Zen Putter – In the hole!
Nike has the slogan “JUST DO IT” which is usually promoted with very sweaty people doing extreme and gravity defying feats. Every time I see or hear “just do it” I recall a lesson I was taught over 20 years ago by my meditation teacher. The lesson was to “be sure I was doing it and not just thinking I was doing it.”
The context for the lesson was “self healing”. As part of my meditation practice, I was taught self healing where you focus your mind and attention on passing a “white light” through your body which relaxes you and removes disharmony. All in all it’s pretty esoteric stuff but it works when you practice.
Over the years I’ve had various experiences with “doing it” vs “thinking I was doing it”, but none as profound or results producing as today. I was practicing golf. The typical stuff chipping, driving range and putting. It was during my putting I experienced the almost magical results of “doing it” vs “thinking I was doing it”. (if you’ve ever seen me putt, today’s results were nothing less than magical.)
You’ve probably heard of “visualization” before. Visualization is seeing something in your mind’s eye which tends to make your results better. I’ve been visualizing my golf game for the past several weeks with mixed results. Today’s practice was pretty crappy. My chipping was about normal. I hit my woods and irons with complete inconsistency. But during my putting, something cool happened. I started “doing it” and not “thinking about doing it”. The difference was subtle, but the results profound.
Today felt like the Putting Equivalent to Zen Archery.
Here’s what happened. Sometime during my putting practice, I started mentally seeing my ball travel it’s line and go into the hole as I hit it. I did not look at the ball with my eyes but with my mind’s eye. When I eventually looked up I would see the ball dropping into the hole or very close to it. I was dumbfounded by the accuracy, pace and precision of my putts. As I continued to put, I observed my mind directing my body to make the right stroke to hole the ball. The best part is my ball acted the way I had already seen it in my mind’s eye.
Whenever I did miss badly, my mind was thinking about something else or only “thinking about” the putt and not seeing the putt go into the hole. I realize for many people this may be as simple as “Who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb?”. But for me, hearing the sound of the ball dropping into the hole after mentally seeing it do so a few moments before was spectacular.
Zen Lesson: “Normally, we do not so much look at things as overlook them….” by Alan Watts. The moment you stop trying to understand or control life (or the golf ball) and start directing life with mental clarity you start controlling your results immediately. Today “do it” rather than “thinking you are doing it”