The Ground Book: Part III

Earth (chi/ji) by Nao of japanesecalligrapher.com"There is timing in everything. Timing in Strategy cannot be mastered without a great deal of practice."

Yup. The guy who didn't post anything for a week is quoting Musashi on the importance of timing. That aside, let's you and I ignore the examples Musashi gives (because you already know them; you've read The Book of Five Rings, right?) and come up with some of our own. Answer "yes" or "no" to the following questions:

Is timing important in telling a person they have a debilitating disease?

Is timing important during coitus?

Is timing important in requesting letters of recommendation?

Is timing important in a making a speech?

The answer to all of these is not "usually." It's "yes." If you answered "no" to any of them, chances are you lack the necessary social qualities that will make continuing your particular brand of DNA easy.

Each section of the LSAT is allotted 35 minutes. That's not a whole lot. The student's job is to complete everything accurately. Doing this requires the student to pay attention to what question types take up the most time. For me, it's Parallel Reasoning. This was an enormous problem for me until I decided to just skip the PR questions. Skipping them allowed me to finish other questions without the burden of "oh my god that PR question on the next page is going to devour 3 to 5 minutes of my time." The outcome of my PR neglect was that at the end of the section I was able to give 5 to 6 leftover minutes to the skipped PR. By working with my timing, I was able to circumvent a huge weakness of mine; this greatly increased my accuracy and score.

I don't think timing affects zen meditation as a practice. I'm going against Musashi's "timing in everything," but that's only because meditation is time-less. From my experience, it transcends time's restrictions of place, appropriateness, opportunity, etc. If I'm unclear with this statement, try this: Next time you feel yourself in a life and death (read: extremely stressful) situation, be sure to take at least one big breath into your belly; you'll feel a momentary rush of clarity. So much for timing.

The writer's block is still going strong. But it's no match for my hammer and chisel.

(Thanks to Nao and Alice of Japanese Calligrapher. And just because it's not above the fold, doesn't mean it's not still there; help Japan here, here, or here.)