When Anthony Was

Noticed Motives

"We mustn't need to switch our motives before moving on."
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

BY ANTHONY ROSS

What motives are there for entering into any endeavor?  Whether spiritual, practical, scientific, artistic, or any other label you could put upon an act of inquiry, the general motives are similar.  One can have a motive for achieving greatness in some aspect of that which he's acting upon.  What level of proficiency can I do this task with?  Another may be the simple playful observation of the task as it happens.  Often times this latter motive would provide the proficiency of the first.  This exploration broadens horizons and opens the field of what the motive might be.  Its motive is left undecided until further exploration.  The more opposite motive to exploring this would be the attitude of, "let's get this over with."

What might a person accomplish with the last motive?  They would walk from the end of the beach to the other end, if this was their task, without noticing a thing.  They may get there in proper time, or in sufficient timing if their goal of proficiency was to walk the path as fast as possible. Yet, the walk itself would be something of little value to them.  The motive, unintentional as it may be, was to get past the walk and basically ignore it completely. Therefore, no understanding of the path they walked will ever be retained, as the motive was to move on to what mattered more, namely, not the task at hand.  Here, the task at hand is not of concern, but the motive behind it.

A person with a conclusion as to what the point in mind is would likely miss the point.  With the two other motives mentioned before, understanding and attention must accompany them.  As said in the book, Mastery, which talks about the path, trials and exploration of mastering anything, the one who hurries will fall behind.  The most driven, work-a-holics burn themselves out.  This is because with that direction observation falls second to achievement.  Without detached observation, we likely will be blind to both our faults and our successes.  To add to that, we'd likely dismiss those as being something they're not.  Trying to one-up ourselves with each effort is like seeing the end of the beach without the walking that takes place from start to finish.  Even when walked, with one eye at the end, what appreciation of the process would be acquired?  At least we see the end of the beach before moving on to the next task, with this motive, and don't miss the entire thing.

The motive of play is a motive of noticing.  It's where we are not simply passing by, but dancing with the happening that's in play.  The energy embodied in this kind of act is attention.  It is also fully encompassing, filled up by itself.  The walk doesn't need to be done for the purpose to be achieved.  The path of Mastery is one of containment as a whole, with the process resulting in the result within it's happening.  The sense of this, how we are to play, is subtle.  It is a way of being that emanates liveliness of the moment.  If we could always play games, our lives would feel this kind of motive and every act would be an inspiration to continue on moving in a fun, ever-new dance.

That being said, this does not mean that our tasks will be always sufficiently in play.  To aim to achieve this is carrying the motivation that we ought to proficiently play.  It's thinking that we HAVE to play, which causes a double-bind.  The motives we carry will often change.  This is most definitely because our motive for our motives is something we are still playing with.  We can play with the motives we have now, whatever they may be.  We mustn't need to switch our motives before moving on.  That would be avoiding the task at hand, which is the walk we're on.  This would compartmentalize our way of seeing too much and we would essentially be missing the point.  The point is subtle and profound.  Noticing where you are is a game to live.  Its motive?  Well, look.