Slow Down, You Move Too Fast

Lot’s going on right now, we have a new space for Tuesday class (check out the schedule page for more information), a new introductory class starting in May, a few bulbs starting to come up in the yard, a flock of orioles returning from the winter migration, spring cleaning– it’s a good time to remember the refrain from that song about feelin’ groovy. It’s actually called the “59^th Street Bridge Song – not “Feelin Groovy” and I finally understand why – a later line is “kickin down the cobble stones”  - they were walking! You see when you go walking into town…. life is way different.

Three years ago, my partner and I took a sabbatical from our normal go, go, go lives and walked across the northern part of Spain. We walked into the city of Burgos, we walked along rivers, over old cobblestone bridges, through vineyards and fields of white asparagus, we walked up hills into tiny villages at daybreak, at high noon, we walked over mountains, into the city of Santiago and finally we walked out past the lighthouse, onto the rocky cliffs of Finisterre. And what we realized was (1) it takes a really long time to get somewhere when you are walking, and (2) when people have time to see you coming, they are a lot friendlier and at ease than when you arrive suddenly by car in their town, driveway, home.  There were days walking when I would see a village up ahead and because my mind was so accustomed to car-time, I would feel relief for my tired aching feet, because seeing is being there when I am traveling 30-40-60 miles per hour. My brain had not caught onto walking time and gradually my relief would turn to resignation and then (on good day) it would become acceptance and then finally a blissfully calm peace as I trudged on for another hour or two finally arriving at the village I had seen from miles away.

Can you practice your tai chi form like you are walking into town instead of the usual driving pace? Start with commencing – you know what it looks like, (you can see the village up ahead), now feel it, ditch the car, stop racing to get there and linger, savor, feel the blood and bones inside you, feel how arms connect through center to spine, to hips, to legs to feet, notice what happens if you press feet into ground –  keep walking, don’t rush, take your time, the village isn’t going anywhere, Left Ward-Off will be there when you get there, just take your time and enjoy your practice.  

Enjoy your feelin’ groovy

Dorian

Slow Down, You Move Too Fast

Lot’s going on right now, we have a new space for Tuesday class (check out the schedule page for more information), a new introductory class starting in May, a few bulbs starting to come up in the yard, a flock of orioles returning from the winter migration, spring cleaning– it’s a good time to remember the refrain from that song about feelin’ groovy. It’s actually called the “59^th Street Bridge Song – not “Feelin Groovy” and I finally understand why – a later line is “kickin down the cobble stones”  - they were walking! You see when you go walking into town…. life is way different.

Three years ago, my partner and I took a sabbatical from our normal go, go, go lives and walked across the northern part of Spain. We walked into the city of Burgos, we walked along rivers, over old cobblestone bridges, through vineyards and fields of white asparagus, we walked up hills into tiny villages at daybreak, at high noon, we walked over mountains, into the city of Santiago and finally we walked out past the lighthouse, onto the rocky cliffs of Finisterre. And what we realized was (1) it takes a really long time to get somewhere when you are walking, and (2) when people have time to see you coming, they are a lot friendlier and at ease than when you arrive suddenly by car in their town, driveway, home.  There were days walking when I would see a village up ahead and because my mind was so accustomed to car-time, I would feel relief for my tired aching feet, because seeing is being there when I am traveling 30-40-60 miles per hour. My brain had not caught onto walking time and gradually my relief would turn to resignation and then (on good day) it would become acceptance and then finally a blissfully calm peace as I trudged on for another hour or two finally arriving at the village I had seen from miles away.

Can you practice your tai chi form like you are walking into town instead of the usual driving pace? Start with commencing – you know what it looks like, (you can see the village up ahead), now feel it, ditch the car, stop racing to get there and linger, savor, feel the blood and bones inside you, feel how arms connect through center to spine, to hips, to legs to feet, notice what happens if you press feet into ground –  keep walking, don’t rush, take your time, the village isn’t going anywhere, Left Ward-Off will be there when you get there, just take your time and enjoy your practice.  

Enjoy your feelin’ groovy

Dorian

Still, still seeking, stillness in movement

If I cannot be still when I am standing or sitting, and I cannot be still when I am moving, how can I ever learn to be still when I am working, pushing or sparring with a partner?  Why,  after all is “ Seek stillness in movement” one of Yang Cheng-fu’s 10 important points for the practice of tai chi?

“Be still and know that I am god”.  ( I thought this was Rumi maybe, or Deepak Chopra, or some new age guru, and what did I find? – Psalm 46:10  - there you go)  Be still - know the power of limits and stop striving and trying and worrying and fretting – be still, and through stillness know the infinite possibility of being, of receiving the amazing gifts the world has to offer.  Be still and know unity, truth, non-duality.  Big promises there!

So what is stillness? Stillness is not not moving. Erich Schiffman describes it as a spinning top – spinning so fast it appears to be standing still. And I like this, cause it is like how I see balance – never a fixed state but always in motion.  Stillness is the experience of balanced and harmonious energy flow – wholehearted attention to the moment and activity at hand.  In this state of energy flowing freely and easily, with attention undivided, one begins to experience the ultimate unity of all things and to know divinity. Honestly, I’d be happy to know myself,  and short of that just be able to experience what is. Call it what you will!

I like this wholehearted attention as the path to stillness. Can you bring your attention – your mind, body, spirit so fully to the task at hand that it is as if the world has stopped. Nothing else matters. For some it is easy to sit and meditate, for others to stretch through yogic postures and find stillness. We all have our different mandalas, mantras, or means of focusing our attention. For me, it is Yang’s style 108 move tai chi form. To this I can bring my whole-hearted attention and in stillness know myself and my world.

In this stillness, I can notice things like the flow of qi or the intent of my partner’s push – but if I start to look for things to notice, then my attention is divided and I lose the stillness ( not to mention the thing I was looking for!). Or if I get attached to a certain thing I have noticed – like how cool the energy feels tingling in my legs, or circulating in my dantien –again I am no longer in wholehearted attention – but I am divided.   It goes without saying,  that if my mind wonders to the grocery list, or my ego worries about my self-image, or I am even busy trying to memorize choreography, then I am not in wholehearted attention to the moment at hand (though I do believe one can be wholeheartedly focused on memorizing, and experience stillness – it’s just harder to notice that I am still, because I am so concentrated).

And the really interesting thing seems to be, that when I am still, I can really begin to notice movement- not imagined, anticipated, planned, willed, wouldn’t this be cool movement, but what is actually happening authentic appropriate movement that originates from a source that comes from…..well…. it doesn’t feel like the me I am most used to, so for now  I’ll call that source divine.

Enjoy your stillness

Dorian