It is the contention of spiritual work that the only structure life needs is that provided naturally by the outpouring of energy from the heart. This is what we call Faith. Adam's fall was realising that mind is smart enough to cheat the process. Our return to grace is simply a reversal of his turn.

Energy is the substance of pure communication. Always lightning quick, and certainly before words, which are vain attempts to slow down the process so that the mind can control it.

"I try to play the way a cat jumps. It must be completely natural. I have promised myself that whenever I feel a kind of routine creeping into my playing, I will stop. Now when I play I am almost in ecstasy, a creative ecstasy, which I wouldn't miss for anything. This is what I live for."

I wonder if there's a prize for getting it wrong in the right way?

mutant throbs & agile edits

"I give the world what I feel in my heart, and that's the end of it."

"Freedom needs to be redefined, not as the isolated decision of self-present human agents, but as the power to affirm all those powers beyond ourselves that only an expanded perception can approach."

The function of thought is not to solve problems but to reveal, expose and create them. By living with a problem – immersed in it – working with it – our energy slowly adjusts and adapts, and solutions arise, as if by magic. Any research scientist will tell you so. And this, for me, is the only lesson that needs to be learnt: that as long as I persist and refuse to retreat, a solution – a resolution – will come. We call this the cadential structure of learning.

When you have to cheat to win, you lose.

I have two friends who are heavy-duty meditators. One sits cross legged on a cushion and the other sits on a hard low chair with his feet flat on the ground. They both, of course, insist that their way is best, but what is obvious to me, when I observe them, is that they would both benefit greatly from switching to the others method. There's a principle in there somewhere I suspect.

Life, as we all know, is a constant struggle against the forces of depression – external and internal – that bear down upon us and make our hearts heavy. Taiji recommends yielding rather than resisting: taking a stand and turning those forces around so that they work instead to lighten and lift the heart.

Before studying Zen, men are men and mountains are mountains. Whilst studying Zen, men are no longer men and mountains are no longer mountains. After studying Zen, men are men again and mountains are mountains. This Zen story is true of all spiritual work. Before studying, the mind and being of the prospective student have a certain organisation built around habits picked up through the course of their life. The study of Zen, or whatever, aims to de-organise: break old habits and patterns so that more natural, less ego based ones can take their place. It is rather like renovating an apartment: during renovations all the furniture and belongings have to be put into storage so that walls can be knocked down, extensions built, etc. Afterwards everything is put back in place and life continues pretty much the same but structurally everything is different.

Only from the pure source.

Dignity arises from the conviction that I am neither body nor mind but spirit.

Sinking is always by virtue of what rises within me.

Each step forward, if the sacrum is in, will kick the head upward and backward. The secret here – the invisible ingredient – is tension in the perineum. Without it the hips will not release sufficient to allow the knees to lead the lower body.

My ambition, if I have one, is to love God the way a tree loves God: simply, by virtue of posture; without question.

"The air thin and pure, danger near at hand, and the spirit full of a joyful wickedness: these things go well together."