I was just pulling some books out of my stacks because we’re going to visit relatives today — being from a family of readers we trade books back and forth every so often.

My hand found Zen Body-Being by Peter Ralston (with Laura Ralston).  I first encountered Peter Ralston many years ago through his book The Art of Effortless Power.  Not an “easy” book by any stretch of the imagination.  Even assuming I understood any of it, I wasn’t personally attracted to Peter’s hybrid Taijiquan/Aikido methods… though it would seem to be an effective approach, and I’ve never heard anyone claim that Ralston is anything but a first-class martial artist.

But that “effortless power” tag grabbed me just as the author hoped it would.  I’m still trying to learn about effort-wise power as opposed to spendthrift power, which I once specialized in.

I’d like to quote from this book and thus build a little blog post for myself, but the copyright is designed to dissuade me — as with several other really good books I’ve found which deal with zen-mind and zen-body.  Steal my art if you can, but hands off my intellectual property, please.  It’s an important principle.  However I did open the book at random today and found this quote ascribed to the Buddha, which I must share:

“The foot feels the foot when it feels the ground.”

This is terrific, and in view of what I posted yesterday I thank Mr. Ralston for helping me find it.

The first thing I ever read by Thich Nhat Hahn was Peace is every Step.  Pretty much the first Buddhist, Zen material I ever read, for that matter.  Way back then, the writings seemed wise but pointed to a pretty strict path which seemed a little scary and possibly dangerous to a lot of old baggage.  Thankfully, time going by has helped me to be less afraid of the message that pointed to hard choices.

Thanks for reading the world’s least informative multi-book review.  When I perform Wardoff-Left and its base-is, Yang bow step… with or without broken arms… I’ll be trying to keep in mind what I stand upon.

Oh, I almost forget, I discovered some notes I wrote on the title page of Zen Body-Being:

Path-finder: step out, GO there.  Phrase: “meeting of minds”; usually portrayed as big breakthrough, accomplishment.  Viewed another way, highlights a crisis.  Mind is seen as king-in-castle, lordly behind moats and walls and guards, deigning to “descend” only to gain advantage or display noble graciousness.

Contrast: Pathfinder — travel light out-of-doors; seek new horizons; don’t imagine dangers or gains; approach & examine all surroundings.