Zen proverb: Enlightenment

"Before Enlightenment: chop wood, carry water. After Enlightenment: chop wood, carry water." So straight-forward, so simple.

Zee

"I do like to be beside the seaside,
Oh, I do like to be beside the sea ...", I was humming to myself the other day, walking on the beach, when I came across these lines in the sand:

The moon, at this point, was ebbing the tide, and so the interface had moved away from where the child(?) had drawn the pointer.

the sun hung lowest

The sun hung lowest at my place at 12:04 yesterday. Here's what it looked like at Drom Beag two years ago.

separate right foot

I’m always grateful after class. I enjoy going to share in the practice with others. It's good to synchronise my movements with those of my classmates. I find this gives me a feeling of being energised and relaxed at the same time.

When teaching class I’m thankful each time for the opportunity to deepen my own practice as I’m demonstrating the details of the form for the first time to a learner.

Lately it has been Separate Right Foot. Stepping back from Golden Rooster Standing On Right Leg, forming the ward-offs, transferring the weight, crossing the hands, turning the waist, kicking, arms unfolding “as do the edges of an opening fan”, exerting no strength from the shoulders. Wonderful!

standing like a mountain

taichi: standing like a mountain or standing like a tree on the slopes of a mountainside looking out over the ocean. We try to cultivate this rather than resisting purposely. Becoming rooted is the key.

tai chi: wrestling versus dancing

Marcus Aurelius said, in Meditations, with, I assume, no knowledge of tai chi: "The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing, in that it stands ready for what comes and is not thrown by the unforeseen."

This is a constant tension in our practice, are we going through a form or are we practising applications?

I'm in the latter camp really, it's wonderful to read this book.

(My copy is by Penguin Classics, trans. by Martin Hammond)

la papa creciente

51º 23.3’ North 9º 36.1’West

Chance is always powerful

As Ovid said: let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish. I practise each day to get my hook cast. When we practise together, we emphasise hooking each other, joining our intention to make the interaction more alive.

In a few days I will give a class, an introductory class, to complete beginners. Always a special challenge to take a short time and a crowd and see if something clicks.

Does anyone, me included, walk away the better for it ...

The finger or the Moon

I'm reading The Elements of Tai Chi, by Paul Crompton, at the moment. In his introduction, he says Tai Chi developed at a time when Taoists influenced thinking and conduct at many levels in Chinese society but that now the total situation into which Tai Chi was introduced is gone.

Tai Chi is like a finger pointing at the Moon. The student can either study the finger [Buddha] or look at the Moon [Buddha's teaching].

This seems to be the idea behind Yoshitoshi's picture, done circa 1892, and which I saw recently at the Chester Beatty Library.

His own haiku reads:

Holding back the night

With its increasing brilliance

The summer moon

(Yoshitoshi’s death poem)

Pushing Hands

Pushing Hands is such an essential part of tai chi for me. Dealing with the other person is what it's all about. I'm lucky to be able to push hands at least twice a week - the interaction shows me how much I have still to learn.

Ward Off

Ward off should come from the back of the heart, through the arm(s), the fender of your space, sensitive to the partner (or, opponent), listening to him (her), responding with due diligence, opposite side ready to thwart any effort to invade your space uninvited. Alert, aware, paying attention to your partner(or, opponent) you are giving them your full attention, sunk in stance, relaxed in posture, turning at the waist when needed.

tai chi painting photgraphy travel

tai chi ch'uan, painting, photgraphy, and travel are my 4 current themes to develop self-understanding.

A Topical Thought

The woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.
- Henry David Thoreau

MMVI XI XXVI

This is where I'm at for the past while, working away, a bit here and a bit there. Trying to get into 'The Feast Is Foward' mode, and enjoying it when I do.

September Spiritual

Video of short form from 1960's?

Found this video today on youtube - well worth a look.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl2mvyjHYS0

How Long Must I Practice?

The answer is illustrated quite well at this introductory page for Aikido FAQs. Scroll down to " An old story might tell you some of the mindset you ought to apply when studying martial arts". All your attention must be on finding the Way.

'lifting hands' & 'playing guitar'

these are two positions for rooting discipline when 'the heart of the foot should adhere to the ground' [see Book 4 of my previous entry]. Here, one is reminded of the fundamental rooting practices, standing on one leg first and then the other for several minutes. One can use fingers on the back of a chair at first to help maintain balance and gradually get to the point of not needing the hands at all.

my 20061106 entry continued

Others books that I have read are in the last few years are:

TAI CHI The Supreme Ultimate by Robert Galante, Weiser, ISBN 0-87728-497-0
From p. 89: "The Solo Form presented in this book is the 'short' Yang style as taught to me by Grand Master Cheng Man-ch'ing"

T'AI CHI Classics, trans with commentary by Waysun Liao, Shambhala, ISBN 1-57062-749-5
From p.95: "The T'ai Chi Form originated as the thirteen postures of meditation. these are the eight postures, or directions- ... - in combination with the five different ways to maneuvre the eight meditative postures ..."

Cheng Tzu's Thirteen Treatises on T'ai Chi Ch'uan, by Cheng Man Ch'ing, North Atlantic Books, ISBN 0-938190-45-8
From p. 91: " 'I'm not a meat rack; why do you hang on my body?' "

There Are No Secrets, by Wolfe Lowenthal, North Atlantic Books, ISBN 1-55643-112-0
From p. 61: "Mastery of the art of Tai Chi Chuan is difficult; one of the functions of push hands is to remind us of how far we have to go."

The Tao Of Health and Longevity, by Da Liu, Marlowe & Co., ISBN 1-56924-718-8
From p.52: "Each of the individual movements has a potential use for self-defense, and some are named after this use. Other are named after the movement of animals that they imitate."