Threshold, Door and Gate: Mettle Maker #253

Threshold, Door and Gate: Mettle Maker #253

  • Stand at the threshold. Warm-up thoroughly for at at least 8 minutes. Do 2-3 minutes each of (a) jumping rope or footwork (b) light calisthenics and (c) shadowboxing, forms, light heavy bag work, or 8 minutes of MBF.

  • Open the door. If you haven't done this month's constitutional, get there (see video below). If you have, then do this little wrestling conditioner pyramid for variety. Get out your floor bag and set a timer for 6:00. Start off with the bag on top of you. Do 1 Reverse to Top Saddle, 1 Pass to Cross Body (with good form), and 1 Clock (mat is lava!). Step over bag and fall back into a Short Arm Bar. Then to 2 of each and 1 Short Arm Bar, 3 of each and 1 Short Arm Bar, etc. When the timer beeps, finish the set you're on and then descend in reps back down to 1 of each.

  • Make your passage. Half mile Balboa run. Throw a variety of punches non-stop as you run. Finish faster than 6:29 and you've got me beat.

  • Clear the bar. Can you pass the original 1908 Scout's Test? Do you know the composition of the flag and how to fly it? Can you tie the following knots: reef, sheet bend, clove hitch, bowline, fisherman's, and sheepshank? Do you know elementary first aid? Do you know semaphore or Morse code for every letter of the alphabet? Can you follow a track half a mile in 25 minutes? Cover a mile in 12 minutes? Lay and light a wood fire in the open using no more than 2 matches, and then cook a quarter pound of meat and 2 potatoes with no utensils? Have at least sixpence in a savings bank (that's about $10 in today's money)? Do you know the sixteen points of the compass? If not, in a survival situation you're less capable than an 11-year-old from 1908.

  • Become the gate. The word "contemplation" has "temple" as it's root word. A temple is a space set aside for divinity to enter. Practice your contemplation so that you can be the gate through which the divine enters the world. Assume posture of choice and regulate breathing to a slow and steady rhythm. Keep your eyes open and fixed. Do not fidget, wiggle or scratch. Allow your thoughts to dissipate like ripples on a pond and your mind to approach a state of calm and relaxed awareness. Do not think at all, but especially not in words -- do not evaluate, judge, make lists, fixate on emotions, let your mind wander, or any of that. Just breathe and be.

."Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
Yea, lift them up, ye everlasting doors,
That the King of Glory may come in.
Who then is the King of Glory?
The Lord of Hosts; He is the King of Glory."
~Psalm 24