Listening

The mind that thinks does not listen, how can it? It does not create either, it fabricates. Creation brings new life into the world: fabrication brings new artifacts into the world. The part of you that listens is your energy. Your energy should be intimately bound up with your body – they should be as one. This is the function of Tai Chi – to make them as one. The thinking mind, because it cannot listen, is not natural – it is itself an artifact. We love it because it offers us choices and gives the illusion of freedom and independence. But it operates by dredging the past into the present, clogging and congesting any natural delightfulness – any energy – with its sticky weight. It is always more coarse and less delightful than what is naturally there. Any attempts to unify mind and energy must start from a point of emptying the mind of thinking so that energy can develop and fill that emptiness. The mind then becomes a sort of overseer – a beneficient manager whose sole function is to stay as far back as possible so that things – life – can take its natural course. If this happens then life has an immediacy and a total lack of arbitrariness that overwhelms your being at every turn. You are issued from each wave of immediacy cleansed and emptied – connected. More loved and more loving.