31 March 2020
You know that sensation of seeing something you recognize and then the light shifts or you shift and you realize it's actually something quite different? The mind prefering the familiar to the strange? Well, I suspect, on some level, that is happening all the time. We live in the midst of a reality our lazy conditioned minds refuse to see.
30 March 2020
29 March 2020
More than anything, my daughter loves me to read to her. And the only books she's ever taken to were first the Enid Blyton books written in the fifties and now the first Nancy Drew series which was written in the thirties. And I can tell that what appeals is that the children from those times had a degree of freedom from their parents that children don't have now that we keep tabs on their every move. In those days children didn't just have adventures but everything was an adventure. They were open to the unexpected because they were largely free of expectations. And it's interesting to me that she refuses to watch movie versions of the books: "I prefer the version in my imagination."
28 March 2020
27 March 2020
Relaxation and tension belong together. A pair of complimentary opposites. Relaxation without tension is flaccid, dispersed and collapsed. Tension without relaxation is rigid, frozen and brittle. They inform each other and balance each other. They work together, and this work we call play. Play expends energy but also generates energy. At its best, play is elastic and ecstatic. Together and connected yet flexible and free – unpredictable.
26 March 2020
25 March 2020
24 March 2020
23 March 2020
22 March 2020
Out for a stroll with Tai this morning – catching the blissful Winter sun – she asked:
—Dad, what are your Seven Wonders of the World?
—The pyramids, the Grand Canyon? Things like that?
—No, anything. The most important things – for you.
After pondering for a few seconds I said:
—Existence, God, Nature, Spirit, Life, Connexion, Love-Soul.
—Dad, what are your Seven Wonders of the World?
—The pyramids, the Grand Canyon? Things like that?
—No, anything. The most important things – for you.
After pondering for a few seconds I said:
—Existence, God, Nature, Spirit, Life, Connexion, Love-Soul.
φύσις κρύπτεσθαι φιλεῖ. Nature loves to hide. Hide from us anyway, because we are no longer in any way natural. If we want nature to unconceal herself then we must hide away, turn away, look away, all the while listening, ostensibly with ears, but actually with our energy, and, in particular, our spirit.
21 March 2020
As my weight fills a leg the thigh muscle tightens and the hamstring slackens. The relaxed hamstring becomes a refuge for the mind, allowing energy to suddenly appear in the opposite region of the body. So, weight in left leg, mind in left hamstring, energy in the region around the right shoulder/ear. Castaneda said that one's personal history resides in the hamstrings, and that they must be worked to loosen the grip that history has on us.
20 March 2020
19 March 2020
bamboo shoot
on its way to becoming bamboo
how honest of it!
Today again, must get myself in shape, make preparations so I’m ready to die any time.
boiled tofu
eating it alone
it wobbles
got this far
drink some water
and go on
on its way to becoming bamboo
how honest of it!
Today again, must get myself in shape, make preparations so I’m ready to die any time.
boiled tofu
eating it alone
it wobbles
got this far
drink some water
and go on
18 March 2020
17 March 2020
Our first intention was to capture the wonder of childhood boredom, when you are left on your own, doing nothing.
16 March 2020
15 March 2020
14 March 2020
You know that sensation when you come out of a body of water – bath, pool, ocean – of the water not wanting you to leave and actively pulling you back? I suspect that's our first memory: leaving the womb. In Taiji our sense of home – the long lost home – is that undistracted feeling of warm fluid connectivity and continuity that we had in utero, rather than any autochthonic sense of place.
13 March 2020
I have no confidence the book's ambition will be met, but hold a conviction that the effort it pursues must be taken up as a way of life.
There's a lot of bullshit flying around regarding COVID-19 – from killing it by drinking hot tea to flushing if from the throat to the stomach with fluids – so here's my take:
Whilst one can and should take preventative measures – washing hands frequently, avoiding crowded places – once the virus is in your body there is only one thing that can fight it and that is your own body, in particular your own immune system. So take sensible steps to tonify the body and its immune system:
Above all, stay positive, be cheerful, help others and don't be fearful.
Whilst one can and should take preventative measures – washing hands frequently, avoiding crowded places – once the virus is in your body there is only one thing that can fight it and that is your own body, in particular your own immune system. So take sensible steps to tonify the body and its immune system:
- Externally, with exercise – running and walking being the easiest. And if you can exercise mindfully – without headphones, paying attention to the body, breathing, heartbeat – then all the better. Catch the sun: there is nothing healthier than the winter sun so get as much of it as you can. The sea: the salt sea air is naturally invigorating and strengthening so make at least one weekly pilgrimage to the seashore.
- Internally, with diet – add foods that are bitter, astringent or a little pungent: garlic, ginger, lemon, grapefruit (all citrus), apples, lettuce, radish, cabbage, spinach, chilli (a little), aduki beans, spring onions, bitter olive oil, seaweed, green tea. Avoid foods that mask bitter and sour, especially sweeteners, salt and seasonings, and dairy produce. Avoid tobacco, alcohol and anything stronger. Take a good (expensive) multi vitamin/mineral supplement.
- Spiritually, with prayer, meditation or any sincere selfless activity. How can prayer help the immune system? The centre for the immune system is the thymus gland in the upper chest just behind the sternum. So prayer, which lifts this area upwards, – ostensibly to God but that doesn't really matter – focuses the mind and energy in the thymus.
Above all, stay positive, be cheerful, help others and don't be fearful.
12 March 2020
11 March 2020
First this not that, then that not this, but eventually – correctly – this and that. This is because work moves me – shifts both position and perspective – so that what was this becomes that as I inevitably steer towards what I struggle against. After years of this eternal oscillation we lose self and goal – enter no-man's land – and become the copula, free of both subject and compliment. Am is all that's left.
10 March 2020
Meditation cultivates a mood of contented peace and quiet. With practice this becomes our base mood – our foundation – which we can call upon, come what may. Once we realise that peace of mind is always within our grasp, other moods become a relatively simple matter to evoke. So, for example, a mood of cheerful playfulness is often the most appropriate for Taiji.
09 March 2020
08 March 2020
07 March 2020
06 March 2020
05 March 2020
04 March 2020
03 March 2020
02 March 2020
When I see someone meditating in full lotus it's clear that something quite different is going on. The posture, with strong lumbar spine and soles facing up, is like a springboard bouncing energy upward from the ground. And this, for me, is real meditation. Not going inside to find oneself but simply being an instrument for beaming energy up to heaven. Doing a simple job of work.