doc benway

An alternative perspective - Tai Ji may not be "about movement" (actually, I would say Tai Ji transcends movement) but Tai Ji Quan is all about movement. There is nothing to explain - there is movement (and, to be more clear, I'll add awareness). The beauty and unique character of Tai Ji Quan is the integration of mind of intent and awareness with movement. Nevertheless, the Quan is all about the movement. Tai Ji is the guiding principle of the Quan but you can't ignore the Quan. If you take movement out of Tai Ji Quan, you have intellectual investigation. This may be entertaining and even enlightening but it is not Tai Ji Quan. Meditation is very valuable in attaining a high level of skill in Tai Ji Quan and I'd even be comfortable saying that meditation is more important than movement in cultivation (by far) but meditation is not Tai Ji Quan. It is meditation. Similarly, Tai Ji Quan is not cultivation - it improves and benefits from cultivation but it's not that. My primary purpose for teaching is selfish. I want to be the best I can in Tai Ji Quan and teaching takes your level of understanding to a deeper level. I have a demanding full time job and Tai Ji Quan teaching is on the side but it's worth the effort. There are lots of others benefits for me to teaching (more personal time with my teacher and more advanced instruction, an opportunity to share my passion with others, the camaraderie of my fellow instructors, and so on) but for me, the most important thing is the effect it has on my own training and cultivation.

I don't think it's a vague question though there definitely is paradox involved. The way "I" see it, "I" is the sum total of the activity of the brain's thought processes. Beyond "I" is reality.

Great thread - I don't have time to write much right now but I just agreed to write a newsletter article about this very topic for our school. It'll be cool to see the response in this thread and I'll add a few ideas when I get some time.

Where are you located?

You are but a sliver of everything, the entire universe, God, whatever you want to call it all... What else could you possibly be?

Isn't that an L Ron Hubbard story?

A thread in the general forum made me post this - I like it a lot. Krishnamurti

The way I understand JK's message is a bit different. He does not ask you to accept any assertions. He asks you to inquire for yourself and that inquiry must be your own affair. You must find out if there is a thinker or observer for yourself, if you are interested in that. He can guide you a bit but you must do the work - not him, or anyone else. He tells you to look for and find yourself so that you come to know exactly what "I" is. When you find your own answers, they will be knowledge, not belief. One of his core messages is that there is no path to the truth - it is a personal investigation. The guru's role is very limited. He never really says that there is no I, rather he helps you see what it is. You must commit a great deal of energy to this. It takes time, patience, and perseverance. It's worth the effort, if that is what you choose to spend your time doing.

I like that very much.

Excellent choices. I've had very positive experience with ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy). It's founded in Eastern philosophical principles and may be worth exploring. Good luck!

Nice post Trevcaru - I think you and I share some common influences. Welcome to the TaoBums!

I think Qi is a very misleading concept the way we use it. We tend to equate it with other things that we think we understand so that it makes sense to us. This is a trap. The mind cannot figure out qi. The mind cannot figure out much of anything beyond relating it to things it already "understands." I would suggest beginning to cultivate Qi then you can reach meaningful conclusions about what it is and isn't and whether it is of any value for you to work with. FWIW, my experience of Qi is more similar to Goldisheavy in terms of it being more of a relationship or a process that occurs between awareness and substance or awareness and being, rather than measurable stuff.

Interesting discussion about annihilation of the self. Of course to have a meaningful discussion of dissolution of the self, can we first define the self? Next, can we determine who or what it is that is doing the annihilating?

RAOTFLMAO! Brilliant post.

Darin, I admire your commitment and perseverence! Bravo!!

I love Nina Simone! I've got my boobies...

An impeccably concise summary of internal Chinese martial arts!

I've run across two users on this forum since I joined whose posts were so consistently unpleasant that I've used the ignore function. One disappeared for a while and returned much more sedate and refined, the other was banned. I probably read less than 20% of threads. I pick and choose only what interests me. There's only so much time I choose to devote to forum discourse.

Nice commentary on a great parable. I see this as a parable for recognizing attachment and trying to live in accordance with wu wei. I see that my lovely horse creates excrement so I save it in a jar. I really have no idea what it is but I am attached to the horse so I hoard it's excrement and consider it valuable. In actuality there is no value to the excrement and certainly no advantage to keeping it in a jar. I am simply interfering with the natural process of waste (as described earlier). Similarly, in my misguided efforts to "help" my horse I swat it's flies and slap it, interfering with wu wei and causing the horse harm or anxiety through my misguided attempts at "helping." Allow the natural processes to carry on as they always do without your "help" is the message I get. I find Wu Wei to be a central theme in so many of his parables.

About a year ago I heard a fascinating experiment described on NPR. Somehow the experimental design was able to measure the exact moment the the brain formulated an intention or thought to carry out a simple physical task as well as the response of the neuromuscular apparatus in initiating the activity. The unexpected observation was that the neuromuscular activity was always observed BEFORE the participant had the thought or intention to intiate the task in question. This suggests that 'we' are memory, not cause. Cause is something which is before memory and is beyond thought. Thought takes a photo of it and memory stores it... that's what we do

Thanks Ian - what, afraid to throw down with us on Ramana?

Something that works for me is the following very simple approach - Sit in a quiet room in a comfortable chair and close your eyes. Turn your attention toward your physical being. Feel your feet touching the floor, explore what that feels like and stay with it for a moment or two. Move that quality of attention systematically through your body. It's particularly easy in body parts that are touching other parts or objects. Next bring this quality of attention to the rythym of your breath. Next, bring that quality of curious interest and attention to whatever it is that you can hear, smell, taste, etc... Once you get to this point you may even open your eyes and do the same with your sight. Spend a few minutes paying attention to all the sensory input and see how that affects your anxiety, stress, etc...

After studying Taijiquan for a few years, my shifu suggested I begin to practice Dao meditation - that was my introduction to Daoism.