basic & beautiful

A conviction that you work from divine command rather than choice, and to neglect the work would offend the gods.

When I used to work with my teacher, very occasionally, maybe twice a year, in the heat of a really intense moment, my legs would buckle beneath me and I would collapse. It would happen very suddenly, but I would always get the sense that it was a terrified response to an immensity that had suddenly appeared, and then as quickly disappeared. I now realise that that was Reality – a total openness – and the work is all about becoming strong and sober enough to live in that realm (or at least very close by) permanently.

Work is its own cure. You have to
like it better than being loved.

Charming, enchanting, bewitchingly so, to secure connexion, then incisively ruthless. Yield & attack.

the knowledge that you know nothing

the work cuts through mood to reveal energy

Instead of 'attack,' think of pouring into the world.
Instead of 'yield,' think of containing the world.
This is our thinking: intending rather than worrying.

There is no Space or Time
Only Intensity!

most spiritual work I've encountered lacks one vital ingredient: spirit

bristle with attentiveness

Spiritual work starts when the mind stops. I've said this before and, I dare say, I'll say it again.

Consider a seed patient in the earth. Rain triggers growth. The seed's first act is to send a root down, gathering nutrients, so a shoot can thrust up. Gravity doesn't do the work. Gravity simply allows the seed to tell up from down. 

In the human body it is the same. Dantien/mingmen is the seed. Our root actively drives down from here so our spirit can thrust up. Gravity won't do the work for you. It assists but you still have to actively drive down through the legs and into the ground. Only then can a free spirit reach up the spine for the stars.

God is Reality without actuality and we are actuality without reality.

present tensions & conflicts worldwide are an inevitable result of overpopulation – it's only going to get worse

most qigong I've encountered lacks one vital ingredient, namely, qi

we use mind for meditation intuition belief rather than thinking

Keep to a yielding mind: ready to yield rather than already having yielded. Proceed by melting into flow: open & reaching out like an amoeba.

down he goes, as if / dreaming gravity’s smoothest dream

afterworld: the biggest picture

high arousal

the most radical position nowadays is to be without opinion

I'm basically lazy: I love (more than anything) just sitting there (here) – doing nothing.

Poetry is not the record of an event: it is an event.

in meditation, posture is everything

ego never listens

let yourself go
go to pieces

Prayer opens a channel between the heart and God. God is a sense of something beyond what I can possibly know. Something for which, in my quietest moments, I realise that I long to rejoin.

I was born with a divine jewel
Long since filmed with dust.
This morning, wiped clean, it mirrors
Streams and mountains, without end.

when mind settles in dantien
and heart opens & yearns
—for god, for love, for home—
then head becomes a starburst

shrug off that chip on the shoulder

keep posture fluid: maintained by the flow of energy through it rather than a held stiffness

When you listen do you hear only what you expect to hear or do you dare to hear what's there?

All’s harmony, yet everything is separate.

slough that chip on the shoulder

ego assumes it knows

the sage cannot take sides : endlessly navigating the space between

mind empty of thoughts 

heart full with longing 

spirit a flickering flame

All feeling has been civilized out of me.

like a river about to burst its banks

religious about practice
suspicious of theory

pumped: filled with energetic excitement and enthusiasm

Part of you adheres religiously to a system whilst another part of you dreams of breaking free.

The important thing is that your work be something no one else could do.

nothing corrupts posture as a heavy heart

making drudgery divine

the gradual effacement of oneself

Forcing the world to a rational image goes against spirit. It may bring order for a while but will ultimately be a disaster.

We must travel in the direction of our fear.

something that simply exists without ego or intentions

zìrán  自然  nature

feel cranium sacrum sternum as composite – each made of parts – and let the parts move play dance – if only a little

Most have an overactive mind and a heart hidden beneath rigid layers of fear – conditioning and comformity. Spiritual work endeavours to bring a settled stillness to the mind and a repining restlessness to the heart – a longing for home.

The world is not what I think, but what I live.

instead of incessantly talking to yourself and reinforcing ego rather talk to god and ask for help

no borders

wúxiàn  無限  infinite

spiritual is the yearning heart
reaching for god
for home

free of desire we see subtleties
not free we see only things

ego is the fearful mind
reducing everything
to me & mine

patience is the ground of maturity

an arduous journey from head to heart; no distance at all

Do your homework otherwise the teacher will get bored, and the teaching/learning process will grind to a halt.

Man is ruining the pleasant earth & man.

the student's readiness makes the teaching tumble forth

speculation is for idle minds

far better practise wrong than not at all

Karma is Newton's 3rd law of motion (for every action there is an equal & opposite reaction) playing out over time.

I do not understand; but I believe.

little clues everywhere if only you pay attention

the work both matures and renews

feet like limpets

Civilisation, by pushing away nature, Earth's and our own, cows the spirit into submission. We think our modern lives rich and diverse, full of reasonable choices, but in actuality we are weaker, more limited and more dependent than ever.

nor petrify live miracle by our indifference

timeliness & timelessness

come out to play

a spiritual life simply places god (dao dharma) centre-stage instead of self

When, during meditation, you begin to look at it, you realise that the internal monologue is an indulgence in self-pity.

I am like a tree in a forest, full of leaves, blossoms and fruit. Birds come to eat and nest, and animals seek rest in its shade. Yet the tree does not know itself. It follows its own nature. It is as it is.

mind must become quiet & still so that energy can build up and start to move of its own, directed not by you but by spirit

touchy-feely

stillness ἡσυχία hesychia
spiritedness θυμός thymos

Stillness. Mind in dantien. The stillness of my mind. But the reason I become still is not to retreat and disconnect from the world, but so my listening can probe into the world.

If I am anything at all, I am
the instrument of the world's passion and not
the doer or the done to. It is to feel.
You, also, are such an instrument.

everything done tactfully – as though with touch

dantien draws into itself

ripples up & down the spine

Talking silently to oneself is akin to self-abuse – masturbation. It stagnates energy and corrupts posture. Nothing at all like talking aloud with the other.

Virtue is a pre-requisite for concentration.

our work stokes the inner fire and enflames the spirit

assuage with touch

vision: outlook & insight

Whenever we touch something then energy flows both ways across the interface. Feel this intimacy, and cultivate a mind that encourages the flow. This I call enthusiasm.

Pain is intense sensation, and sensation is nothing but reality perceiving itself.

reality is my intense engagement with the world
a living, ongoing, process of transformation

meditation as incubation

on your mettle: no time to think, reason or argue

Ego, whenever it gets the chance, will bask. In it's own glory or it's own misery, it make no difference.

Although I have worked hard to decolonize my work and heart, it is a work in progress.

more like a feeding animal than a rational human being

without taking a risk you won't reach the edge