Life According to Zen Master Yogi Berra

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

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10. "It ain’t over till it’s over."

You’re not done until
a) you give up, or
b) you die.

Most don’t get this, and give up way too early. (Thus Thoreau: "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.")

Berra realized that, no matter how hopeless a situation seemed, the game didn’t end until the last out. To be down 7 runs with one out to go is no more significant than any other point in the game, when you consider it.

If you don’t swing the bat with the intention of winning, you doom yourself.

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.

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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.

Observation is something we’ve talked about at length. I was talking with a client a few days ago, and she was having relationship troubles. I suggested that what was happening now was what has happened for years. She said, "I keep forgetting."

To observe is to detach from a sense of, well, anything. Nothing means anything, and nothing is permanent. If I see something and go into my head and start making ‘good / bad’ distinctions, or any other distinction, all I will do is re-support what I already believe.

Shifting gears requires that I watch, uncritically, the drama as it unfolds, observe myself as I struggle to ‘meaning-make,’ and then have a breath and let go of that desire. As I let go, I can choose a way to respond, without getting tied up in endless analysis.

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.

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

This is the follow-on to point 9. 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.

In other words, when hitting a baseball, thinking gets in the way of acting.

This is true with most things.

The whole point of learning anything is to move from complex and slow, to easy and fast. (Think back, for example, to how hard riding a bicycle was, until it wasn’t.)

Relatively, of course.

No one would argue that hitting a 95 mile and hour fastball is easy. But if you’re going to learn this skill, you’d better give up thinking you can reason your way through it. With practice, it becomes instinctual.

In Zen, we bandy about the term discipline. For example, when you meditate, we say, "Just sit." As opposed to what?

Well, as opposed to following your thoughts. No matter how good you get at meditating, you will think thoughts. The key is the discipline of ‘non-following,’ or non-attachment. So, as you think about lunch, you say, internally, "thought about lunch," and you return to breathing and just sitting. You ‘do’ and ‘be’ sitting. You discipline yourself to let each thought go.

Remember: your problems are caused by over-thinking and under-doing. Pick a way to be, and then just be it.

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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."

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 aren’t is futile and lazy. 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.

It’s like entering a foreign subway system. If you have a destination in mind, 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’re going to end up ‘wherever.’

Remember: your job is to state clearly who you are, what you are about, and see to it that you have integrity. Integrity simply 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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6. "You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six."

I think we laugh at this one because we recognize we’ve done this a time or two. We know we shouldn’t eat two pieces of pie, so we take a larger first slice. And then tell ourselves, "At least I didn’t eat two."

What we are talking about here is the tendency to justify doing something that violates our principles, by resorting to the "It’s not as bad as it appears" argument.

• "I’m not going to criticize my partner, as it doesn’t work. Except this time, because what he did was really bad."
• "I’m done cruising bars and picking up women. I met her at a library, so that’s different."
• "Sure, he’s abused me in the past, but this time he really means it when he says he’s changed."
• "I’m going to live my life and not let my partner tell me what to do, just as soon as he agrees."

Remember: our minds are clever little things, and endlessly try to justify why we can’t do what we say we’re going to do. In Zen, we do what we say. Chop wood, carry water. Don’t be tricky, don’t dissemble, don’t lie. Say it. Do it. 

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5. "It was impossible to get a conversation going; everybody was talking too much."

Zen story: Scholar goes to Zen Master to learn, then proceeds to talk about all he knows. Zen Master fills scholar’s teacup and overflows it. Scholar complains. Zen Master: "How can I teach you if all you talk about is what you know? You are too full of your own words."

A conversation requires undivided attention, depth, and a willingness to be open and vulnerable. Most people talk to hear their own voices, and to fill silence (which they fear) with sound. Thus, when people talk too much, it is impossible to converse with them.

Remember: slow down. Speak your truth, from as deep inside as you can reach. Reveal more and more of you, including the messy, evil, nasty parts. Then, shut up, watch and observe (# 10, above.) As you find yourself planning your response (and thereby not listening,) shut up and listen. A conversation is never a debate, and there is no winner.

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4. "Slump? I ain’t in no slump. I just ain’t hitting."

We are nothing more than our self-definition. The Buddha said,

"All that you are is what you have thought."

We endlessly self-describe, and because we think it, we tend to stop there, assuming we are as we describe ourselves.

By implication, to change is, first, to change your self-description. Change, "I’ve never been in a healthy relationship" to "I only engage in healthy relationships." "I always get angry" to "I release my anger safely while staying open to clear communication and equanimity."

In other words, changing yourself requires, first of all, a relentless change in how you talk to yourself.

Remember: ‘a slump’ seems to be a thing outside of you. ‘Not hitting’ is a statement, "I am not hitting right now, and will hit next time I’m up to bat." You think it, you are it.

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3. "If you come to a fork in the road, take it."

Yup. Remember, the final destination, for all of us, is death. Standing at a crossroads, (which occur all the time,) endlessly debating the "right path," is a fool’s game. Yet, our world is filled with people just standing there, doing nothing, while bragging about how much effort they are putting in. As they stand there. Doing nothing.

Not to decide is to decide.

Remember: life presents endless forks in the road. In general, any choice we make can be changed at any time. (Life and death choices occur rarely.) Turning a garden variety choice into life and death ("But… but… what if I make the wrong choice???") is actually a way to stay stuck. Pick one, and start walking. You do not get the time you waste back at the end of your life.

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2. "I never blame myself when I’m not hitting. I just blame the bat, and if it keeps up, I change bats. After all, if I know it isn’t my fault that I’m not hitting, how can I get mad at myself?"

Regret, blaming yourself, getting mad at yourself… a trio of stupidity. What’s being described here is so Zen. "This is not working, so let me try this." In a sense, ‘blaming the bat’ is perfect.

Notice—this is not blame the bat-maker. In a sense, blaming the bat is ‘no-blame.’

Back when I was in the ministry, I was really ‘into’ the outfit. I had robes and stoles and chasubles… oh my! Mr. Dressup had nothing on me. Many were Darbella’s creations, other store bought for hundreds of dollars.

When I left the ministry, we had a bonfire, and I burned the gear, the bound books of my sermons, and other books, relics and tokens. The ‘bat’ no longer worked for me.

No regret, no, ‘Why did I waste the money back then?’ Answer: because, back then, it was the right bat. No, "I should be having a garage sale or donating this to a needy minister." No judgement, no regret. I did what I needed to do, and moved on.

Remember: if what you are doing isn’t working, change bats—no blame, no recrimination. Move on. Now.

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1. If I didn’t wake up, I’d still be sleeping.

Here’s my favourite image. I think it’s by John Daido Loori.

All we talk about here is waking up.
If you are not awake, you are asleep.
Period.

Being asleep is the state of the world. People are caught in dreamscape living, making what little they observe fit their preconceived notions, filing people according to their prejudices.

Awake is simply being. It starts with the suppression of judgement, through discipline and force of will. Soon, judgements fade and what is left is awakened living.

Each time you react out of habit, fear, or confusion, you are drifting off into dreamland.

As I wrote in This Endless Moment:

One point of [the movie] Waking Life is captured in the title: one can choose to wake up to life. Or one can live forever trapped in a dreamscape, living a “life” of “woulda, coulda, shoulda.” In a hundred years, no one will remember your name. No one, ever, will know you. Except, possibly, you. If you choose.

And the only you that you can know is the you that you are in this moment. You are not your past—all you have is a present explanation of the story you tell yourself about what you believe happened to you.

In other words, you experience your past now and only now.

You are nothing more than this moment, this breath. In this moment, you can be fully alive and fully present. And in that choice, you are whole, complete, and without blemish.

Authentic, enlightened humanity exists only in the Eternal Now.

Wake up!

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