taiji heartwork
forget self & become one with the dao
15 August 2022
Truth always lurks one level deeper than you are at present. A breakthrough is required to reach it. A breakthrough into heightened awareness – a more intense awakeness. This requires hard work (that goes without saying) but more importantly grace. And such grace always comes from outside – it's like a beauty you never noticed before but now that you're more awake, shimmers everywhere. Like being in love.
I remember discussing the lamentable shortage of good students with my teacher. He suggested that my generation (those that grew up in the sixties and their aftermath) was the last to produce good students. Since Thatcherism (the selfish eighties) and then the Internet and smartphones (the Age of Distraction), depth, dedication and devotion have become the dirty D words. Apparently even the Carthusians now last on average only three years before the lure of the external draws them away from God.
14 August 2022
I have a student who is a swimming instructor specialising in kids who are terrified of the water. She told me that all she does is get them through their fear, and give them confidence in the water. Then learning to swim is natural and easy. I told her that's all I'm trying to do with her, only with spirit rather than water.