Waitzkin describes a transition from force into immersion. Less egoic striving, more total absorption.
My fascination with consciousness, study of chess and Tal Chi, love for literature and the ocean, for meditation and philosophy, all coalesced around the theme of tapping into the mind’s potential via complete immersion into one and all activities. My growth My growth became defined by barrierlessness. Pure concentration didn’t allow thoughts or false constructions to impede my awareness, and I observed clear connections between different life experiences through the common mode of consciousness by which they were perceived . . Great literature inspired chess growth, shooting jump shots on a New York City blacktop gave me insight about fluidity that applied to Tai Chi, becoming at peace holding my breath seventy feet underwater as a free-diver helped me in the time pressure of world championship chess or martial arts competitions. Training in the ability to quickly lower my heart rate after intense physical strain helped me recover between periods of exhausting concentration in chess tournaments. After several years of cloudiness, I was flying free, devouring information, completely in love with learning . Key Takeaway:
- The deepest layer beneath all disciplines is attentional quality. Once you train perception, emotional regulation, fluidity, recovery, presence, and immersion deeply enough in one domain, those patterns start migrating into others.
- He is describing a state where experience stops being fragmented into separate categories and instead becomes one continuous learning substrate. Everything feeds everything else.