The poor student maintains a critical distance:
far too fearful to get close

What makes an event an event rather than just another occurrence is the presence of spirit.

Meditation: sitting quietly and letting gravity wash you clean. And what is it that washes away? Tension, self-image, Ego.

Just had one of those "Oh shit! I've been doing it wrong all these years" moments...

There are reveries so deep, reveries which help us descend so deeply within ourselves that they rid us of our history. They liberate us from our name. These solitudes of today return us to the original solitudes.

—Gaston Bachelard

Ego rules the empire

I spent 9 years at university, earning various degrees & research posts. I left when I realised that I wasn't going to find wisdom there, only over-specialised experts. Imagine my delight & relief when I encountered my Taiji teacher. Suddenly someone who spoke to my heart rather than my head.

Privilege:
empty over empery
energy over force
fluid over solid
process over state

It's all in the touch. The contact. The connexion.
Touch is everything & everything touches.

The teacher tells stories not to relay a narrative but to illustrate, or better still evoke, spirit.

Simplicity & lightness
form & emptiness
have become the
focus of my
practice

This life is really about showing up and doing the work, day after day, especially when you don’t feel like it. The practice supports this continuity.

—Steingrímur Gauti

Spirit is an onslaught. All day we are being bombarded by spirit, imploring us to wake up and take notice. But 99.9999% of the time we remain slumbering self-engrossed idiots.

Energy connects
the real & imaginary
making things complex

Work in such a way that you are constantly re-discovering long lost secrets.

Learning to turn off autopilot.

(The work in a nutshell.)

Exploring Emptiness & Silence

A mind
conducive
to energy

In meditation practice, we neither hold the mind very tightly nor let it go completely. If we try to control the mind, then its energy will rebound back on us. If we let the mind go completely, then it will become very wild and chaotic. So we let the mind go, but at the same time there is some discipline involved. The techniques used in the Buddhist tradition are extremely simple. Awareness of bodily movement, breath, and one’s physical situation are techniques common to all traditions. The basic practice is to be present, right here. The goal is also the technique. Precisely being in this moment, neither suppressing nor wildly letting go, but being precisely aware of what you are. Breath, like bodily existence, is a neutral process which has no “spiritual” connotations. We simply become mindful of its natural functioning. This is called samatha practice.

—Chögyam Trungpa

Once, having a difficult time pushing hands with my teacher, he lost his patience and yelled:
—Don't let me stick to you!
—How do I do that? I asked feebly.
He paused then calmly replied:
—You need to change the way you live your life.

As we navigate life we gather maybe a handful of masters – life affirmers – whom we return to whenever we need to be reminded that we have a soul – that we are, first & foremost, creatures of spirit. These could be teachers, writers, artists, performers, friends & family even – people whom you can always count on for inspiration – the proverbial wake-up call.

Yin & Yang unite when the mind stops
This insight comes in flashes as you face fear
These flashes become a steady stream of light
You are truly blessed to know you have no choice
All is energy and everything is in its rightful place
I am with you out of time.

—John Kells

I have adapted this to use as a (silent) chant:

'Yin & 'Yang u'nite
'when the 'mind 'stops

'This 'insight 'flashes
'as you 'face 'fear

'These 'flashes be'come
a 'steady 'stream of 'light

'You are 'truly 'blest
to 'know you 'have no 'choice

'All is 'ener'gy
'in its 'rightful 'place

'I am 'with 'you
'out 'of 'time.

(Apostrophes precede a stressed syllable.)

Each line has three beats (triple time) or can be ended with an added silent beat to give common time. The first line of each verse is the in-breath and the second line the out-breath.

eschew a life
impoverished
by certitude

Montaigne puts not self-satisfied understanding but a consciousness astonished at itself at the core of human existence.

—Maurice Merleau-Ponty

We are hunters.
Hunting for spirit with spirit.

Work in such a way that action & passion are barely discernible.

always return with spirit