Without the correct hardness (self-discipline) we're indulgent & infantile, and without the correct softness (a feeling for others) we're disconnected & selfish.

When the knife reaches bone,
your life must change.
—Rumi

The Human Touch

Athletes know that a great training session will be followed by muscle soreness the next day. Dancers have regular "zombie days" when they simply can't function and need to rest. Live performers take all sorts of drugs (alcohol being the most common) to ease the awful comedown after the gig. The same with us spiritual adepts – if you have a really effective meditation or prayer session then expect to feel wretched & unsettled – out of sorts – the next day.

Theology: thinking about God
Is this not (oxy)moronic?

When I started Taiji in the early eighties my teacher used to say that we study Taiji to gain an understanding of energy. He never explained what energy was. When you offer an explanation of something that the student is not qualified to understand, then they generally get the wrong end of the stick. Then thinking that they know holds them back. Some things (the important things) have to be found out for yourself.

G O D   I S   L O V E

I still think this the most remarkable statement ever uttered.  It clears up so much.  Meditation is simply time spent dwelling on this.

The only way to stay open
is to stay connected

If you waken one morning so wretchedly tired the body is numb and you can't imagine ever remembering how to arise, then you've pushed the spirit too far.  If, on finally arising, you can't lift the eyes to face the world and tears well up, then you've stretched the spirit too far.  Look long & hard at what you've done to cause this, and then, once you've recovered, do it again.

Change never goes the way you want.
If it did, it wouldn't be change.

MEDITATION

Sit still
and watch
with amusement

as the roiling
resentments
slowly settle

leaving a lucent
pellucid
crystal clarity.

Life commences with a process of closing down – constructing an Ego. Then, if you're lucky, you grasp a lifeline – a teacher, a passion, a trauma, a work – and life becomes a long slow process of dismantling the Ego and opening back up.

The great sustainer is not a sense of self – this personal preserve – me & mine – Ego & Empire – but the love of God.

I don't know about you but my favourite meditation of the day is Vigils. Probably because it's so quiet & otherworldly.

I want my paintings to be:
abstract, direct, urban, basic, modest, pure,
simple, silent, honest, absolute.
—Alan Charlton

an attitude of gratitude

We are all culpable: we all consume far more than our fair share.

The teacher helps you slough your skins and become who you really are beneath all the conditioning, missteps and laziness. The work is always reductive.

When I was a kid, the priest's pulpit was commonly called the coward's castle.

Spirit expresses in the eyes & the tail.
Both need to be attended to,
especially the neglected tail.

Truth is whatever we're running from

All artwork is stored energy.
The art releases its power whenever a viewer
becomes a dreamer.
—Larry Bell

応 無 所 住 而 生 其 心
The mind arises without dwelling on anything.
—Musō Soseki (1275–1351)

The Taiji Form should be practised daily until it is part of you and there is little likelihood of ever abandoning it.  It then gives back so much – always reviving spirit & mood, and always generating new material – fresh insights to work with.

“Bum-in” gets the lower dantian directly under the heart.
“Chin-in” gets the upper dantian directly over the heart.

It's important to spend time each day with the three dantians vertically aligned so that Nature (Heaven & Earth – levity & gravity) can work on you.

On the Earth gently
In the world softly
With myself tenderly

Things are not difficult to make; what's difficult is putting yourself in the mood to make them.

—Constantin Brâncuși