Connexion

A connexion is a point or channel of joining of two entities.

Communication is the passage of energy across a connexion.

A blocked connexion is one across which energy cannot pass.

An idle connexion is one across which energy can pass but does not.

A working connexion is one accommodating two-way traffic.

A healthy connexion is one where the passage of energy in one direction stimulates the passage of energy in the other direction.

When the energy in a healthy connexion starts to snowball we have the possibility of a third heart – the connexion-relationship-communication taking on a life of its own.

For a healthy relationship to last it must have a heart.

soul in process
meticulous detail

beyond the pale
nine lifetimes

darkness preying
but light to fore

Ronald Johnson

Work

Relaxation is letting go: expansion.
Tension is holding on: contraction.
Work is the interplay/alternation of relaxation and tension.

Matter is tense compared to energy. In fact any structure or form or organising principle is basically a tension: an anti-entropic force. In Tai Chi we try to relax completely, which means to remove the acquired tensions that mask the positive organising tensions of our physical and energetic structures. When we relax completely we fill our forms, and our potential – our ability to work and function correctly – our ability to be natural – becomes available to us. What we feel this form to be is always inaccurate, despite the power of foresight. Feelings and thoughts, unless they are released as soon as they come into being, are acquired tensions and as such they block channels of connexion making us far less than we could be.

Sinking

Holding feelings in – containing them – is harmful. It is not always possible to give them expression, but they, and their energy, can always be let out, and if they are not then they well up, congest and cut us off from our energetic environment (a wandering mind is just the internal expression of contained feelings). One outlet is through the feet. The two main seats of the feelings – the heart and the sacrum – correspond approximately to the ball of the foot and the heel respectively. Allowing these to relax and spread onto the ground achieves a direct connexion between the Earth and the heart and sacrum. The Earth's sink potential, the Earth's energy and the Earth's compassion can then become intimately bound up with the feelings, receiving and healing in turn. These connexions, and the flow of feeling and energy through these connexions, gradually strip both the heart and the sacrum of their armouring – their scar tissue. Maintaining openness is only possible with support. What better support than the Earth.

Feet

The foot corresponds to the hand: the four toes are the four fingers and the heel is the thumb.

When the foot is planted on the Earth the toes extend and spread so that the fleshy ball of the foot can press onto and into the Earth.

The connexion between the Earth and the bubbling-well point (the red spot in the diagram) corresponds to the heart.

The toes and heel open apart and sink, gripping the ground: embracing the connexion the bubbling-well point has with the Earth ��� effectively embracing the heart.

When we relax in Tai Chi, our energy flows down the spine, into the sacrum, and then down the leg and into the Earth through the heel.

A natural energy circuit is then from the crown, down the spine, sacrum, back of the leg, heel, then up through the bubbling-well point, up the front of the leg into the heart, throat, face and crown. This circuit tends to make the posture lean back slightly ��� it is effectively Cheng Man-ching's circuit.

The opposite circuit is also possible. Sinking down into the heel causes energy to kick back up from the heel into the sacrum, up the spine through the back of the heart and to the crown of the head. When the bubbling-well point is pushed into the Earth a connexion is made which feels like a spark of spirit. This spark suddenly opens the heart which achieves a spirited immediacy that wants to leap forwards and fight. The spark also sucks a veil of energy down the front of the body and into the Earth. This circuit tends to make the posture lean forwards aggressively and is more like that of traditional Yang style Tai Chi Chuan.

It is possible to have both circuits flowing without them canceling each other out. Like everything in Tai Chi, power comes from the interplay of seemingly opposing energies.

"From the traditions of Eastern medicine to the new discoveries of science, it is generally acknowledged that energy or 'life force' underlies all forms of life. It is now widely recognised that our energy can get 'stuck' in particular patterns. Every cell that makes up our bodies and minds holds memories of our experiences – not only from our childhood but going right back through our time in the womb to the moment we were conceived. When an experience affects us strongly, the thoughts, emotions and beliefs connected to that memory can set up energy patterns in which we become 'stuck'. In a sense, they keep us stuck in the past. These energy patterns can express themselves in a variety of ways, such as physical or mental illness, emotional problems, limiting attitudes and beliefs or repeating patterns of behaviour."

From a website on Metamorphic Technique

Sticking

We talk of planting the feet: the feet on the ground feel as though they are in the ground, toes spreading like extending roots, the sole of each foot receiving the Earth. It is an active feeling – almost as though the foot is greedy for the ground. Then the point of contact with the other – usually the hand but not necessarily so – takes on the same quality, and similarly enters and spreads into the other's body and energy. This is sticking: a natural consequence of correct rooting. The activity – that energetic feeling – must be constantly renewing itself otherwise the root withdraws. What this means technically is that the toes extend and curl, extend and curl – breathing. This is where the mind gets in the way: when it thinks, energetic activity effectively stops, we cease to be aware of our breathing and we enter a different reality, one not connected to anything outside or beyond itself. I was informed last night that in Judeaism sin is not just a movement away from God, it is any refusal of the ever-present path towards and into God. Sitting on the fence – the ubiquitous wandering mind – refusing to move forwards – getting stuck – is just as much a sin as misdemeanour. There is nothing passive about goodness or love – in fact they are more active than anything else.

To get in the ground the legs must stop pushing at it and must instead accept it. In fact the legs must accept the ground from below and the upper body from above – they have a lot of work to do, but it is a soft work – a work of acceptance and joining rather than that of pushing things apart. If the legs are tense then the problem is ultimately not with the legs – despite their apparent weakness – it is in the heart and mind – they both struggle with any new reality.

Chi Kung

This Qi Gong course may interest. I have no idea what it would be like so cannot recommend it, but it is interesting that such courses exist.

The truth of what happened is in the spirit of what is happening.

I can re

trac

my steps

Iwho

crawl

between thwarts

Do not come down the ladder

ifor I

haveaten

it a

way



Susan Howe

The truth of what happens is in the spirit of what is happening.

Connexion

A consequence of operating from the heart is that every action you make or take, no matter how trivial, is a movement into deeper, greater and more complete connexion. The first requirement for connexion is openness – something must open before that thread of connexion can reach out or in. The establishment and maintenance of the thread then gives a flavour or feeling of completeness to the openness – a resolution – a maturity – a fulfillment.

Heart and head

Don't you think it strange that some people you can meet only fleetingly and yet you feel so connected to them; and what's more strange, that connexion can deepen and grow without any further contact with that person? It is so important to feel the connexion and acknowledge it and allow it to grow – not resist its growth with ignorance or selfishness. It will probably grow without your being aware of it anyway, but awareness will always assist your movement towards inner peace. Peace comes with knowledge and awareness. Conflict arises from ignorance and the confusion brought about by only partial knowledge. Best to either know everything or know nothing. Partial knowledge means that there is also ignorance, and the problem with partial knowledge is that it offers a security that makes the insecurity of partial ignorance (knowing that you don't know) difficult to chose. We have a natural affinity to security and a natural aversion to insecurity. This situation poses a real and very deep problem to the student of Tai Chi. It is why so many students stop progressing, especially the ones who start teaching, despite the hours of practice they continue to devote to the art. What it boils down to is that the knowledge you house must be in your energy and your connectivity, and the temptation to bring that knowledge into the rational mind and make patterns, techniques and treatises about it, must be resisted. It is when the knowledge comes into your mind and you start to think you know because you can communicate about it, that you stop knowing where it really matters – in the heart. Those of us well-educated are far happier with mindful knowledge than heartful knowledge because it offers a way to outshine those around us. And yet the mind cannot connect, not usefully anyway, it is too slow and too separate – it connects to compete and not to join – it has no spiritual dimension. For all but the extremely advanced the heart and mind are almost mutually exclusive. Bringing them together is, in a sense, the task at hand. This task is only possible if you have the courage to chose the awareness that comes from knowing nothing – if you have the courage to stop knowing with the head and start connecting with the heart. The heart must become dominant – almost a bully – if our Tai Chi is going to be anything more than pat, flat Forms and lip service to connexion (which is what most partner work is).

ECHO

Broken heart, you
timeless wonder.

What a small
place to be.

True, true
to life, to life.


Robert Creeley

Poem

Sensitivity is an admission of defeat.

In the fullness of time.