Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Amongst White Clouds
Saw this movie at the Cinemateque last Friday. Well near perfect. I watched it with Hebrew subtitles - not understanding a thing - so instead just felt and absorbed the energy of the monks. Having just seen it again with English subtitles I can vouch that it is an astonishing and deeply rewarding experience.
"When ignorance is exhausted we see our True Nature."
Original Perfection is so much more interesting than Original Sin.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Light & nimble
like a monkey.
like a monkey.
Spirit
To free spirit of mind.
To free mind of thinking.
To free thinking of language.
To free language of deceit.
Language orders the mind incorrectly and veils the heart.
When the heart is clear and open there are no words
there is only communication.
To free mind of thinking.
To free thinking of language.
To free language of deceit.
Language orders the mind incorrectly and veils the heart.
When the heart is clear and open there are no words
there is only communication.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
...before me fled
The night; behind me rose the day; the Deep
Was at my feet, and Heaven above my head...
Shelley, from The Triumph of Life
I thought poetry could change everything, could change history and could humanize, and I think that the illusion is very necessary to push poets to be involved and to believe, but now I think that poetry changes only the poet.
Mahmoud Darwish
Mahmoud Darwish
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Everything is easy; the only hard thing is getting to the point where everything is easy.
Andrew Sterman
Andrew Sterman
Friday, May 09, 2008
In the thick of it.
these books
get up my nose
white flower
pointing down
light-sabre
life saver
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Life
Actually it's not a matter of riding the wave that's important, it's having the wave flow through us, then not only are we alive, we are also life itself. This is the great meditator who sits yet lives with more intensity than those high on adrenaline or whatever.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Still from FW Murnau's Sunrise
Look at the way the ends of the pews, the rows of people and the shafts of sunlight all converge on the trinity: the marrying couple brought together by God (the priest). In a way sacrament attends all acts of union and all acts of creation: such acts change us forever. In fact it is only through such acts that we can change.
Life
Life is a wave begging to be surfed whilst most of us are dithering on the beach. What stops us riding the wave is always fear, usually dressed up as having better and safer things to do. When the wave is so overwhelmingly present, as it is, the only thing strong enough to lure us away is the thinking mind, individual (ourselves – our fantasies) and collective (civilization and its artifacts). Originally the thinking mind was a tool we could bring into play when, for whatever reason, the wave died down – a means to finding a new and stronger wave (a means to staying alive). Now it has become a way to avoid life. Not only does the thinking mind shun the vitality and danger of real life, it has cleverly lagooned off a part of the sea, invented wave generators that always deliver waves of the specified size and strength, and passes this off as the real thing. In fact now we don't even need to get wet, we can instead watch other people living, or other people pretending to live, on TV. And all this because we are afraid of getting hurt – afraid of death. We avoid real life to avert real death.
Monday, May 05, 2008
Attraction
The knee is the middle joint of the leg – between the hip and the ankle – so when the knee bends softly but actively the hip is drawn towards the ankle. It is this simple action that draws both your energy down towards the Earth, and the Earth's energy up into you. It is the same with the elbow: it being the middle joint of the arm – between shoulder and wrist. When the elbow bends (and sinks) softly but actively the shoulder and wrist draw towards each other. If the hand is sticking to another entity then this simple action will draw their energy into you and your energy into them. It is as though the knee/elbow is the stable point of reference.
The present moment is the point at which life spills out of the past and opens up into the future.
Wisdom
Wisdom is having a handle on time. This becomes possible when we are aware of the process as well as aware in the present moment. When aware of the process each moment contains a glimmer of all other moments, some more strongly than others, and time stops being sequential.
Friday, May 02, 2008
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Rooting
On sinking our energy down to the Earth, as long as the body retains its integrity – doesn't collapse, then we receive a kickback from the Earth that passes up the body and all around us. This upward energy is of a different order and quality to the downward. The upward, once it gets out of and beyond our head, receives a similar but downward kickback from something above us. We feel this as a slight pressure bearing down on the crown of the head – pressing us down. Again, this downward energy from the Heavens is of a different quality to that either sinking or rising. Our task, once we have opened up to these energies, is to keep them flowing and keep them balanced. We are then squeezed by them, and it is this squeeze that causes our energy to express and communicate as compassionate acts: the squeeze forces us to reach out. So, in the same way that the sole of the foot is rooted to the Earth, so the crown of the head is rooted to the Heavens – there is really no difference.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Don't make a spectacle of yourself.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Saturday, April 19, 2008
When there is no truth there are only conventions.
Francis Picabia
Convention is artificial support – comfort – a type of avoidance.
Francis Picabia
Convention is artificial support – comfort – a type of avoidance.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
New Tai Chi class in Tel Aviv
This is the blurb for a new weekly evening Tai Chi class at Nomind (roof of Dereh Menachim Begin 55, Tel Aviv), starting Tuesday 13 May.
Tai Chi is the art of making and managing connection by yielding (accepting).If you're interested then email me.
In this beginners' course we work on two fundamental connections: our body with the Earth, and our Heart with another Heart.
We work by opening, relaxing and melting into movement so that energy can flow naturally from Earth to Heart and from Heart to Heart.
Gradually, as tensions disperse and connections become stronger, we return to our true yielding nature: a place where the spirit is free to live creatively.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
touch mulch house noise trunk
child leave trees tales lover
event delay water fresh norse
flint vocal shore snows begin
woven thule night shine often
nexus pygmy vulva offer grain
sleep crown wharf plums creek
flesh close black smile bumpy
bones broad ghost bless sable
dream daily birth talks berth
relax quiet crude cedar giant
depth years being round limit
organ white death pearl grief
heave clear place young wheel
image write world heart flake
inner exist ocean basis dizzy
space freed build means early
small earth river story demon
kalpa learn stone error three
occur yield today doing lives
sense aware smell dance quest
fresh think clean study rages
power feels dirty karma cares
being blend found outer panda
plant local anima allow canto
truth locus polis other lemon
hinge ictus woman holds liver
river probe angel going poise
still gland dwell semen cycle
green birds guard flood grass
thegn ochre trust khene words
horse every thorn otter heals
rocks brown hedge equal stark
fibre sound cheek drift mouth
chalk sooth until blood music
filed anger marsh faith storm
burst fruit whale bread prana
cloth light staff alone peace
berry swift imbue trunk hands
slept grows honey shape penis
naked grace woods whole bough
drift ducks beach frost scent
Hips
Notice the angle at which the femur enters the pelvis and how the bone veers from the vertical so that it points directly into the sacrum. We need to bring some openness and flexibility into the sacroiliac joints and the pubic symphysis. A basic knowledge of anatomy is vital. Without it we tend to be held back by misconceptions and misunderstandings. This sort of knowledge really clears the air.
Heaven & Earth
“The body – our own – is now base” as Charles Olson famously put it. The body is base (noun and adjective) and the body is the place, the place we are, the place we come back to, otherwise we lose touch – we lose Earth. The body is of the Earth. And it holds the heart – is hearth to heart. Heart is of the heavens. When full of heart we fly, or at least float. Lightness in Tai Chi is heart. Joy is heart. A full singing heart feels as though it can achieve anything, and it can, as long as when it sings the body keeps hold of the Earth. Balance in life is managing these two tropisms – the urano- and the geo-, working with both all of the time. This requires maturity and a sense of humour. Maturity is having enough life experience not to be frightened. A sense of humour is the ability to reconcile conflict with laughter.
The Olson quote comes from volume 10 of the Journal of the Charles Olson Archive: The Chiasma. If you'd like to wrestle with Olson's prose, a labour of love I found enormously rewarding 25 years ago, then the book can be downloaded as 5 pdfs: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5. Browser pdf plugins often malfunction so I suggest right-clicking these links and saving rather than left-clicking.
The Olson quote comes from volume 10 of the Journal of the Charles Olson Archive: The Chiasma. If you'd like to wrestle with Olson's prose, a labour of love I found enormously rewarding 25 years ago, then the book can be downloaded as 5 pdfs: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5. Browser pdf plugins often malfunction so I suggest right-clicking these links and saving rather than left-clicking.
Softening
Softness is all about melting boundaries – about bleeding one entity into another – about purposefully fraying & tenderizing the edges of things – so that things (including time slots) lose their compartmentalized definition and start to merge almost together. Whereas clarity sharpens the focus – separates things out – gives things space (and time). If we consider these as active verbs: softening and clarifying, then we can feel that they offer tendencies or processes that quite happily operate together without hurting each other. In fact they need each other otherwise life ceases – the creative process stops.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Compassion
Compassion is abiding and residing soul to soul with the other. This is only possible if you have conquered fear – basic fear – fear of death. You must be prepared to die for the other and with the other. Feel the togetherness that is beyond this life – beyond time.
Coccyx
Liberate your tail. The thigh joins the sacrum via hip/pelvis/sacroiliac. This should leave the coccyx free, free to extend and straighten, either down the supporting leg or anywhere it wishes. And the feeling is as though it has a will of its own. With practice you can lengthen its energetic aspect: create for yourself an energetic tail, the usefulness of which becomes revealed as it develops. Extending the spine downwards enables it (requires it) to also extend upwards. In the picture above the spine is symmetrical with the thoracic curve central. The cervical curve mirrors the lumbar curve and the sacrum mirrors the cranium. If the coccyx becomes free then it establishes another curve, almost poking backwards. The head has an equivalent to the freed coccyx – an upward tail of energy that issues from the crown. This crown tail also has a will and intelligence of its own. In this miracle of a body of ours there are many creatures waiting to be awakened.
Freedom is freedom from self.
You're your own worst enemy.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Compassion
Compassion has nothing to do with becoming embroiled in another's agonies. Compassion involves loaning your clarity of spirit for the other to see a path through their morass. An act of true compassion always strengthens both parties.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Happiness and Creativity
The Hassidics have the right of it when they say our first responsibility is to be happy and to enjoy ourselves. Real happiness has nothing to do with external circumstance and everything to do with an internal attitude to life. In a sense happiness is the easiest thing of all to achieve because is all it requires is a change of mind; but of course the mind is the hardest thing of all (to change). But of all possible activities, which is the one that most readily engenders happiness? For me, and I suspect for all, it is the creative process: the enjoining (enjoying) of spirit in the creation of life, and the subsequent breathing of soul into that life. As teachers it is our responsibility to give our students the means to improve their energy (i.e. stock Forms and exercises), but that is less than half of it. It is also our responsibility to encourage, enthuse and enhearten them to live creatively. This is only possible if we eradicate all calculation, criticism and judgement from not only our minds but our being. Then the act of teaching itself becomes a creative process.
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