Gloria enim Dei vivens homo.

The glory of God is a human being fully alive.

—Saint Irenaeus

possessed of a tensile—and at times precarious—balance

Happiness is not
a state or
a condition
but a skill

and like all
skills you get
better at it
with practice.

sentio ergo sum

I'm often happy God knows but never more than at this instant

—Samuel Beckett

The student who fails to establish a daily practice will eventually turn against the teacher. The onslaught will be too much for them. And if they don't then it's because, all along, they haven't been listening.

It always amazes me how many seemingly intelligent people feel they have a moral obligation to worry.

Having an opinion isn't the same as thinking for yourself. Real free thinkers dare not voice opinions for fear of ostracisation.

Head-mind thinks / worries
Heart-mind feels / imagines

Prayer is the lifting of heart and mind to God in the absence of thoughts. Meditation ditto.

Like an olive tree.

an elegance as nimble as it is grave

Heart  us  invisibly  thyme  time
round  rose  bud  fire  downland
bird  tread  quagmire  dry  gill-over-the-ground
stem-square  leaves-cordate  earth  race  horsethyme
breath  neighbors  a  mace  nays
sorrow  of  harness  pulses  pent
thus  fruit  pod  split  four
one-fourth  ripens  unwithering  gaping

—Louis Zukofsky, first stanza of 80 Flowers, 1978

Every interaction with the teacher contains a lesson to be learned so try to remember them all.

Truth is not something I can tell you because it cannot be explained. (Poets miraculously put it into words.) But if I were to work with you, one to one, then I guarantee we would touch it together and you may even feel it. It is like a small bud in the heart aching to bloom. Thymos, as well as Greek for 'life' is a tiny bud of thyme.

The ethologists tell us empathy defines our humanity. Our ability to feel the suffering of the Other.

We value the Other, not because they are the same as us (in anything), but because they are different from us (in everything). Difference is always more interesting than sameness. And more Real.

Sometimes 

I sense my

zabuton 

a raft

adrift 

a great river

approaching 

its estuary

Modern technology is repressive naturally.

There is no free society without silence, without the internal and external spaces of solitude in which individual freedom can develop.

—Herbert Marcuse

Alexander Technique practitioners insist on calling their sessions lessons rather than treatments, and themselves teachers rather than therapists. Lesson implies receiving material to be studied and practised – homework.

Attention: literally, stretch towards.

Many are called but few are chosen. Most are not ready to begin, lacking the subterranean seriousness that only hard work can bring. This is why the first stage is always developing a root – acquiring gravity. Groundwork.

I go to the place
of flowing water

sit

and watch
the clouds rise


—Yamada Koun Zenshin

And water flowing / clouds rising are just different phases of the same substance.

wherever we sit
water (energy/time)
is flowing

whenever we sit
clouds (spirit/levity)
are rising

Like any athletic or artistic pursuit, Taiji is concerned with letting our energy out: clear, pure & strong.

Without a quiet mind we cannot listen.

善行無轍迹 

A good traveller leaves no trace. 

—Daodejing: 27.01

(Literally: Good deeds leave no trace.)

Internal work is built not on information but on secrets. Secrets that elude revelation. As you attempt to expose one, it morphs into something else.

Poetry is feeling put into words.

One of the most common questions I am asked is: What is the difference between Taiji and Qigong?

That's easy. Taiji is a martial art so its principal energy is Spirit, whereas Qigong is a class of energy exercises, and its principal energy is Qi. 

The next question is always: What's the difference between Spirit and Qi? 

Spirit is the vital animating spark that brings things alive or wakes things up, whereas Qi is a pervasive energy prevalent in Nature, especially in Living Nature. 

Life requires both but Spirit precedes Qi. 

When walking in Nature, experiencing its beauty and vibrancy then you are feeling Qi. If you are suddenly startled by a noise in the undergrowth and your hackles rise and your senses sharpen then you are experiencing Spirit.