INTO THE MYSTIC

Oh heck, here’s one more and then the computer must return to stillness.

http://www.wudangtao.com/wuji/

I don’t know too much about the “Wudang” school of taiji per se, but I liked the simple evocative things they write about here.  As with the quantum physics, when I read now about qi work and related issues I’m very pleased to realize that I have a sense of what is being discussed.

Do I know much?  Doubtful.  Like you, I know what I know when I know it.  And the reverse applies with equal force.

The wall that separates one thing from another, may be thick or thin.  Or it may be a gap, not a wall.

What are we caught up in?  Just life.  It contains all the beauty and mystery there is.       Is there an answer for every question?  Nice koan, that.

 

SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND… SOMETHING.

Thanks to Rick Matz of Cook Ding’s Kitchen (see blogroll links) I got to hear a great quote from Venerable Master Sheng-yen:

“Be soft in your practice. Think of the method as a fine silvery stream, not a raging waterfall. Follow the stream, have faith in its course. It will go its own way, meandering here, trickling there. It will find the grooves, the cracks, the crevices. Just follow it.Never let it out of your sight. It will take you there.”

And in looking for the source of this wisdom (upon which I hope to contemplate a bit) I found a blog called Tai Chi Cork http://taichicork.blogspot.com/

Tai Chi Cork offerred this advice which I agree with wholeheartedly:

“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was ‘Thank You’, that would suffice.”  -  Meister Eckhart

 

THE HEART OF THE MATTER

Thanks to an interesting discussion going on over at Formosa Neijia, I learned of this:

http://www.thebigview.com/buddhism/emptiness.html

This link came from here:

http://formosaneijia.com/2008/06/14/confusing-form-for-function/

I liked this comment (excerpt) from BL:  >>>”To reach formlessness one must have a form to be free from.”<<<

My analyzing mind thought: But, there’s another way to be formless, a very easy way.  Just have no form worth mentioning in the first place.  Presto!

But then you haven’t “reached” anything.  Not interested, can’t be bothered.  Even the craziest streetfighter rises above this level of who-needs-methods.

Rising above the base has its benefits.  And thus the martial arts were born.

But some philosophers tell us that what’s needed is not a departure, but a returning.

How to discover the truth?                                              

 

CONDITIONS

For the host to come

Back into its own birthright

The guest has to leave.

 

Boundless obstacles

Created by one’s actions

Create the false web.

 

If a stream is dammed

The water will spread wider

But the stream is gone.

 

ROUTINE THAT’S THE OPPOSITE OF BORING

My kung fu goals are

Simple; I want to have a

Practice all my days.

 

MICROFINANCE

It’s been quite a number of years since I first heard of a powerful and relatively new force in our world: microfinance.  If you live in a rich country and don’t pay much attention to the several billions of your neighbors whose main concern is making sure that the family eats at least once per day, you can go a long time without hearing about such things.  I did.  But I’ve been spared long enough to increase my horizons a bit.

What I finally heard about was one organization in this field: Women’s World Banking.  In a nutshell: it has been proven that you can loan the price of a First-World restaurant meal (or a few such meals) to a hardworking woman in an impoverished area.  Someone who under normal circumstances will almost never see any spare cash — at all — accumulate within her lifetime.  But having the cash as seed money, she will grow a small business, pay back the loan, maybe borrow some more; and a few years later she and those around her will be enjoying a quantum leap in their quality of life, albeit always with continuing hard work.  But work that now offers hope beyond keeping the Grim Reaper off one’s doorstep.

In honor of Senator Hillary Clinton’s historic presidential campaign, I’d like to post a little info about microfinance.  Maybe there are others like me who didn’t know about it.

http://www.swwb.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women’s_World_Banking

I suppose some people might ask, why focus on helping women?  (Seriously, some would probably ask that.)  For one thing, it’s been proven that this way works.  At the risk of some reverse sexism, my personal observations suggest that, all things being equal, the woman might be more likely to persist and succeed with the nurturing enterprise, with a smaller chance of monies being spent on liquor, cigarettes, and gambling.  If you look at the general run of humanity throughout the ages.  Well, end of sermon.  But microfinance deserves to be widespread, and widely known.

Speaking of the Clintons, former President Bill Clinton is mentioned in this article which also gives a great overview of microfinance at work around the world:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/30/MN7QRSUKA.DTL&tsp=1

 

THE SPAN OF EXISTENCE

Many, many thanks to Nosce te ipsum (”know thyself”) blog for finding and posting this clip.  I saw this short film a couple of years ago at the Exploratorium in San Francisco.  It was a temporary exhibit, they were projecting it on a wall in very large dimension.  It was riveting, and I never forgot it.

It is a journey outwards and inwards through our known universe, at the speed virtually of thought.  We are the launching point for the journey.  It graphically demonstrates us suspended between the microcosmic and the macrocosmic.

http://nosceteipsum.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/a-perspective-on-things/

 

LITTLE LESSONS

Lately I’ve been wondering what to do with this blog.  I feel like I’ve entered a new phase of my taiji journey.  So the blog — if I’m to continue it — should change also.

One thing I keep coming back to is: how about shorter posts?  Short and sweet, as they say.  Write from the heart.  If it’s a dud, so be it.

N.B.:  “Little lessons”???  I don’t mean to suggest that I am teaching lessons… little, big, or otherwise.  Seriously, I’m just another hacker on the treacherous golf course that is “trying to learn taiji/internal arts”.  I’m the one who needs lessons.

Here’s one:

Wednesday morning I was driving on a suburban street and I spotted a big black crow in the road.  He was drinking water from a small puddle that had formed in the street.  Where the puddle came from, I don’t know.  It’s early summer here and we’re practically in a drought.  I doubt the puddle was there the day before and I doubt it was still there the day after.  (I suppose puddles are transitory, by definition.)

But Mr. Crow found the water in this unlikely place, and was drinking deeply from it.

I looked at this simple scene, and my thought was: I can learn from that crow.

 

CLOAK OF TIME

I am surrounded

By things about to happen

And/or not happen.

 

VIEWPOINTS

Water, Earth, and Air —

Fish, Man, and Bird each see what

They have learned to see.