At the core of life is the search for connectedness. Spiritually this is the journey for all of us. Such a journey requires ever increasing resources of energy and understanding because the search for connectedness is never ending: it is a process – a going forward and deeper in a spiral of passion and fascination that burns away fear and mediocrity and all other impediments to the process. (Loving is simply being part of this process – believing whole-heartedly.) Some people have a natural taste for it (good students) and some have a natural aptitude for it (talented students). The lucky ones are those who find someone who can teach it. The path is fraught with pitfalls and dangers so a teacher or guide is vital for success. My teacher teaches the student to reconnect to what he calls the natural process. Ostensibly he teaches TaiChi, or rather he used to teach TaiChi, over time it has become something much more effective, something more like heart-to-heart interaction or heart work (the heart is the centre for connectedness). It involves entering a world of energy and encourages a soft, sidling, seeping, sinuous, sensuous connectedness to develop between oneself and the other. There are two sides to the work he teaches: private practice which co-ordinates, strengthens and refines one’s own energy, and partner work where the student develops his ability to interact with the energy of another person. The solo work connects you to yourself and the partner work connects you with another. Each practice stimulates, feeds and requires the other, and ideally an equal amount of time would be spent on each every day.
The world we live in is a world of relationships. Obviously some of the relationships we have are deeper and more important to us than others. The most important one is with your teacher because this is your lifeline. The next most important would be with your soul-mate (if you are lucky enough to have one) – that person with whom you have something essential and deep in common and whose company nourishes you as yours nourishes them – that person to whom you feel most connected. If you are devoted and committed to the search for connectedness then the chances are that those you feel closest to are going to be devoted and committed to the same thing. This doesn’t mean that they will necessarily study with the same teacher or even that they will acknowledge a spiritual dimension to their life. However, it will mean that they live for connectedness beyond all else, even if they are not aware of this. These people will be naturally open, passionate and unselfish. This last word is one my teacher uses a lot. Any selfishness, whether self-importance, self-centredness, indulgence of any sort, or just plain meanness of spirit, is the main impediment to our progress. A connection can be thought of as a conduit between you and the other. This connection only has meaning if you give into this conduit. Giving is what strengthens connectedness. So the search for connectedness, on one level anyway, is simply the struggle to give from the heart more and more (see note below). There should be an unconditional constancy to this giving connectedness. It involves giving energetically in a steady continuous way to the connections one has regardless of whether they are felt or not. It is not a conscious or a sensed process, it just is, and as such is mysterious and divine. It is what my teacher calls joining the human race.
The difficulty we all have is to become a good student, that is one that neither mocks nor vacillates, but instead perseveres with steadiness and purpose in their efforts to become better connected, ostensibly to the teaching, but, in truth, to everything – the natural process itself.
"The natural process is the process of continuous communication between the entities that make up our world" JRK
"The natural process is the way or manner things unfold, fold back on themselves, and seem to progress when gazed at softly." JRK
Two words spring to mind here: joining and becoming. Joining to what is there: the other person, or the situation, or the flow of directed energy we call destiny, or, indeed, the natural process, and then, through that joining, becoming something better than we usually are. This is called magic: in Tai Chi we call it yielding. To join properly we must listen. To listen properly we must be really interested otherwise the energy we are confronted by will not be stimulated enough to want to come in our direction and engage in the act of communication. That is, being passionately interested is the key to being attractive enough for the world to come to you and happen for you. The more you give the more you get back. Active listening – listening energy we call it in Tai Chi. As communication ensues we continue to listen as we give, and the two entities become joined and connected. This is called oneness and is a life transforming moment and process. This is the fruit of our labour – the fulfilment that comes from true oneness.
The world we live in is a world of relationships. Obviously some of the relationships we have are deeper and more important to us than others. The most important one is with your teacher because this is your lifeline. The next most important would be with your soul-mate (if you are lucky enough to have one) – that person with whom you have something essential and deep in common and whose company nourishes you as yours nourishes them – that person to whom you feel most connected. If you are devoted and committed to the search for connectedness then the chances are that those you feel closest to are going to be devoted and committed to the same thing. This doesn’t mean that they will necessarily study with the same teacher or even that they will acknowledge a spiritual dimension to their life. However, it will mean that they live for connectedness beyond all else, even if they are not aware of this. These people will be naturally open, passionate and unselfish. This last word is one my teacher uses a lot. Any selfishness, whether self-importance, self-centredness, indulgence of any sort, or just plain meanness of spirit, is the main impediment to our progress. A connection can be thought of as a conduit between you and the other. This connection only has meaning if you give into this conduit. Giving is what strengthens connectedness. So the search for connectedness, on one level anyway, is simply the struggle to give from the heart more and more (see note below). There should be an unconditional constancy to this giving connectedness. It involves giving energetically in a steady continuous way to the connections one has regardless of whether they are felt or not. It is not a conscious or a sensed process, it just is, and as such is mysterious and divine. It is what my teacher calls joining the human race.
The difficulty we all have is to become a good student, that is one that neither mocks nor vacillates, but instead perseveres with steadiness and purpose in their efforts to become better connected, ostensibly to the teaching, but, in truth, to everything – the natural process itself.
"The natural process is the process of continuous communication between the entities that make up our world" JRK
"The natural process is the way or manner things unfold, fold back on themselves, and seem to progress when gazed at softly." JRK
Two words spring to mind here: joining and becoming. Joining to what is there: the other person, or the situation, or the flow of directed energy we call destiny, or, indeed, the natural process, and then, through that joining, becoming something better than we usually are. This is called magic: in Tai Chi we call it yielding. To join properly we must listen. To listen properly we must be really interested otherwise the energy we are confronted by will not be stimulated enough to want to come in our direction and engage in the act of communication. That is, being passionately interested is the key to being attractive enough for the world to come to you and happen for you. The more you give the more you get back. Active listening – listening energy we call it in Tai Chi. As communication ensues we continue to listen as we give, and the two entities become joined and connected. This is called oneness and is a life transforming moment and process. This is the fruit of our labour – the fulfilment that comes from true oneness.
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