In every encounter or experience, there is the potential for gaining our enlightenment, the possibility of finding that one missing piece of the puzzle that brings about illumination.

-Masaaki Hatsumi

Enlightenment opportunities are everywhere. That isn’t to say they are easy to notice, or to accept. But the ninja Grandmaster is right: wisdom can be found in every encounter or experience.

We often imagine enlightenment to be something that requires a long, arduous journey up a sacred mountain to visit a sage. We think it requires major tragedy or heartache or a breaking point. We assume we have to be geniuses, or pillars of calm and insight. Sometimes, these things are true. But most of the time, wisdom is found in much smaller, less dramatic moments.

The truth is, enlightenment is available to everyone, everywhere. But it does require our attentiveness and our willingness.

One of the reasons I think martial arts “works” is because it asks us to see opportunities in new and unexpected places. When you’re doing a drill that pushes your limits, or trying to kick a pad that seems waaay over your capacity to reach, for example.

I know it sounds crazy to think this has anything to do with enlightenment. But what this cultivates is a mind that looks for a new reality. A mind that is open to giving a new thing a try, and trying again after you fail that new thing.

Martial arts teaches me over and over again that the small things, the everyday things, can point to a bigger reality when I pay close enough attention. Enlightenment is waiting there. The opportunity for wisdom is available, if we can see it.

This is also true in the day to day doldrums of life. When someone gets under your skin, when a book stirs your emotions, when a nagging inner voice triggers your vulnerability? This is all workable. It can be good. It can be an opportunity for enlightenment.

The ninja way is a way of whole-life-seeing. It’s one of the things that attracts me the most. It all counts- the workout, the technique, the meditation, the philosophical principles, the dedication. It all calls us to pay close attention to the moments that make up our days.

The ninja way calls us to cultivate the kind of mind that sees everything as an invitation to learn something new and become more fully realized.

What encounter or experience is inviting you into enlightenment this week?