One doesn't wait for a revolution. One becomes it.
—Carl Safina, The View from Lazy Point, 2012
20250830
20250827
20250823
20250822
When I first came to Israel I tried psychotherapy. A few weeks in, my therapist (whom I admired) asked me to write a list of the five things that were most important to me.
"Like what?"
"Like happiness, money, family..."
So I sat for quite a while thinking & compiling.
When I had finished I handed her the list.
"Now this is very interesting," she said, "Number one is Softness and number two is Intimacy, and here you are in a country where you are not going to find either..."
20250821
20250820
20250819
No matter what the age declares of itself, no matter how absent of spiritual truth and tendency you operate, there is beneath the loquacious level that your rationalism inhabits a deeper level to your nature where intuitions and occult convolutions gather and where, even deeper, a darkness emanates the material of creation. It’s poetry that narrates and demonstrates that dark energy, an unconsuming fire in which our imaginations come most intensely to life.
—Peter O'Leary, Thick & Dazzling Darkness: Religious Poetry in a Secular Age, 2017
20250818
20250817
20250816
20250815
20250814
20250813
The mind is usually centred, grounded, rooted in a sense of self – a separateness from the world – from which it inevitably regards and judges that world. This centre (Ego) appears firm, stable and real but only because the mind is constantly reinforcing it with its endless chatter. During meditation we allow the mind to quieten & soften, and then Ego can be seen for what it is – a man-made construct with no analogue in Nature.
20250812
20250811
20250807
20250803
20250729
I am on permanent vacation. This surprising state of affairs is the life that I have been called to, and it has lasted almost six decades. My good fortune is known as a vocation. Monastic life is essentially a vacating, an emptying out, not unlike vacating an apartment and living without furniture, or even without an apartment. Monastics (men and women) vacate the world and go where people of the world do not want to go and remain. To live in solitude, to be specific, is one of the most difficult things for a person to endure. “Man’s unhappiness,” as Pascal said, “springs from one thing alone, his incapacity to stay quietly in one room.” In more ways than one, that is precisely what I have been doing for a long time—except, rather than inside a room, I prefer to be outside. The generous ceiling of the sky for me is more congenial to solitude, precisely because there I find company with the visible world around me.
But this outward solitude is not enough. Vacating means a personal emptying out of clutter within the mind and heart, certainly a clearing of the nonessential and even some essential furniture to make room for God. A normal home has spouses and maybe children. Life in a monastic community can never be quite the equivalent of a family, although there may be plenty of people around. Radically, there must be an interior journey into a wilderness to be alone, free of the world and at rest in God. Living in cenobitic community might seem to upgrade this desert to the status of a private resort, with all conveniences provided, like laundry and cooking. Perhaps that sounds too good to be true. Well, it is. You will shortly find this is not the case. Everyone here has to put in a hand and do his own part. Work is one of the forms of this emptiness, this vacation. It enhances prayer and keeps it from going static and stale. Likewise, prayer is a form of work – “the work of God,” as St. Benedict called it. It requires intention, attention, and persistence.
—Paul Quenon, In Praise of the Useless Life: A Monk's Memoir, 2018
20250728
20250726
20250725
20250721
20250716
20250715
20250713
20250711
In more than thirty years of research, I’ve discovered a very important truth about human psychology: certainty is a cruel mindset. It hardens our minds against possibility and closes them to the world we actually live in.
—Ellen J Langer, Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility, Penguin, 2009
20250709
20250708
I have had two Taiji teachers: firstly John Kells (1984-2006) and secondly Nitsan Michaeli (2007-2010). Their approaches are miles apart. John's work (and life) was all spirit whereas Nitsan works almost exclusively on the root. But they have three crucial things in common: both love Taiji, both stress that Taiji is all about connexion, and both consider Enlightenment a hoax.
20250706
Eight years ago, at John's funeral, I had a little word with each family member (all of whom I knew well). His younger sister Valerie had a few years before married a Muslim and had converted to Islam. They had since divorced so I assumed that her Islam, like her previous Catholicism, would have lapsed, but there she was, clearly dressed as a Muslim woman. I said to her, I thought she would have given all that up. "Steven, it's not something you grow out of, it's something you grow more and more into!" Ah, just like Taiji, I thought.
20250629
A breath of fresh air, a relationship with the outside world.
—Deleuze & Guattari, Anti-Oedipus, 1972
The atmosphere is not a perfume, it has no taste of the distillation, it is odorless,
It is for my mouth forever, I am in love with it,
I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked,
I am mad for it to be in contact with me.
—Walt Whitman, Song of Myself, 1892
It is for my mouth forever, I am in love with it,
I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked,
I am mad for it to be in contact with me.
—Walt Whitman, Song of Myself, 1892
20250628
He didn’t so much teach as exemplify, which is the way it should be, since even the wisest lesson soon sounds like drivel.
—Douglas Crase, writing about James Schuyler
20250627
20250623
20250622
20250620
I have always felt that I am an empiricist, that is, a pluralist. But what does this equivalence between empiricism and pluralism mean? It derives from the two characteristics by which Whitehead defined empiricism: the abstract does not explain, but must itself be explained; and the aim is not to rediscover the eternal or the universal, but to find the conditions under which something new is produced (creativeness).
—Gilles Deleuze in Gilles Deleuze & Claire Parnet: Dialogues II, Columbia University Press, 2007
20250618
20250617
20250616
20250615
20250614
Progress in Taiji (and there must be progress otherwise you're not travelling a path, you're just standing still) is a slow (think decades) process of getting closer to the ground. Sinking, sinking, sinking, which requires stronger legs, more flexible hips, more open groin. When I encounter old students who have kept up their daily practice but without a teacher to spur them on (fire their spirit), this is what they lack: their Taiji is all upper body with no root.
20250612
All spiritual work, internal work, real work, boils down to one thing: trying to quieten the mind.
When you meditate and watch the noisy mind, what's it actually talking about? It's usually grumbling: going through a litany of complaints and resentments in order to reinforce its sense of self-righteousness. This is what Nietzsche called slave mentality. The slave silently grumbles at the master – he's full of resentments. The master, in contrast, has a quiet mind because he doesn't need to grumble – everything is under his control.
Hegel had a master/slave story. The master decides he shouldn't have to do menial jobs anymore so he buys himself a slave to do them for him. Because the master is not working he is getting weaker as time goes by, and because the slave is working, he's getting stronger as time goes by. So there comes a point when the slave overthrows the master. Now Nietzsche's big insight is: okay this happens, the slave may overthrow the master, but he will still have slave mentality, he will still have the noisy mind.
And this is what we are basically. We are masters of our lives in the sense that we have enough income not to have to worry about starving and other unpleasant things – we appear happy & content – but we still have the noisy mind. And you can see that to break this is different than just having more money to make life more comfortable. That sort of excess doesn't help at all.
The difference really between the slave mind and the master mind is that the slave is looking at the world and desiring. It's the whole market economy – capitalism is the slave mind in action. The master wants for nothing, so he can be himself, looking out and commanding his world. The slave is always looking at a world that is beyond it, moaning to itself because it can't have it. The slave thrives on envy. That's what we need to do something about.
When you meditate and watch the noisy mind, what's it actually talking about? It's usually grumbling: going through a litany of complaints and resentments in order to reinforce its sense of self-righteousness. This is what Nietzsche called slave mentality. The slave silently grumbles at the master – he's full of resentments. The master, in contrast, has a quiet mind because he doesn't need to grumble – everything is under his control.
Hegel had a master/slave story. The master decides he shouldn't have to do menial jobs anymore so he buys himself a slave to do them for him. Because the master is not working he is getting weaker as time goes by, and because the slave is working, he's getting stronger as time goes by. So there comes a point when the slave overthrows the master. Now Nietzsche's big insight is: okay this happens, the slave may overthrow the master, but he will still have slave mentality, he will still have the noisy mind.
And this is what we are basically. We are masters of our lives in the sense that we have enough income not to have to worry about starving and other unpleasant things – we appear happy & content – but we still have the noisy mind. And you can see that to break this is different than just having more money to make life more comfortable. That sort of excess doesn't help at all.
The difference really between the slave mind and the master mind is that the slave is looking at the world and desiring. It's the whole market economy – capitalism is the slave mind in action. The master wants for nothing, so he can be himself, looking out and commanding his world. The slave is always looking at a world that is beyond it, moaning to itself because it can't have it. The slave thrives on envy. That's what we need to do something about.
20250610
20250608
20250605
20250604
20250603
20250602
20250529
20250526
20250525
20250523
20250520
20250518
Throughout Chinese history, there have always been people who preferred to spend their lives in the mountains, getting by on less, sleeping under thatch, wearing old clothes, working the higher slopes, not talking much, writing even less—maybe a few poems, a recipe or two. Out of touch with the times but not with the seasons, they cultivated roots of the spirit, trading flatland dust for mountain mist. Distant and insignificant, they were the most respected men and women in the world’s oldest society.
—Bill Porter (Red Pine), Road to Heaven, Counterpoint Press, 1993
20250516
Wisdom is like water. It resides in the lower meditation field, the belly. The head is for thinking; the heart for willing and desiring. The belly is the place for wisdom and contemplation. We ‘return’ to Dao’s gestating presence from this inner womb of intuitive awareness.
—Master Zhuang (quoted in Michael Saso: The Teachings of Daoist Master Zhuang, Oracle Bones Press, 2012)
20250515
20250512
In a nutshell, the work allows you to transition from control – the way many of us seek to organize our lives, to trust – the foundation for creating a fluid relationship with time.
—Paul Loomans, I've Got Time, Watkins Publishing, 2024
20250511
20250510
Brief habits — I love brief habits and consider them an inestimable means for getting to know many things and states, down to the bottom of their sweetness and bitternesses. My nature is designed entirely for brief habits, even in the needs of my physical health and altogether as far as I can see at all— from the lowest to the highest. I always believe that here is something that will give me lasting satisfaction—brief habits, too, have this faith of passion, this faith in eternity—and that I am to be envied for having found and recognized it; and now it nourishes me at noon and in the evening and spreads a deep contentment all around itself and deep into me so that I desire nothing else, without having any need for comparisons, contempt, or hatred. But one day its time is up; the good thing parts from me, not as something that has come to nauseate me but peacefully and sated with me as I am with it—as if we had reason to be grateful to each other as we shook hands to say farewell. Even then something new is waiting at the door, along with my faith—this indestructible fool and sage!—that this new discovery will be just right, and that this will be the last time. That is what happens to me with dishes, ideas, human beings, cities, poems, music, doctrines, ways of arranging the day, and life styles.
Enduring habits I hate. I feel as if a tyrant had come near me and as if the air I breathe had thickened when events take such a turn that it appears that they will inevitably give rise to enduring habits; for example, owing to an official position, constant association with the same people, a permanent domicile, or unique good health. Yes, at the very bottom of my soul I feel grateful to all my misery and bouts of sickness and everything about me that is imperfect, because this sort of thing leaves me with a hundred backdoors through which I can escape from enduring habits. Most intolerable, to be sure, and the terrible par excellence would be for me a life entirely devoid of habits, a life that would demand perpetual improvisation. That would be my exile and my Siberia.
—Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, 295
20250509
20250507
20250506
20250503
20250502
20250501
20250430
Back in the early eighties when I started Taiji, the BTCCA (British T'ai Chi Ch'uan Association) held a seven hour Intensive on the first Saturday of every month. Toward the end of each of these sessions, Grand Master John Robert Kells, who always led the proceedings, gave an inspiring talk (effectively a dharma talk). These would always start the same way: "The most important word in Taiji is RESPECT," and then would go off on a wonderfully inventive tangent. I always tell my students that the most important word in Taiji is LISTENING. Respect & listening are really the same thing.
20250429
20250428
MEDITATION
Imagine you're at home, seated comfortably in your favourite armchair, watching television. The lights are low and the programme is entertaining. Suddenly, for whatever reason, the TV dies and you're left in the dark. You pull yourself forward to the edge of the seat, readying to arise and check the electricity. As you sit, perched on the edge, your eyes start to grow accustomed to the dark and you notice the gentle luminescence of the room. It's as though the surrounding objects slowly start to come alive, revealing a very different reality: more subtle, more mysterious, more natural.
20250427
20250426
20250425
20250424
Rather than verb tenses inscribing our metaphysics of linear time into consciousness, classical Chinese verbs are unconjugated, simply registering emergence, occurrence appearing of itself in a kind of boundless present. And classical Chinese has minimal grammar, so pictographic ideograms seem to be each emerging from a generative emptiness.
—David Hinton
20250421
20250417
20250416
20250414
Aware: Middle English waren "to be mindful, be on guard," going back to Old English warian "to be wary, guard, protect," going back to Germanic warōjan- (whence Old Saxon waron "to attend to, protect," Old High German biwarōn, Old Norse vara "to warn," varask "to be on one's guard")
Awake: Old English wæccan to watch, Latin vegēre to enliven; Norwegian dialect vok, Old Norse vǫk hole in ice
Awake: Old English wæccan to watch, Latin vegēre to enliven; Norwegian dialect vok, Old Norse vǫk hole in ice
20250413
I distinguish three fundamental sets of Taiji principles:
- Principles of Station: sink & relax; upright spine;
- Principles of Motion: single-weightedness; turning the waist;
- Principle of Continuity: keeping the mind on the job, also called Mind Continuous or the Principle of Flow.
20250411
20250408
20250405
20250404
20250403
20250330
20250329
20250323
20250321
20250319
20250318
20250315
20250313
The ground is our felt-sense of support and stability that lies beneath the body, and therefore our deepest ground is underground. There are different levels to this sense of being grounded. On one level—the most obvious one—we feel rooted in and connected to the earth. Our bodies are earth-bodies, and we are able to feel this earthy connection. Another level, less frequented, is archetypal.
—John Prendergast
20250312
20250311
Last week my daughter had an English exam at school. She told me that many of the students had their phones on their laps, typing questions into an AI app, and then copying out the answers. I asked if there was no invigilator present. "Yes there was, but he was on his phone the whole time and didn't notice what people were doing."
20250310
20250309
20250307
20250306
20250305
20250304
20250303
20250301
20250228
20250226
20250225
20250224
Reduce the External as much as possible so that the Internal can expand into the vacated space. This is the Void. Empty of things but full of spirit. What Deleuze aptly called the Transcendental Field.
20250223
20250222
Imagine walking down the street minding your own business. You notice someone ahead looking lost. As you approach they politely ask directions. You graciously oblige. They thank you, exchange a few pleasantries, and head off with a new confidence. You continue on your way with a fuller heart. This is what life is all about: creating good feeling.
20250221
20250220
20250219
20250215
20250214
20250213
20250212
SINK & RELAX
First principle of Taiji. Both imply letting go (desist resisting). Let what needs to happen happen.
Physically: let go tension and gravity will pull the body down to ground.
Mentally: let go self (importance) and the mind will expand (recede) into the back/ground – the ground of being – the ocean of consciousness.
Spiritually: let sparks of vitality emerge from the ocean and animate everything (you do).
First principle of Taiji. Both imply letting go (desist resisting). Let what needs to happen happen.
Physically: let go tension and gravity will pull the body down to ground.
Mentally: let go self (importance) and the mind will expand (recede) into the back/ground – the ground of being – the ocean of consciousness.
Spiritually: let sparks of vitality emerge from the ocean and animate everything (you do).
20250211
The incessant chatter in the head serves one purpose: to reinforce the sense of self, of separation.
Mind in dantian gets us out of the head and allows the self to slowly dissolve.
Natural mind is a site of awareness (connexion) rather than thinking (separation). The more energy you bring to that awareness the deeper you delve.
Mind in dantian gets us out of the head and allows the self to slowly dissolve.
Natural mind is a site of awareness (connexion) rather than thinking (separation). The more energy you bring to that awareness the deeper you delve.
20250210
20250209
20250207
If we identify with our ego – a particular, dissociated set of ideas – we turn the universe at large, and even our own intrusive thoughts and unwanted feelings, into oppressive tyrants. They become external factors that constrain and coerce us. If, on the other hand, we identify not with particular dissociated ideas but with consciousness itself – with that whose excitations give rise to all thoughts and feelings – we attain unfathomable metaphysical free will. This arises not from the power of the ego to control the world, but from the realization that we are the world.
—Bernardo Kastrup
20250206
20250205
20250204
The following realization rivals in its significance a religion: that once the background melody has been discovered one is no longer baffled in one’s speech and obscure in one’s decisions. There is a carefree security in the simple conviction that one is part of a melody, which means that one legitimately occupies a specific space and has a specific duty toward a vast work where the least counts as much as the greatest. Not to be extraneous is the first condition for an individual to consciously and quietly come into his own.
—Rainer Maria Rilke
20250203
20250202
When with a teacher worth their salt, just listen. What they tell
you is neither hearsay nor opinion. It is something they have either discovered for themselves or verified for themselves through hundreds of hours of practice. To either bolster or counter what they say with your opinion is both disrespectful and denigrating.
20250201
20250131
20250130
20250125
20250122
20250121
There are points in the body where two or more threads of energy tie together. These points need a presence of mind to keep the threads connected otherwise they tend to separate and then we leak energy and weaken.
Crown
Third Eye
Tongue / Palate
Throat
Thymus
Lower heart
Solar plexus
Dantian
Perineum
Heels / Ground
Big toes / Ground
Touching thumb tips when meditating
20250119
20250117
How on Earth do we focus the mind on the task at hand, except fleetingly? This is the problem that plagues every student that has ventured a tap of work. And the answer is simple enough: through the heart. It is not the mind that focuses the mind but the heart. The key to staying undistracted is a loving heart.
20250116
At primary school, in our maths class, we were introduced to the concept of Infinity. I remember the teacher explaining to us that Infinity is an abstract concept invented by mathematicians, and it doesn't exist in the real concrete world where everything is finite.
Spiritual work reveals that the opposite is in fact the case. Every natural thing is infinite — there being no end to its unfolding detail — and the finite is very much a man-made condition of his fabricated, unnatural world.
20250114
Make a list of habits in the day that cannot be avoided:
Then look at each one and try to find a way of doing it better: more relaxed, more aware/mindful, more in the legs.
This is bringing the practice (in)to life.
Arising
Toilet
Showering
Dressing
Practice
Breakfast (making & eating)
Washing-up
Driving to work
Etc etc
Then look at each one and try to find a way of doing it better: more relaxed, more aware/mindful, more in the legs.
This is bringing the practice (in)to life.
20250111
THE WAY IT IS
There's a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn't change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can't get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time's unfolding.
You don't ever let go of the thread.
—William Stafford
20250108
20250103
LOVE HAS TANGENTS
Fidelity to patience
is the theme
I have kindled
behind every effort
The apogee
The same thing
A different way
Day after day
My love has tangents
not resolutions
Times have changed
Time has changed
Passing into one another
The surface of gestures
An amalgam
of deepening touch
Abandon ideology
Abandon self-loss
The wager is visible
There is no difference
Between the damned and the saved
Pardon
An inseparable face
Inside you
—Pam Rehm