#274 Just Keep Practicing past Boredom, Distractions, Nihilism, ...

     “Greatness of this sort (Bill Bradley’s basketball performance in Madison Square Garden) is nearly mystical to apprehend. It is characterized by the kind of sustained responsiveness to the demands of the situation that (Wesley Autrey) the Subway Hero embodied when he leapt onto the tracks. It is unflinching, unhesitating, and unwavering, and it has these certain qualities precisely because the activity flows not from the agent but through him. As a spectator of heroic activity one has the sense of watching something nearly inevitable, as though it is ordained by some force beyond the mere whim of human self-assertion. Indeed, one indication of the similarity between Bradley and Autrey is the spontaneous eruption of applause that both performances elicited from witnesses to the events. It is clear to all those present that something superhuman has been achieved.”
 
     "Bliss – a second-by-second joy and gratitude at the gift of being alive, conscious – lies on the other side of crushing, crushing boredom. Pay close attention to the most tedious thing you can find (Tax Returns, Televised Golf) and, in waves, a boredom like you’ve never known will wash over you and just about kill you. Ride these out, and it’s like stepping from black and white into color. Like water after days in the dessert. Instant bliss in every atom.” David Foster Wallace

       Dreyfus H, Kelly SD. All things shining. Reading Western classics to find meaning in a secular age. Free Press, NY, 2011.

     A lifetime of continuous mindfulness practice, as a way of life which gradually let's go of the ego, is a well-traveled, meaningful, supra-mundane path.

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