Mind

The mind, simplistically, is an open field or ground of awareness containing the clutter of concentrations or tensions we call thoughts – conceptions and perceptions. In the East meditators attempt to eradicate the tensions and dwell blissfully in the open field of awareness. In the West thinkers concentrate so well and so hard that they create whole worlds of tension and remain largely oblivious to the ground upon which their worlds rest – preferring instead to claim reason and law (the ultimate tensions) as their foundation. In Tai Chi, as good Taoists, we interest ourselves in the elastic play between these two states – the process by which these islands form and then (hopefully) dissolve. Those that refuse to dissolve – traumas – then stick out like sore thumbs and can be whittled away – gently and persistently – until they reveal and release the hidden experience at their core. These experiences, often forgotten or repressed, have become handles or crutches upon which we stumble and limp through life long after the original wound has seemingly healed. Opening the wound is often painful – though exhilarating – but then learning to walk without the crutches is a real pain – back to square one – the humiliation of spiritual work.