been brought up with certain ideas and expectations of what they should do. But by really understanding what you want to do, you gain the competitive edge.
The reason people don’t win is because they get stuck in ideas, habits, and ways of seeing life, ourselves, the Universe, what we do, what we don’t do, and these ways of seeing block our natural energy and creativity. We have very fixed ideas about how we should approach things. Perhaps we have been successful in something before, and now we assume that we should approach the project or endeavor, the meditation, the career, the relationship, whatever it may be, sports, athletics, school in the same way.
It’s the doggonest thing, even if we were successful before, we won’t necessarily be successful again. We may be successful in a certain sense, in that we may be able to duplicate the results. But if you used the same approach, it means that you are in the same state of mind, and from the Zen point of view you lost. Well, someone would be quickly to say, “Well there is no winning and losing; that’s just a state of mind in duality.” But duality is part of reality and there is definitely winning and losing. If you don’t think so, talk to someone who has gone to the race track and lost, and talk to someone who has gone and won. Talk to someone who has beaten cancer, talk to someone who hasn’t. There is definitely winning and losing. It’s a state of mind; it’s a way of looking at things. I think It is a very honest and accurate way.
It seems to me that a lot of people use ideas of non-duality as an escape from reality. In other words, it is very easy to say there is no winning and losing, and to justify the fact that you didn’t do a very good job – that you didn’t bring something to perfection. I like the idea of winning and losing. It’s clean. It’s sharp, like Zen. You won or you lost. It’s one or the other. Only you can decide. It’s based upon your inner predilection, your determination. It’s a feeling. Winning and losing are feelings; something in us knows if we have won or lost.
Never subject yourself to the standard of others who define winning and losing in certain ways that might not be applicable for you. If someone says that you are a winner or loser, that means nothing; that’s someone else’s idea. Some people are in the fog and they can’t see well. A boat may pass them, but they don’t even know it’s there. They may hear the rush of the wind and think it’s a flock of birds. It doesn’t pay much to hear what human beings have to say in their evaluation of you, since they don’t evaluate themselves very properly. Because from the point of view of Enlightenment, everyone is lost in the fog. Once in while the fog clears a little bit, and they see a little better, but then it rolls back in again. Only the Enlightened are outside of the fog.
I believe in winning. I like it. It’s clean. I definitely don’t believe in losing. It’s a bad attitude. It’s not necessary to lose, but it does happen once in a while. And honestly admitting that you lost, and not trying to rationalize or push it off, is an important step in self-assessment, in mindfulness. Then, understanding why you lost so that you can prevent that from happening again, is progress. Winning is based, to a large extent, on personal power. If you have enough personal power you tend to win; if you don’t you tend to lose.
I Believe in Winning, It’s Clean.
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