Why is T'ai Chi such an amazing practice?

What is it about T’ai Chi that makes it such an amazing exercise, meditation, life practice? You can do it anywhere and at any time - Almost any experience can be T’ai Chi practice. I don’t know of any other exercise/practice where this works quite so seamlessly.

I am sitting here at Pete’s Coffee and Tea in Harvard Square, watching the Cambridge world go by: joggers, walkers, strollers, sitters, roller bladers, drivers, standers-by. All of these people could be doing exactly what they are doing and enhance the doing of it by adding the quality of T’ai Chi. T’ai Chi is a way of experiencing the world with more silky smoothness (Ah, that phrase was probably influenced by the soy Latte I am sipping); of moving / Being with more ease, flow, and grace; of taking great delight in the very process of Being alive - moment by moment.

It is the same feeling I used to get sporadically and unexpectedly of, ‘A beautiful day.’ Only now I can design it, I can ‘make’ it happen, actually - allow it to happen -  just by tuning into the very practical, physical ability to allow life, to consciously experience that flow of electrons, particles, current, energy we call the present moment, or the Now.

There is nothing mystical or spiritual about it. If you suddenly become aware that you are clenching your fists or your jaw, or holding your breath, it is a simple matter of opening that fist, relaxing the jaw, or taking a breath. For a T’ai Chi player there is little difference; it just works on a deeper level. We become aware that we are ‘clenching’ our Now and simply let go, melt, dissolve that feeling of clenching.

Clenching, tightening, holding, tensing.... it's the same process whether it is as obvious as a tight fist or as subtle as a tight mind. The process of relaxing them is the same too. It just takes the three things that studies have shown are necessary for learning a new skill or unlearning an old habit: Desire, Feedback, and Practice.

 There is really nothing special about Being. It’s as common as dirt, we all do it all the time. What could be more common than Being? What is uncommon is the conscious experience and enjoyment of Being. As far as I am concerned that is the purpose of life: Enjoying Being. That’s it and it doesn’t matter a whit what you do or who you are. Profession, wealth, social status, gender, political affiliation, are all window dressing, smoke and mirrors concealing the common thread of Being that goes on behind and throughout it all. It is all just Being.  Playing in the fields of Being - “That’s what its all about” (to quote the Hokey Pokey).

Happy Playing.

Come join me to play with Peter Ralston at a weekend workshop in September in Northampton.  http://www.chiwiz.com/Ralston.html

The Zero Point Field or “If you don’t think the dead can come back to life, you have never been here at quitting time.”

I always found that saying hilarious - I would usually see it in an office somewhere. Hilarious and true. What causes such a sudden burst of energy at various times in our lives? What makes my dog, Eli, go from an elderly 16 year old who can barely climb the stairs at night to a frisky puppy when I say the word, “Walk?”

First an explanation, as simple as possible, as to what is meant by the Zero Point Field. This is a term used by physicists to denote the field of energy that still remains at a temperature of absolute zero, when no energy is supposed to be able to move.

At absolute Zero - the lowest possible energy state, where all matter has been stopped and nothing is left which can move - there is still some energy vibrating, or ‘jiggling’ as some quantum physicists say.

Zero Point energy is the energy that is present in the emptiest state of space - where all the energy that can be extracted from space has been extracted - no more removal is possible and yet, some motion - some energy remains - always. The ‘space’ in which this energy resides is called the “Zero Point Field.”  It is also ever-present, underlying all matter and space. Until Quantum physics came along most physicists dismissed this energy from their calculations. The reasoning? Well, since it is always there it cancels itself out in calculations, it can't have an effect.

Duh? It's kind of like doctors dismissing the Placebo Effect.

Quantum physicists believe that the ZPF is a vast unharnessed reservoir of energy that could potentially provide an endless, free, non-polluting source of power to run everything from light bulbs to spaceships. The problem is how to plug into this source.

I am reading The Field by Lynne McTaggert, which is all about research into the ZPF. It is making my head dance with possibility and discovery as I contemplate the relationship between ZP energy and T’ai Chi.

I don't know how my car can run on it, but I know how to access this field - it is through the feeling states of allowing, surrender, love, appreciation, joy, happiness, gratitude, etc. These expanding feeling states establish a connection to the ZPF and there is always a burst of energy. What cuts us of from this field are the contracting emotional feeling states (fear, worry, anxiety, stress, unworthiness, guilt, judgment, etc). Expansion connects - contraction separates - on every level of being.

Anything that causes you to contract separates you from this ever present source of energy. Anything that expands you - plugs you in. T’ai Chi, love, yoga, laughter, friendship, winning, success, contentment, peace, fulfillment, perception of wealth, health, well-being, appreciation, gratitude, melting, friskiness, playfulness, unselfconsciousness, going beyond embarrassment, expanding our comfort zones, ALL of these things tap into the ZPF and charge our batteries.

So, Elizabeth and I are going for a walk with Eli and he is bounding around like a puppy. As I said before, he is NOT a puppy, he is the equivalent of over 100 years old and shows it quite often in his difficulty laying down, climbing stairs or getting into the car. But start out on a walk and all of a sudden the years drop away. Then it hits me. He has tapped into the ZPF.

We have all had moments where we were dog tired (sorry) and something happened to give us a burst of energy (being in love does it pretty well) - being at a party, it’s late, very late, I am ready to go home, yawning, half asleep, then I get into an interesting conversation or hear a great piece of music - all of a sudden I am wide awake and before I know it two hours have gone by.

This is why T’ai Chi feels like the fountain of youth - It is the practical physical practice of Allowing; of feeling allowing - allowing what is to be. It is the physical practice of non-judgment, ease, grace, flow, beauty. No stress, no strain, no forcing - effortless movement. Amazing yes? With T’ai Chi you do not think your way to non-judgment, ease, grace, flow, allowing - you feel your way to them - it is a physical practice.

 Anytime you want you can access to this Zero Point Field of power that can rejuvenate, heal, enliven, strengthen, and invigorate you. This is instantaneous too. You don’t have to wait to feel the effects. Relax, have fun, and play the form. The style of T’ai chi doesn’t matter. The outside form is not important, it is what is going on inside that makes the difference. Melt, yield, let go, sink, relax, dissolve, soften, allow, do-nothing…. Be.

The Best Thing You Can Do for the Earth (or yourself) Is to Feel Good!

I could be wrong (That's how all beliefs should begin, I believe) but each of us is a Feeling generator. Feeling good is healthy. Feeling bad is unhealthy. For you and for the Earth. The more people in the world who are good-feeling generators, the more the Earth heals, and the more you heal.

You can control how you feel, and therefore what you generate out into the world - it just takes some practice. A lot of people think that feelings control them - "Good things happen, I feel good; bad things happen, I feel bad." This may be true for them but it is not true. You have the power to choose what you generate within yourself and therefore out into the world. There are many practices that teach this art - the best (I believe) is T'ai Chi because it is all about feeling your way to feeling good, not about thinking your way to feeling good.

As Peter Ralston says, there are two energies in the universe - expansion and contraction. For me, feeling good is expansion; feeling bad is contraction. Expansion heals. Contraction destroys.

T'ai Chi, in its highest form, is about feeling good. T'ai Chi is the practice of expansion; it is learning how to lessen the energy of resistance so that everything flows. It is about getting out of the way so that the essential goodness of the universe flows through you. By the way, when that happens it is not some sort of impersonal, 'O I am a conduit for the universe flowing through me.' It's more like, "WOW, OMFG, Holy $%^! Does that feel GREAAAAAAT!"

T'ai Chi is dancing with wild abandon, excitement, enthusiasm, and passion - on the inside. No matter how old you get you never feel any older than when you were a child. Even my mom at 99, when I asked her how she felt inside responded, "Like a girl of sixteen. I can't do what I could then, but I feel that way inside."

This is the beauty of T'ai Chi - on the inside you can do everything you ever could on the outside, (and more - did you ever fly?) no matter how old you get - truly. T'ai Chi teaches us how to make that real, not just a theory.

I promise to keep these (relatively) short (have you seen some blogs? Wow!), so I will end here. Stay tuned for more on this very topic.  I am on a roll and feel a lot of passion around it. Some how-to advice even.

Puleeeeeze feel free to 'follow' my blog and to share with friends - I love company:)

Visualize Whirled peas!

I'd rather wash dishes and sweep the floor in deep sensual union with the Divine than rule the world from a place of separation.

Given the choice I'd rather wash dishes and sweep the floor in deep  sensual union with the Divine than rule the world from a place of separation.

 Everything that exists, exists right now and is available to me, but only to the degree that I am available to it. And I am available to it only to the extent that I Allow it.

But, how to do it? What does it mean to make yourself available and what does it feel like? There is nothing you can do to make this happen. To put it another way; Learning to Do Nothing is what it takes.
Doing Nothing ("Wu Wei" in Chinese). Making yourself available to the Now is the practice of constantly letting go of everything we do that removes us from the realization that we are already here. It involves the practice of Zen Master Seung Sahn’s, "Don't Know Mind," the constant practice of making non-sense.
This Doing has nothing to do with thinking; it is a feeling practice.

What it feels like is sensual and 'melty' to the point of being erotic.

It is a melting into God, nature, and the universe. It's a deep and profound letting go, as if I were allowing myself to fall backwards off a towering cliff without the slightest concern for my safety, knowing that I will be caught and sensually enveloped by the very essence of Love; yet still feeling the thrill of the plunge.

It's better than sex, and sex is pretty damn good.... it is sex in the sense of that most satisfying of sexual encounters: a melting into and a true Union with the Other. Little wonder then, that once experienced, it becomes a lifelong pursuit. What else is there, especially when this is a state that can be applied to, and enhances the quality of, every other activity? 
This is what you have to look forward to by practicing T'ai Chi. It is the highest form of T'ai Chi practice; Melty Merging with Life. Yummmm!

Surviving Dying

I have restarted working on the journal of a 100 Day, 1 hour each day, standing meditation practice I undertook in 1996.  I offer this excerpt for free:

I am like a kid with a new toy whenever I discover new images and concepts from other fields that I can apply to T'ai Chi. They always deepen my own practice and help me teach T'ai Chi to others; but it isn’t all that often now that I come across something that moves me so profoundly to another level of awareness in my practice of the art.  Stephen Levine’s book, “Who Dies?” came into my life at the perfect time to understand it, in the middle of my 100 days.

Ostensibly about dying, the book is really about living, and more specifically it is about expanding, expanding in a sense absolutely tailor-made for application to T'ai Chi principles. Levine writes about not contracting around the pain one feels in the body; that when we contract we narrow our focus and therefore our sense of identity to that which we are focusing on (i.e. we become our pain). When we expand we consequently widen our sense of ‘Self.’ The body and what it is experiencing are still a part of that wider self, but it no longer becomes the totality of who we are.

My experience with standing meditation speaks to the truth of what Levine says; it is a joyously liberating feeling to crack the mold of body-identity and to experience being a 'bigger' You. In terms of ‘dying’ It’s kind of like not putting all your eggs in the one basket of ‘body.’ Diversify and when something screws up one of your investments, your identity doesn’t take anywhere near as big a ‘hit’ as it would have were all your money in that one stock!

That’s the meaning of the bible verse about not laying up your treasure where thieves can break in and steal. The treasure is your sense of Self, what you identify with as ‘You.’ If you are your body or your job, your car or your clothes, your bank account or your social standing, or anything else perishable, then whenever those things perish, so will ‘you.’ It’s much better to diversify identity, and even better to identify ‘you’ with something that is eternal (Seek ye first the kingdom of God).

An "AHA" moment is.........

An "AHA" moment is not an "Aha" moment because I am discovering something new. It is an "Aha" moment because I knew it all the time, and  I am stunned by the sudden realization that I just hadn't been paying attention to it.

To put it another way: I did not 'Know' it consciously until something happened that lifted the lid off the Not-Knowing and allowed Knowing to bubble up.

Most of the time the thing that keeps the lid on not knowing something is the constant effort to Know; the dislike of, the not allowing of 'Not-Knowing.' We don't really like not knowing what we want to know or feel like we should know. 

I am perfectly OK with not knowing how to program a computer, or not knowing anything that I do not care to know. I am talking here about the things you care about knowing.  (Read Peter Ralston's amazing, "The Book of Not Knowing")

One of the things we all, as human beings, want to know is: What is Life? Why are we here? What's it all about Alfie?

And most of the time I am so concerned with trying to know what I do not know, that I forget to enjoy/allow the not-knowing.

I think that the Not-Knowing is something to be done away with, to be fixed, to be eradicated by coming to know, one by one, the things that I do not Know... until gradually all that Not-Knowing will be replaced by Knowing.

And, in my ignore-ance, I think that happiness lies in knowing things. Until I allow myself to not-know, to REALLY not-know; to Not-Know as a state of being; like being hungry or sad or happy or tired ......... AND it is the most meltingly, WONDER-FULL, WOWNDER-FULL  experience.  I have experienced a LOT of highs, both man-made and natural in my 62 years; Deep Not-Knowing is the real deal.

And, unlike man-made substances, it is available all the time.

Over and over again I wonder, after coming out of the Not-Knowing state, why we humans seem to be afraid of not-knowing what we want to know; why a large part of our energy is spent trying to appear knowing-full and avoiding looking like we don't know something. I see it alllllll the time in the corporate work I do. People rarely get promoted for not knowing things and consequently spend a lot of time pretending that they know a lot more than they actually know.

If you are pretending to know something that you do not know, then you are not being who you are.  You are actually pretending to be who you are not (Like the Emperor's New Clothes).  Being who you are is the key to 'getting' Life; to melting into God. A couple of quotes illustrating that point:

1) Luther D. Price said, "Be what you IS, not what you ain't. 'Cuz if you ain't what you IS, then you is what you ain't."

2) Shakespeare: This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

One last thing, because I dislike overly long blog posts,,,,

When I truly 'Don't Know' what Life is, Life reveals itself to me and I get a pass backstage.

This I have known.

T'ai Chi is touching your coffee cup the same way you would touch a lover.

I went to Skyros to teach; knowing full well - because it has happened every single time in the past 18 years I have been going - that I was really going there to learn. There are just too many goodies to share in one post - cuz I promised myself to keep them short - so the teachings will appear gradually over the next months or years. Briefly here, this post then - - - I really learned how to communicate the inner experience of T'ai Chi in such a way that absolute beginners can get an experience of what it feels like to be in such a state of complete allowing.

Try this. Yessir -  go ahead and touch your coffee cup - or anything you normally touch in a utilitarian manner during the day - in the same way that you touch your lover, in the same way that you caress your baby, or your cat, or anything you love.
We all know how to do this; we all know how to sensitize our fingers at will from 'coffee cup' mode to 'loved object' mode. You know how to sensitize your fingers and how to de-sensitize them depending on what it is you are touching. You don't even need to feel the feelings of tenderness or love. Just do it. Go ahead and stroke that cup or the steering wheel or the broom, or the laundry, with a 'loving' touch. Can you feel it? What happens? How do you do it? Welllll I'll bet you do it slowly----  with a lot more presence ---- paying attention ------with a softening.

Doesn't it feel gooood? Do you feel tingly and warm and melty inside? OK, now try doing T'ai Chi that way - with love-sensitive fingertips. Hey! Why stop there? Make your entire hand into fingertips! Make your arm, your torso, head, legs, ---- make that huge largest organ of your body (Skin, the skin I am talking of) into fingertips of sensitive touch. Yeah? See what that does for your T'ai Chi.

How to do it? How to transfer fingertip sensitivity to the entire body? That is exactly what the principles of T'ai Chi are all about: move slowly, breath slowly and deeply, relax, allow, become heavy, soften the gaze, extend the body open like a flower, soften, soften, soften

More to come.

I really should charge for this stuff.

You won't find it with many other T'ai Chi teachers. Fine to focus on healing or martial arts or circulating Chi; but the absolute highest purpose of T'ai Chi is to feel your way into bliss. Once you experience that, all the other reasons for doing T'ai Chi or any other exercise seem a bit like using a jet plane to go down the driveway to check the mailbox.

If you are going to use a jet plane, may as well have fun and make it a real trip!