If you like this arti­cle, you’ll love my new book,
Half Asleep in the Bud­dha Hall,
a guide to using Zen prin­ci­ples to re-create your life.
This arti­cle was greatly expanded upon in the book!

Life Accord­ing to Zen Mas­ter Yogi Berra

Used with per­mis­sion, Jerry Breen, of newbreen.com

The fol­low­ing quotes are from one of the most Zen guys
of the 20^th century-Yogi Berra

10. “It ain’t over till it’s over.”

Most do not get this, and give up way too early. You’re not done until you die-or give up.

This quote is from 1973. Berra was man­ag­ing, and his New York Mets trailed the Chicago Cubs by 9½ games in the National League East. Berra real­ized that no mat­ter how hope­less a sit­u­a­tion seemed, the sea­son did not end until the last out. The Mets ral­lied to win the divi­sion title on the next-to-last day of the season.

To be down seven runs with one out to go is no more sig­nif­i­cant than any other point in the game. Your duty is to act-in this case, to ‘play ball devot­edly.’ The out­come is what­ever it is. How­ever, if you don’t swing the bat with the inten­tion of win­ning, you doom your­self. So, you set an inten­tion (in this case, to win) and you work toward it with full effort, until the very last.

Most give up a moment or so too soon-typically when the going gets tough, and the fog rolls in. Here’s a story: [story in my book, Half Asleep in the Bud­dha Hall]

Often, deci­sions to ‘stop,’ to ‘pull up,’ are made in a sim­i­lar fog, just a few feet from suc­cess. Far bet­ter to con­tinue walk­ing, and to make course cor­rec­tions as we go.

Zen con­sid­ers only the present moment. What I choose to do in this moment is not pre-determined by any­thing. Blam­ing your mommy or your past rela­tion­ships, your genet­ics or your lack of under­stand­ing is just an excuse for not swing­ing for the fence, right now.

Remem­ber: the jour­ney of a thou­sand miles begins with the first step, but only if you take it. And, of course, each step is a first step.

9. “You can observe a lot just by watching.”

This might seem non­sen­si­cal until you see the under­ly­ing rhythm:

You can observe a lot by “just watch­ing,”
as opposed to judg­ing.

Observ­ing is some­thing we have talked about at length. To observe is to detach from inter­pre­ta­tion. When you ‘just observe—just watch,’ every­thing means noth­ing, and noth­ing is per­ma­nent. On the other hand, if I see some­thing and imme­di­ately go into my head, and start mak­ing dis­tinc­tions, all I will do is find evi­dence for what I already believe.

Shift­ing to sim­ply observ­ing requires that I uncrit­i­cally watch the sit­uation as it unfolds before me. As my mind strug­gles to cre­ate a drama to judge, I observe my mind play­ing games, and then have a breath and let go of that game. In this clar­ity, I can choose a way to respond that is appro­pri­ate to the cur­rent moment and sit­u­a­tion, with­out get­ting tied up in the games and dra­mas my mind loves.

[story in my book, Half Asleep in the Bud­dha Hall]

The cen­tered life (“observ­ing by just watch­ing…”) is about act­ing in a way that is con­sis­tent with your most deeply held under­stand­ings. You can­not be peace­ful by yelling… you can­not solve com­pli­ca­tions by cre­at­ing chaos. The job of life is to become con­sis­tent, per­sis­tent, and resistant.

Remem­ber: in every area where you think you are stuck, you are stuck because you are hold­ing on to some­thing that does not work. Let go, observe, move on.

8. “Think? How the hell are you gonna think and hit at the same time?”

This is the follow-on to the last point. From a prac­ti­cal per­spec­tive, Berra was spot on. When a pitcher throws a base­ball at 95 miles per hour, it takes the ball only four-tenths of a sec­ond to reach home plate. That gives the bat­ter about two-tenths of a sec­ond to decide to swing or not to swing.

Thus, when hit­ting a base­ball, think­ing gets in the way of acting.

This is true with learn­ing most things. As we learn some­thing, we move from com­plex and slow to easy and fast. (Think back, for exam­ple, to how hard rid­ing a bicy­cle was, until it wasn’t.)

I’m not say­ing that hit­ting a 95 mile an hour fast­ball is easy. I am say­ing that if you are going to learn this skill, you had bet­ter give up think­ing you can rea­son your way through it. All you can do is swing a bat, again and again. Once your body ‘gets’ the idea, you can then prac­tice ele­gant hit­ting, until it becomes instinctual.

[story in my book, Half Asleep in the Bud­dha Hall]

In Zen, we speak of dis­ci­pline. The key dis­ci­pline is ‘non-following,’ or non-attachment. You let each non-helpful thought go by not cling­ing to it. Now, of course, as with Beth, such thoughts will arise until you die.

Fol­low­ing such thoughts leads to paral­y­sis by analy­sis. This paral­y­sis seems inevitable, until I notice that repeat­ing dys­func­tional thought pat­terns causes the paral­y­sis. I am ‘lost in thought,’ and the cure is to stop myself—not by more think­ing, but by act­ing. Less thought, more action.

Remem­ber: you cause your­self prob­lems by over-thinking and under-doing. Pick a way to be, and then just be it. Swing for the fences, let­ting the crit­i­cal thoughts fade into back­ground noise.

7. “If you don’t know where you are going, you will wind up some­where else.”

I used to have a poster on my coun­selling wall that read,

“If you aim at noth­ing, you will hit it.”

Berra presents the same idea.

Many are the clients who whine about their lives, their rela­tion­ships, etc. I say, “Well, what do you want?” They reply, “Here’s what I don’t want…” Phooey. Stat­ing what you do not want, or where you are not going, or who you are not is futile and lazy. Oddly, most see this as progress.

“I never want to be in a rela­tion­ship like this again!” OK, so the next one is worse. You got what you asked for. This hap­pens all the time.

If you think about it, defin­ing what you do not want is impos­si­ble, as you can­not cover everything.

[story in my book, Half Asleep in the Bud­dha Hall]

There is noth­ing more impor­tant than iden­ti­fy­ing the ter­ri­tory (what I want) and procur­ing a map (how to behave so as to get there.) It is like using a for­eign sub­way sys­tem. If you have a des­ti­na­tion, all you have to fig­ure out is the map, how to get to the right plat­form, and which car to enter. If you have no des­ti­na­tion, you are going to end up ‘wherever.’

Sure, life is hard. There are the bad breaks we cre­ate, and bad breaks that just hap­pen. So what? The only way to really live is to focus on what you want, as you drop your attach­ment to what you don’t want. Then, start. Sounds easy, but it takes dis­ci­pline. Is it worth it? “Yes!”

Remem­ber: your job is to state, clearly, who you are, what you are about, and where you are. From ‘here,’ you choose your next action. Next, see to it that you have integrity. Integrity means that your actions match what your mouth is say­ing. Wan­der­ing around all con­fused and lost, while grip­ing about how hard you are work­ing at defin­ing what and where you aren’t, is the height of dumb.

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