01 August 2020

It's always the junctures – those places where something changes – those are the important places. It's not the smooth steady state places in between… People don't know how to concentrate anymore. Most people's concentration is so hard and anxious that it blots out all energy. And then as soon as they get distracted – either I say something or their mind is drawn to something else happening in the room – suddenly, for a fraction of a second, they get it right. And then of course it goes. So it's those places where you get distracted, or where your mind wanders a little, those are the important places. In a sense the places I'm unaware of, those are where energy manifests. This is why it's not a simple matter of being aware – you have to be aware with the right mind. If you're aware with the normal anxious mind then it's the death of energy. Which is why mindfulness is so difficult – because you want to be mindful – full of mind – but full of the right mind not full of the wrong one. For most of us, all our problems stem from the fact that we are full of the wrong mind. Full of anxiety and noise. The prize in taiji is light mind – it's the most difficult thing to produce. And we do produce it naturally but usually when we are unawares… If you were to suddenly become enlightened, Heaven forbid, what would strike you is how that experience, that feeling, that understanding, has been with you your whole life and you've just ignored it. It's been there waiting to leap in and take over but you've pushed it out. The thinking anxious mind constantly pushes out reality and replaces reality with an image that it prefers.

1 comment

taiji heartwork said...

From a Zoom class I taught day before last.