The Other precisely reveals himself in his alterity not in a shock negating the I, but as the primordial phenomenon of gentleness.

Emmanuel Levinas

the wisdom of love rather than the love of wisdom

The text that deserves the closest reading is that of our own intuitions.

One of our struggles is to ensure that belief and love – the two cornerstones of spiritual work – do not become mere habits of self-inflicted suffering; that is, habits of avoidance. Our work – whatever we do – should always affirm life; that is, fill us with joy.

Desire: await what the stars will bring.

the issue is never to reduce the unconscious or to interpret it or to make it signify . . . the issue is to produce the unconscious, and with it new statements, different desires

Deleuze & Guattari

Look into all hearts

Plumb the dark and deepest: eschew the clear light (of the ego).

Language is not first a matter of communication, but of alteration.

Erik Mortenson

In Tai Chi we speak of "rooting" – attaching ourselves to the ground with roots of energy that extend from the soles of the feet. In fact it is more accurate to think of the legs themselves being roots – aerial roots – that drop down from the base of our trunk, and the arms being either adventitious roots – extending out to find alternative paths to support – or tendrils reaching to grasp and pull, either to claim and consume or to haul the body forward.

The meaning of life is to come alive, and meaning dwindles as I refuse the demands of life's intensity.

the important thing above all is not to understand, the important thing is to take on the rhythm

Gilles Deleuze

Just right

absolute faith: the acceptance of being accepted

Paul Tillich

Don't lose touch

A thing only exists, usefully, effectively, in relation to other things – connexion makes it real. When I understand this deeply then I can let go of my fearful sense of self – the congealed entity that says no to every adventure – and dissolve into connexion. This, so spiritual discipline tells us, is the only real way to reveal and cleanse spirit – cleanse it of the anger and neuroses that, on coarser levels, seem to fuel it.

like the call of a voice the call of a voice that is not there

John Taggart

Photo: Rita Harris

Meaning is always present. It is the spirit in the moment. When I yield it enters me and brings me into itself. I then become infused, and thereby integral to natural design. It is not my job to know Nature, let alone control or use her, but to become a willing part – to be natural. Do I need a deeper meaning than this?

To play is to delight in the tension of connexion.

Natural and unnatural tension. The tension of connexion and the tension of imposed order.

Photo: Corinna

the opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it's conformity . . . and the opposite of love is not hate, it is apathy

Rollo May

Meaning is in connexion.

Spoilt for choice

What has passed, has gone;
What is past, will come.

Martin Heidegger

Simply respond : a physical response

Lightness – relaxing into creative expression.

All the beauty I wish for
Here at my feet

Jeffery Beam

Gentle Nature reveals herself when I am quiet and still. Small creatures emerge and enjoy my company. (It is alarming how we smother and scatter with a bumptious presence.) Similarly, my own Nature manifests only when I am completely still. This energy gradually thaws the frozen sea inside, and more and more of me becomes the moment. An ax in whatever form – books, teaching, inspiration – can only break the ice for it to refreeze around the ax. Ego always claims experience – perverting it to ensure its own continuance.

to bring the world to light as it is before any falling back on ourselves has occurred

Maurice Merleau-Ponty

heart of gold, nerves of steel

quashed time

What late fire-dragons
fume from my body
What purples
What frosts

Jeffery Beam

If we relax into the forces operating upon us then they will always stimulate – seemingly generate – spirit, which is not just the energy to deal with them but the energy to create and to understand. Gradually the veil lifts – the fog disperses – and we have a choice: whether to see more clearly or connect more deeply – rest on our laurels or dive in further. In reality spirit wont give us that choice.

Gravity and spirit – the two dominant forces in life. Attraction – energy drawing into the centre, and extension – energy driving out from the centre.

To create – investigate how spirit uses the materials and makes the future.

anything
         has to be easy enough
                    to get done

Larry Eigner

To remember – revive and reintegrate the past. Because I can only let go of a past that is resolved.

When I am fully present the space I fill cannot contain me, and thus I am thrust from this moment into the next.

Let the brush be relaxed and the heart be at ease.

Chang Dai-Chen

Progress – the onward march – means that day by day I move forward – improve. The good student feels this and so trusts (relaxes into) the process of progress – work.

The reason I suffer is because I cannot let go of the conviction that my suffering maintains and sustains my world. And in a way this conviction is true – my world depends upon my suffering. When I finally decide to stop suffering then my world will disintegrate – fall apart around me – and I will begin to experience the real world: a much more daunting prospect than living in the measly one of my own making. Until this happens everything remains an idea and I actually experience nothing.

Would then define the pelvis as cathartic region prime undulation, ultimate communion, internal while life is becoming, visible physical conversation between all body's limbs: Rhythm is life the space of time danced thru.

Cecil Taylor

Control is abuse

Spirit as a consequence of immersion

awakening the mind’s attention from the lethargy of custom

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Disobeyal is a better habit than obeyance.

True connexion is both democratic and liberating. It has nothing to do with control – neither obeys the other, but both serve the connexion.

That stubborn refusal to let go.

The key is not the material, but the action, the belief, the commitment.

Art Lange on Cecil Taylor

Transformation means I change shape

Root out tension

still I felt no fear . . . my wonder seeking happiness had no room for it

John Clare