Meditating with three students yesterday. A half hour session. They sat still, good as gold, better than expected. When we finished I asked how it was. They all admitted that their external stillness belied inner turmoil. They all found it difficult. One said for the last ten minutes or so she had wanted to scream out aloud. And yet she didn't. And this is the point. If you're sitting still then part of you is at peace, just not the part you are used to attending to – your thinking agitated mind. That thinking mind is not us. It is only a tiny part of us. If anything, the worst part of us. If you feel this and wish to become aware of the bigger mind then meditation is the most direct path. You cannot theorise about meditation, you can only do it. No words, just practice.

The more it stays to itself while giving over to the pull, the more ignites.

when a student tells me how much they've practised it usually indicates a rare event

erotic rather than carnal

ego barricades against god / real / unconscious / unknowable

The idea of discipline is that you're doing something you don't want to do. There must be that reluctance/resistance otherwise there's no real work – no spirit.

all time is damp with beginning

dancing to a tune called taiji

meditation: keeping track of time

practice takes you deeper than self

intelligent enough to intuit the severe limitations of intelligence

My sense of discipline is to accept the process and not interfere.

unset the jaw and let the cranial plates float

now that reminds me of a story

the good student is insatiably hungry – not for knowledge or teaching but to practise

Spirit is the energy of connexion but also the energy of contention. People find this difficult to understand but it simply states the essence of Daoism.

we never exit from our hermeneutic circles

psychosis is preferable to neurosis

in the fullness of time

internal teaching is couched in stories

the natural function of the head is not to think but to praise

what is the human soul
but a claw pointing back
to the forest

a true centre is always quiet and still : that's how we know it's true

entertain the inevitability of death

entertain the possibility of madness

When an internal teaching reveals itself then believe me you are obliged to practice. And if you don't, there will be a price to pay.

A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet.

find the point of balance – the true centre
if you can't put yourself there then everything is off

knowledge is a poor substitute for energy

ego thinks it's an exception to the rule

YIELD

the giving way

Do not wait for inspiration – it will come if you just get started.

simply slow down and reset

open up
close down

heat up
cool down

nothing fills us with joy like the
opportunity to exercise discipline

Each object hides in a metaphor.

breath bridges mind & body
energy bridges real & imaginary

to think (to itself) the mind must close

what lends us presence is a quiet attentive mind

A good actor doesn't simply play the role, they become the role.

we must consider ecology even more than the individual

the shortest path from small self to big self is always through the other

keep it fresh

rotate crops for a bigger yield

Body is external and mind internal. This is the definition of these two terms. The real and the ideal. For the average person, the internal has become a morass of thoughts, emotions, opinions, resentments, enclosed in an impermeable shell of hardness. Ego. This is not real mind, but may be all we are aware of most of the time.

perception
shades into
participation

every now and then
turn over the ground

listen with energy to energy

yield is a becoming round
attack a becoming straight

In Taiji the mind has two modes of functioning: attention and intention.

Attention is a patient listening presence. Its listening encourages (enheartens), especially intention. Mind as empty space full of expectancy. Meditative mind.

Intention is the beginning of action. Mind from which form ensues. It is sensual rather than decisive. You may be unaware that it comes from you. A natural intelligence, neither logical nor rational.

for centuries, knowledge has been pursued as a defense against truth

the critical mind will always do what it does best: find fault

an on-going expansion of compassion for the world and detachment from the world

regress:
before ego
before language
before birth
before conception
before race
before species
before life
before existence

It is not enough to be in the moment. You must actively pour yourself into it. Flow into it. From what has happened and into what is about to happen.

To be alone I find it necessary to escape the present—I avoid myself.

practice (work) uses knowledge (method) to reveal (uncover) the real (reality)

an erotic sense of reality

a positivity that is really just an intense openness

Prayer, for us, is a silent engagement with Central Equilibrium.

The ego without discipline is closed, it tends to close in on its emotions. Discipline is what ruins all that closure. With it one can open up to the outside, as well as to the inside.

I read not to exercise critical faculties but to learn to live better.

respect the teaching by practising
disrespect the teaching by not practising

日々是好日

nichinichi kore kōnichi

every day is a good day

Practice reveals truth. Without practice you have to take someone else's word for it.