poor students, basically work shy, like to convince themselves that they already know

The Earth is obviously a support – something we spring up from in our spirited aspect. But it is also a sink – something which draws us down and in – always willing to soak up our stress and anxiety if only we stop resisting.

We only see the lightning when we place ourselves in the thunderstorm of being.

immediate action – action unmediated by mind

tend the temple

practice doesn't heal the wound, it keeps it open

The big breakthrough comes when we finally commit to the choiceless life, the Internal life, the life of spirit. And in a sense we approach asymptotically: ever getting closer but never quite reaching.

destiny (reverberating between provenance and destination)

My teacher once said that he wished to train up incorruptibles. Nowadays it would be a tall order to train undistractables.

each flash of insight a stepping stone to the next

fog & yearning

a mind empty of thoughts & words
a heart brimming with feeling & love

on a deep winter’s night, when a wild, pounding snowstorm rages around the hut and veils and covers everything, that is the elevated time for philosophy…

what makes an event real is the depth and intensity of our involvement in it

progress is going deeper and deeper into essence

if you wish to go deep into the internal then the core of your practice must be meditation

I can only teach poets. When my teacher said this to me he didn't mean writers of poetry necessarily but those who dwell poetically – those who feel, respect and honour spirit in their daily lives.

The poet sings the traces of the flown gods.

each careless footfall damages spine, root and earth

relax and listen to the fascia sing

as the air caresses you, so you should caress the ground

When will I begin to feel energy?
When you learn to relax the mind.

All development is an emergence.

live your moments with intensity, joy and power

truth is embodied, not stated

the root is an energetic projection of the spine through the heel and into the ground

I started Taiji because I desperately wanted a worthy pursuit – something that would consume me forever. This in common with my teacher.

It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.

we think the world 

we live the real

off the beaten track the ground is softer

anxiety is a particularly insidious form of pollution

if we think it so then it cannot be so 

in this sense our choice-driven lives are phoney

Glancing is a way of regarding that does not objectify, but that releases.

protecting against danger will also protect from destiny

as you walk, tend the earth

quieting the mind returns you to your true nature

Hankering after distraction may keep you entertained and happy, but it also keeps you pathetically puerile.

only by keeping alive the strangeness of that other person can the erotic last

if you need to know then this work is not for you

keeping on the toes

becoming parasite

Let the mind settle & swell into the fullness of the body. This is relaxation. It will only happen when you let go of anxiety.

My child, live so that you do not need to be ashamed of yourself; speak your word such that everyone has to say about you that one can rely upon you; and do not forget that creating joy creates joy for yourself. Learn in good time that in all matters hunger spices up the fare, and flee comfortableness because it makes life pale. You should sometime do something great: for that purpose, you must first become something great.

the best favour you can do someone is to use them well – it thrusts them into their energy and presence – demands spirit

but abuse is terrible

reach beyond self

before—between—beyond

never be afraid to take it up a level, gear, notch

To unlearn our oppositions – is the task.

spirit invests the world with spirit—life
self tramples—trammels—all it encounters

a soulful life

tiāndì 天地 : heaven & earth (world, universe, nature)

Adam & Eve chose to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, which thrust them into consciousness and thereby self and thereby separation. If instead they had chosen to eat from the Tree of Life (which was probably a giant mushroom) then they would have been thrust into heightened awareness and thereby spirit and thereby energy and equilibrium.

a unique phenomenological density disencumbered of all formal transcendentalism

this lifelong project of deconstructing ego

conspiring: simply breathing together

zìrán 自然 : so of itself (natural)

wake up a sense of place – abiding at the interface between heaven & earth – past & future

the superlative makes things weaker

comfortable = comfortably numb

loyalty to nature

only when the mind quietens do we perceive the immense intense richness of reality

use the attending mind to elasticize the play between aspiration (the reach of spirit out into the world) and limitation (the temptation to stay inside your shell)

dissolving into animals

Truth is your unique engagement with reality. The part of the world that cannot find expression without you.

quiet & alert

a stony stillness

it is a rare teacher indeed who can spark a change of heart (metanoia) in the student and an even rarer student with the courage to accept it

I know of no better life purpose than to perish in pursuing the great and the impossible: animae magnae prodigus.

the real work starts not when you join the school, the monastery, the orthodoxy, but when you leave it behind

become an original

we are all flatfooted

ego is a wealth of opinion

Happiness? Why should I strive for happiness? I strive for my work.

Pregnant women, ever mindful of the precious presence growing in their bellies, have the best Taiji. Their dantien is alive.

a cold reptilian ruthlessness

practice is about pressing your stamp into work & world and becoming transformed in the process

You don't become soft by practising softness. You become soft by developing the strength to let go of your hardness.