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Stories and articles from taichidevon.

Please note that the following are stories; read them as stories; if they open up  ideas in your head then explore them. These stories are based on conversations, philosophies and teachings of many and to all of whom I am grateful. Who was it once said, 'we are pygmies standing on the shoulders of giants'? They are just stories for you to enjoy; but you might just connect with  something of valueon the way.

Immediately below you have the index, if you then scroll down you will find the complete stories in order of the index :-      happy reading.

1. Tai Chi and Holistic Living

2. The Gazelle and the Trampoline

3. The Arduous Path to Enlightenment

4. Away with the Fairies, in the Land of Wuji

5. Meditation ..... was it only a dream?

6. One with the Universe.

7. In pursuit of enlightenment - a shared tapestry of aphorisms.

8. Keith’s Sheep and the fence.

9. The Chair, the Flower and the Rabbit.

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 1.              Tai Chi and Holistic Living.

 “Ah, so you’re interested in holistic living, I hear. Have you ever thought about tai Chi?”    ‘Oh, that’s that new tea drink isn’t it? …. no, wait a minute, I know, don’t tell me…it’s that thing that old people do slowly in parks in China.’

  Of course there will be many views on what Tai Chi really is. Tai Chi teachers will surely tell you that the destination is not so important, (you may never arrive!) but that every moment on the journey is to be treasured. The Oxford English dictionary states; Tai Chi Ch’uan; The ultimate source and limit of reality from which springs yin and yang and all of creation. Now surely you can’t get much more holistic than that? Just because tai chi is seen as an old people thing it does not mean that it should be practiced as though you were an old person; you are part of something much greater.

  The Chinese have been successfully evolving Chi Kung for thousands of years and their tai Chi for centuries, based on ancient martial arts. Their development of acupressure, acupuncture and discovery of meridian lines and points throughout the body are now well known and accepted in the west. In some ways the Chinese culture allowed them knowledge long before the West had even considered the problem, for example, long before western science discovered ‘black holes’ in space the Chinese knew they existed. Why? Because of their yin/yang philosophy, both must exist if anything is to exist, (you cannot have only one side to a sheet of paper, can you?) therefore if there was a bright Sun in the sky, somewhere there must be a dark Sun.

  Tai Chi touches on many of these elements. Though originating from truly formidable Martial Arts it is rarely practiced so today but is used as an exercise to promote health and longevity. Did I hear someone say, ‘What use is longevity without health?’ Quite right, we wish to live long but enjoy good health in the process, and this is the purpose of Tai Chi. As we age, time inexorably seeks to shrink our muscles and close our joints, the Tai Chi practitioner fights back with exercises that allow us to grow and open our bodies. Tai Chi has become not self defence, but health defence.

 As in other arts such as Yoga, certain points of the body take on a magnified significance; the crown of the head, bai hui, celestial gate, place of a hundred meetings, it’s the connection point to the heavens from which we are suspended. The ball of the foot, yong chuan, connects us to the earth and all that lies between these two points should be harmonious and free. Heaven, Earth and you – three together.

  The style or form you practice matters little compared to following earnestly the principles. When you read of the principles you may or may not make sense of them, only by feeling will the understanding arrive – and then tomorrow yet a new understanding …..

Whether done for Martial or health purpose Tai Chi aids the flow of energy through the entire body, it is central to the benefits. Sometimes the process is uncomfortable as the free flowing and conscious movements unravel old tensions and hidden injuries from the past; muscles and joints out of tune with nature fettered by the chains of a past misguided protection that the body has provided.

 So; whole body; when one thing moves all moves, the flow of energy, the unification of mind body and spirit in a conscious and intentive way.

 ‘Ah yes, but what can that do for me?’ Well, Chi Kung practitioners have been shown to improve their T cell (white blood cell) count by up to 40%. The movement of the legs in Tai Chi (and Chi Kung) promotes blood flow return to the heart and additionally stimulates the lymphatic system. Tai Chi can boost your immune system.

Tai Chi movements also stimulate your parasympathetic nervous system, (the system that keeps you calm and alive in sleep - author’s simplistic version).

Tai Chi has no enemies, no critics; scientific research has recently heaped confirmation on the health benefits, to add to that which any practitioner feels on a personal level. Tai Chi is a healing exercise that develops physiological function without reliance on drugs, medicine or surgery. (That is not to say that some of these interventions may not be necessary in serious cases). So, Tai Chi is a healing exercise – but practice it and you may not get to the stage where you need healing!

  ‘OK, so apart from better balance, greater mobility, better co-ordination and improved immune system what has Tai Chi got in it for me?’

  Well, once you’ve learned a few moves and taken on board the principles, Tai Chi is cost free and available any time of day or night, anywhere in the world – because it’s yours to keep. Surely there can be no doubt of its holistic nature, in effect you become your own therapist. The whole body is treated by toning the nervous system and circulation of the blood. It improves the body’s ability to absorb and transport nutrients, so increasing immunity. Tai Chi is positive in all aspects, developing confidence and power. Tai Chi is natural, with no negative side effects when followed correctly. So, you see, Tai Chi is not just old people slowly waving arms in the park, they have been there from their youth. Their age and health is a result of their practice, it is not that now they are old they take up Tai Chi .....but don't despair, for it is not too late for us.

  I could go on …… and on … or you could find go and find out for yourself.

 
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  2.                            ‘The Gazelle and the Trampoline’ –

                                      (One man’s path to enlightenment.)

 

 It was a dark, wet, autumn evening as the student set out for the long drive down lonely roads to the moors, and the isolated old farmhouse, where the master trained his secret knowledge.

  The master, known as Sifu of Exmoor lived there with the gentle and lovely yogi, Persephone, a bright star in an often dark world. They shared their home and perhaps their secrets too, with a dog, Anubis, who had many friends – or at least thought she had - and an old stray and hungry cat called Gerroffthedogsdinner, and who may well be under the daisies by the time you read this.

  So, it was dark, wet, and muddy on the track outside the farm, the student parked his car and put out the lights adding to the impending gloom. Out of the darkness came a white blur, even before his legs were fully out of the car, it was Anubis herself, speaking quickly in a language the student had not yet learned. Later after events had unfolded the student was to reflect on what the barking language may have meant. He concluded that Anubis was excitedly saying, “Glad you could come. Tonight we’re doing martial moves- and you must be ready for the surprise attack; look, I’ll show you.”, and with that a full on ‘animal paws’ attack struck at his legs.  “Come on”, Anubis barked, “follow me…. And be ready!”

   The student followed Anubis down the slope to the old farmhouse door from which Sifu of Exmoor had just stepped. Distracted by his master and not having understood Anubis’ instructions the unfortunate student was ill prepared for the lightning speed double paw groin strike that was to follow, (apparently a favourite move by Anubis).  Sifu of Exmoor laughed and demonstrated a simple mind control technique that looked very much like stroking Anubis’ head …. Of course as students we know there must be more to it than that, probably highly refined transmittable telepathic chi energy or similar. Masters always tell us it’s simple so we don’t search for the real secrets.

  The student pondered briefly; ‘would he ever learn?’

After a while others joined them in the great hall, but by their smiles and absence of mud in the groin area they had not received the secret training from Anubis. Perhaps he was the chosen one to be given such valuable if unpleasant private lessons from the master’s dog.

   Onwards then on our path of learning; First exercises from Yang and on to Hsing Yi adapted versions, all given code names so that the uninitiated would not understand if they overheard the training. “OK”, said Sifu, “after cat washes face move on to chicken”.

“Can you show us the gazelle?” asked the student. “Later,” replied the master, “these ones first then I’ll show you the antelope”, correcting the code word without making the student feel he had made a mistake – the mark of a great teacher.

  Everything seems confusing, everything seems to have an opposite; when you rise something must fall and going forward requires some backward, but never too much or an awful event is manifested, known in the trade as ‘double-weighted’. You must look for space on an ever increasing level … but before you reach the limit, which is of course an unknown, you may have to act with power. You must not use your muscles for power, but the body, however in not using your muscles they must be relaxed, baring in mind that relaxed is not collapsed. You must follow these principles even with a partner, whereby you yield without giving in and neutralise without them even knowing it, and then the power you have stored can be issued …. Providing it complies with the earlier principles. While engaged in these activities it can help if you envisage yourself floating and suspended from a big rubber band in the heavens, and yet your yong chuan points (more code for ‘bubbling well’ – which is another code but in English) should be connected to the Earth, connected in a powerful but fluid way which is always light – despite that you weigh what you weigh regardless of how you think. There will always be stillness yet moving and in the midst of all your moving a stillness. Emulating a slow moving Gazelle between two trampolines begins to make it clearer for the novice. The Gazelles ribs should go in the opposite direction of its skin and at the same time intention must be strong in the direction of action. The action is only transient depending upon partner reaction, the intention must be focussed and complete and yet at the same time be careful of going too far which may carry you into the forbidden world of ‘double-weightedness’. Though your partner may move first you have to sense this and arrive before them – and in doing so keep in mind all the above.

  So this is the gist of basics and enough for one evening.

With thanks and farewells out of the way the student returned home in the rain soaked darkness enthused with new knowledge  - all he had to do now was understand it.

 

 “Mmm”, he thought, and he clumsily gazelled himself into the kitchen and took a beer from the fridge. “ Mmm.” 

 

   

 

  3.       The arduous path to enlightenment.

The Tai Chi Class and Path to the Temple.

   Spiritually uplifting, harmonic, Chinese music softly filled the air; students meeting once again as the weeks before, chatting intently with each other. The instructor never knew what they talked about – and to be honest never wondered either.

  He clapped his hands twice to bring the class to a beginning. Some students were always up and ready early while others seemed to wait for the signal before they even changed their shoes! Some still chatted, seemingly frivolously and obliviously. When the instructor broke up conversations by moving the offending students to another space in the hall, the offenders would promptly start chatting to the person next to them. Eventually they would settle.

  ‘What’s the point of shouting and rushing?’ thought the instructor, ‘it’s not what we’re here for.’

  ‘We’ll start this week with the Dao Yin exercise”, the instructor said from the front of the class, from which position he could well see the grimaces of those students who obviously didn’t like the exercise and the smiles of those that did. Trying not to let his psyche be affected by the judgement on his plan, the teacher mustered his spirit and began the exercise.

  Before the start he once more reminded them, ‘feet parallel; feet parallel; it’s really important!’ Occasionally he would spend some time correcting foot positions for those who weren’t sure what ‘feet parallel’ actually meant.

  It seemed that every week he had to repeat the same thing – he often wondered why – and even today, still wonders.

  The Dao Yin exercises were completed to the satisfaction or not of the participants and in as many variations as there were students. The instructor continued the class with warm up exercises and form, wondering if he’d got it right too!

  “It’s more important to understand one move well and engage with the good energies and proper structure than it is to know lots of different shapes and forms,” said the teacher hopefully peering into a crowd of sometimes expressionless and unconvinced faces. Did they make progress? He could see that most of them did   ….. in their own way.

  He thought back to his early, and inadequate, days of teaching, always desperate at the end of each class for some sort of feedback ….. ‘That was a good class’ ……. What a difference it makes when we do ..’ …. ‘I feel so much better after a class’  …   etc; it rarely came. Now he was sure he was on the right track, he’d moved on, discovered things he hadn’t dreamed existed before, and now feedback had less meaning anymore – which was just as well as not much came. Observation told the truth.

  The teacher turned towards the stage, put a CD in the player and pressed the play button. Suitable and appropriate music gently filled the hall. Now, suitable and appropriate it might have been but not necessarily to the taste of all the students. He remembered, once he’d been asked to turn it off as it made the place sound like a cheap Chinese restaurant. Then there were the hard of hearing (including the teacher!) who it seemed insisted on standing near the player so they couldn’t hear instructions – or stood right at the back where they could hear nothing.

  “Ah, meditative peace and harmony – that’s what we’re looking for”, he reminded himself.

   “The perfect man is spirit like, great lakes may boil around him, yet he will not feel the heat ……..”

   The teacher always had a plan, a theme, and an idea to pursue in his lesson. Of course, it was important to remain flexible and adapt any such plan.  It had to cope with students coming in late and missing the essential pre-amble, which  meant that the essential pre-amble became more an ‘after-amble’ in order not to rob latecomers of the best chance to learn.

  He was minded of an old Vietnamese proverb, “The man who only walks on sunny days will never finish the journey".


   “The Ho and the Han may be frozen up yet he will not feel the cold …..”…….

   “Feet parallel, feet parallel!” he shouted again as he wondered why most students left the instruction manual on operating their knees at home.

“Whole body; whole body must be involved”, he called out in vain as a few students operated their arms independently of their static straight kneed bodies.

  And yet, how could he teach if he did not believe, and if he believed, could he perform?

  If only he could put into practice the very advice that he gave his students. He called them students but really he saw them as friends sharing the same journey. He too knew what it was like to struggle with the new; to experience disappointment in realising that what he knew was either not enough or not strictly the truth he was really after; or to glimpse just how far away was the destination of enlightenment.

  Yes, he knew the feeling, ‘not internal enough’, ‘not co-ordinated’, ‘poor focus of intention’. He’d been there ….. He was still there! He didn’t want to struggle to the top of the wrong mountain, or perhaps the right one but have no ticket to get in the temple, but at the same time, to give up was to remain in the valley shadows or the abyss below.

  Back to the class he would go with renewed determination and a cunning plan in his head. Drawing on experiences and ideas to make the class more entertaining and interactive. ………..    “Offer your wrist to the partner in front and when they tighten their grip use your body and not the gripped arm to move them”, he explained as he demonstrated the advantage of this great ‘secret’ that was to unfold for the students.

Then it was their go. He would wander in wonder around the class looking at all the variations, and give advice to each to make it more real. Then he would notice people in their pairs, talking. “How did you get on with the exercise, did you manage to do it?” he asked. “Oh, yes”, they would smile and reply in unison, “we’ve both had a go”. (Like, one swallow does not a summer make, one go won’t change the world either.) Then there were others who were still trying, but both gripping, and those with feet, independently blundering negligently out of parallel again, “feet parallel, feet parallel,” he would plead, almost without hope by now. And yet there was progress. He could see individual students becoming energised and stronger; it kept him there.

   “Thunderbolts may split the mountains and the wind shake the sea but he will remain unafraid ….”  …

   As the music played and the students performed, his mind drifted to some other disappointments, to past students ……..

  ‘I went to a teacher in Bumbling Town in Anyshire, he was better than you, you might know of him, his name was John. He used bits of card with North and South on … and was very good’, (implying, ‘not like you’.)

 ‘Perhaps you could draw out on paper the entire footwork sequence of the form; I think it would help me …’

  ‘Can we just do that bit again?’ said as the caretaker waits at the door twiddling his keys and thinking of home and dinner.

  Then the lady who looked at her watch about every two minutes throughout the class, that’s about 45 times! He didn’t think she would return … he was right.

  “It hurts my knees!” Not surprising twisted like that; why not listen to the teacher?

  “Any chance of buying a video of the Tai Chi?”

‘Don’t worry, please borrow my copy, and bring it back’ (Ho Ho!  He wondered if they’d used it to over record Eastenders or something.)

  Then the lady who told him at the end of a class, “I’ve not learned much off you; why don’t you start a beginner’s class?” (Translates as, ‘why not hire this expensive hall and waste your time and money waiting for me to decide if it’s worth coming to’) He knew this and said politely and calmly, “The class is over now and we are just going to do a relaxing balancing exercise to close it down”. As the other students gathered in a large circle, the lady with all the advice on how to run a class, gained from her first and only tai chi lesson, stormed out to the main door. The main door had a peculiar locking method, which she failed with as successfully as she had with her Tai Chi, and so, now even more agitated stomped through the middle of the exercise and burst out through the emergency push bar exit and into the car park, where she no doubt found fault with everything else.

  “Neither death nor life changes him; such a being he mounts the clouds, rides the Sun and Moon and rambles at ease beyond the four seas.”   Nieh Ch’ueh

   He was aware that he and his students were in pursuit of personal growth, not an easy path, but for him there was also reward. It wasn’t all bad; often he would see wonderful progress amongst many students, sometimes almost moved to tears as he witnessed the grace and harmony, the oneness and the peace of those who had found their own journey to the temple on the mountain. Smiles of thanks and hugs of greetings; it made it all worthwhile.

   So, there you have it, a brief glimpse into one man’s search for enlightenment – on a journey with his students; sometimes they lead the way too.

  He put down his pen and sank back into the comfy chair, eyes closing he drifted into a dream …. at last ….. the top of the mountain   ……. the Temple of enlightenment …….

he entered in …  suddenly, a monastic voice broke the silence, “Feet parallel, feet parallel” “back foot, back foot,” …… he fell deeper into a sleep, his feet twitching in his new blue slippers.

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 4.               ‘Away with the Fairies’, in the land of Wuji.

 
            Ye Olde English village Pub on the hill was crowded that night; and noisy too.

In one corner, furthest from the bar, and engaged in more reverent conversation around an old wooden table by the inglenook, sat five men.

There they talked their favourite subject – Taiji – not for them the politics, the football or the price of a pint, but deep philosophical sojourns into the oriental internal arts. It had begun by one of them out loud revisiting the words spoken by a visiting Chinese Master;

“No Wuji – No Taiji!”

            They took it in turns to speak their own, and no doubt often borrowed, wisdoms, and then one amongst them, who had been absorbed in his own thoughts in a sort of day dream world, and oblivious of the noise and distractions around him, suddenly awakened his spirit to the conscious realm.

            “Where’ve you been then; away with the fairies?” laughed one of his friends.

“Perhaps he’s been in the land of Wuji”, said another.

         The laughter quieted and the younger but more wise of the group spoke; “Probably not, but who can really say. The translations from the Chinese indicate that Wuji means ‘emptiness’ , but we all know that no reader ever read any words of the writer in the same way as was intended; words are just too inadequate. I once had a dream that I will one day go through a doorway and know for the first time the great knowledge that I may well have already seen a hundred times before but never recognised. The occasion will only be meaningful because I entered by myself, in a state of open awareness, and for myself. We must each search for our own understanding of wuji – search with our own feelings and not with our thinking – then and only then will we know. We must walk the journey for ourselves; to be carried by another will only enlighten them, not us.”

            He continued, “Perhaps wuji is to relax, as though in a dream; to relax outwards and not inwards as so many do. You know, when you see something truly amazing, beautiful, or inspiring, you see it more than just with the eyes but you see it with your whole body; thought disappears and feeling and energy arrives.”

            Our friend, who’d earlier been away with the fairies, put his pint glass down and told them of one such experience he’d had. “It was coming down from Snowdon summit it was; I was walking with a lovely young woman who had just consented to be my wife; we stopped on a ridge that looked deep down into a cloud filled valley; the Sun was directly behind us, and there on the clouds below we could see not only our shadows but that they were surrounded by a magical circular rainbow. There was no ‘want’ any more, why should there be, because we ‘had it’. Too much want can stop you finding your goal, we were lucky, we were not looking for this but it appeared to us in our aware and wakened state …. how lucky we were. We were absorbed by the vision, we reached out to the shadows with open arms, and they in turn waved back. Then the cloud cleared, the image no longer in the ‘real world’ and we continued our descent, our bodies sensing much more than just the eyes had seen.”

            “Interesting, I wonder just how important the eyes are in wuji,” mused another as he prepared to fetch another pint of local ale.

            The man the group looked to for guidance on their path edged forward in his chair and with elbows resting on the table he opened his hands in a gesture and said, “It’s not just the eyes, it’s what they connect with. Closed eyes tends us towards internalising, whereas open eyes can lead us outwards …. outwards to the universal. Eyes can trigger the opening of the spine and with open joints there is a belief that energy can flow, this creates a ‘live’ intent while the big muscles continue to relax. Eyes – the intention of your essence.”

            One, leaning back in his chair and who had been quiet before, spoke next, “A bit like George talking of the eyes of the Tiger, eyes that don’t just look out at their prey but seem to draw the prey in – sort of see it and own it.”

            “I’m sure that comes in to it,” continued their elected teacher, “eyes connect to the internal like that. The seeing trickles down through the internal, then that energy returns through the eyes. This will be sensed by others that observe you. Seeing may well be with the eyes, but there are other ways of seeing too. The whole body relaxes and becomes involved. Remember, though, that the eyes are part of the one thing, and when one thing moves, everything moves, and when one thing stops, all stops; eyes are part of that too. You might catch a glimpse of some special feeling, and in surprise and pleasure you recognise the event with thought …. and the feeling disappears; the harder you attempt to return to that feeling the more illusive it becomes, perhaps lost forever as a once in a life time memory. Thinking destroys feeling, when all intention and thought are gone away then you will only be energy – Wuji.”

            Our friend, who had long been back now from being away with the fairies, offered, “This place must exist, even though I’ve not found it yet myself; the yin yang theory bounded by the truths of thousands of years tells us this. Full circle we have come back to ‘no wuji – no Taiji,’ one is yin to the others yang and together they allow existence itself to be manifested, like, without two sides, the coin cannot exist.”

            It was late and time to go, last orders had been called, the pub now quieter with just a few die-hard locals left.

            They all said their farewells and no doubt each hoped they would be closer to understanding by the time they next met; the door closed behind them and the night swallowed them up as they each took their own paths towards home, and who knows, perhaps towards Wuji.

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 5.      Meditation ….was it only a dream?

 

 Outside, a lone, honey bee foraged amongst the damp  and fading blue Corn Flowers, and an unusually cool wind for the time of year waved the young, burgundy  fronds of the Mimosa tree with an invisible hand. Meanwhile, inside, arms resting on the old pine kitchen table, he was contemplating on how summer was more like autumn this year. Steam rose from a mug of herbal tea as if it could compete with the playful smoke of burning incense, the little grey wisps of flying dragon smoke, playing all the way to the high ceiling. Notes on paper were strewn confusedly on the old table; chaotic as were his thoughts.

As his mind quietened, he drifted off gently into a day dream and soon, sitting before him, were two elderly people. The woman had the semblance of being English of around the 15th Century and the man seemed of Oriental origin of no known century, though by his clothes he’d led a frugal life. When they spoke, though the dreamer knew not their language, his dream intuitively allowed him to understand what they were saying. The old lady calmly adjusted her shawl and gently placed her hands loosely clasped together on the table, “We understand that you wish to meditate; what is it that you wish to know?”

At last the dreamer had been sent the help he’d hoped for, for years, someone to guide him; “I don’t know; how can I know the unknown, I don’t know how or what to look for, yet I know I must look”.

“Good, that’s good”, said the old man, “you’re making progress just by realising that there is something there to understand; something; out there; something; ‘beyond’, something to ‘believe’.”

Once again the old lady’s calm voice commanded attention, “on your journey, though you must search, yet search not too hard, nor try too hard, you cannot ‘make’ it happen. But do not despair, for you can create the circumstances in which it is possible that it can happen. When it does, neither time nor space will exist for you, you will neither know how long or how far was your journey, but you will know something else, you will know something special for the first time; it is for you alone to find that something, only you. We have an old saying, ‘he who is carried to the city walls will never know how far it was’.”

“Look, listen and feel my words”, said the old man as he seemed to relax more and yet appear to grow larger, “I’m going to tell you something about words, but I’m sure you know already, it’s just that you haven’t recognised it”. He continued, looking across the table seemingly from somewhere deeper behind his eyes, “We can hear words spoken by others but you must surely have heard the expression, ‘hearing is not hearing’, in your studies; we may not understand these words or we may ‘hear’ with the thinking mind of our own knowledge what we thought they said; and we ‘think’ we understand. In the beginning it is most unlikely that understanding will come with the words, though you may think for certain it has, this is a false dawn.

It is possible, at this stage; you will find no real value in these words until an ‘understanding’ arrives ‘uninvited’. When the understanding arrives then the words will have meaning; a meaning from ‘beyond’. Because we seek certainty our minds may not be open to the new learning which by its inherent nature is a process of change; a change towards what might appear to the unknowing as sheer fantasy. To help others we try to use words, but they are a poor substitute. When an understanding arrives and you cannot explain it; and I mean the understanding and not its arrival, then you should know now that your discovery is of real value, but it can only belong to you, the discoverer. Real truth is beyond all words, it resides in the pre universe ether – pure consciousness. No one can make it happen - it just happens.

 Let me ask you, ‘do you think in words?’ Do not reply; just feel the answer for yourself. Sometimes we do, for a conscious purpose – sometimes we do not and we visit a world of feeling and new discovery. We can become one with the sunset; we view it not with our eyes but our entire being, the Sun, the sky and you each no different from the other; if the Sun could ‘feel’ it would feel as you, all as one.”

  The dreamer couldn’t resist speaking, “I can’t help thinking, should I think or not think?” he asked.

  “Look”, said the old lady, moving some of the wordy notes out of the way and patiently leaning forward, “Words are only signposts on the journey, they are not the journey nor are they the traveller; so ask yourself, and don’t speak this time, just how long have you been staring at the signposts and not been travelling? How many times have you known there was something you should do, but you don’t? You, the traveller must journey. Not to think, not to not think; if you are interested in meditation then thinking is good, but not thinking with words. It is a thinking you seek that exists not in the conscious world. Find that which manifests inspiringly from the silent thinking of the sub conscious, which for eternity has its roots in the infinite cosmos. Permit yourself some peace and a place in which to have it”.

  “Good advice, and much as in my own oriental culture”, agreed the old man, “be comfortable, it is not through physical effort or will power, it is the something in the mind that opens the door, seek this first, only then will the portal appear and you have the chance, if you dare, to enter in; my ancestors used the expression wuji, - emptiness, when muscles relax but energy itself reaches out, the less your muscles do the further out your energy reaches, like a lamp in muddy water as the sediment settles the light shines out brighter, though the lamp itself was always that bright, always there. It has been said that we were all born a Bhudda, then we spoil it; know that the Bhudda still illuminates the deep within us, beyond the mist, the fog, the mud.”

  As our dreamer listened, he thought he glimpsed a hazy shape surrounding his unexpected guests, strange it was, something he’d never noticed before. As his conscious mind awoke to consider this event, like water from a sieve his guests disappeared from sight, nothing he could do would keep them, he tried and tried, but they were gone.

“But I still have questions”, the dreamer thought - in words.

  This dream was ended, he took up pen and paper, he struggled to remember and desperately scribble down the words of what he thought he’d learned, he slowly realised it was pointless, it was only words, no one who would understand, no one who would believe, why should they – he hadn’t … only words …… but he couldn’t stop …. He picked up the mug to make a fresh tea … the mug was hot, the tea too hot to drink ……… steam still gently rose with the incense smoke.

  RJS Aug 08


                                 ‘To meditate, be the incense smoke’

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6.            One with the Universe.

        It was once well said, ‘we are the map-makers of our own lives’; not that we all, I’m sure, have not had the odd glance at plenty of other people’s maps. (Where are you going? I don’t know; where would you like to go?) The older I get the harder it is for the eyes to see the map, often it needs the brightness of a sunny day to help, but the easier it has become for the mind to ‘see’. If only I’d known at the beginning, then my map would not be so faded in places, so crumpled and liberally festooned with frenzied alterations.

  There are a few crossings out near the bit that reads, ‘Centre of the Universe’; I’ll tell you, if you want to hear,

  “This is your hara”, said the black belt Aikido instructor, pointing to a place just below the navel, “imagine that this place is the very centre of the Universe.”

It was not so easy, but because I believed it had value I found it possible. By thinking that the Universal centre was within my own body centre it empowered me with a sense of calm and detachment from any dangers; it could take away fear. I was impressed. I marked it on my ‘map’.

  For a while I would oft-times visit that place marked on the map and then, one day, I stopped going there. I don’t know why.

   Half a life time, or more, later I visited that place again, but somehow it was different; I saw that there were now signposts pointing out. They point out, not just to nearby trees or views but out, really out; out to the seas, the mountains, the Moon, Sun and the stars – to infinity. All the signs point out – but peace dwells within.

  Self becomes one with the Universe not by pretending its centre is inside us but that wherever we are, centre or not of the Universe, we can reach out with our spirit, our mind, connect, and become one with it all – the energy we send out forms a conduit for that which we reach for to travel back and touch us.

Like holding a hand out for a loved one – only by doing this can they too reach out to touch the same.

  So the map shows not a concentrated internalisation but a vibrant viewing point from which our own centre can reach out, eyes wide open, to commune with the entire Universe.

  If you can find this place on your ‘map’ you will surely find yourself at peace. Avoid engaging in conscious will, or want, or intention, merely feel the ‘interest’ in doing so – that is all it takes to invite a smile from the Universe.

In this way you may find your world united in peace; in this place find your body doing nothing except allowing the life force to keep you ticking over; in this time know everything without need to ask the questions; in this union you will be enlightened, you will become one.

  It’s what you sense that counts; perhaps the mind itself is neither journey nor destination; perhaps the mind is only the ticket that admits your spirit to the temple of Oneness.

                                                             ******************************

There's a lot in this but no one said you had to read it !!

7. In pursuit of enlightenment – a shared tapestry of aphorisms.

          It was a truly wonderful place to rest overnight; a mixed forest clearing, by a lucid stream that burbled musically along a deep and ancient wooded valley. Beyond the valley, high snow clad mountains rose up to meet the occasional cloud in an otherwise clear sky. Even the valley itself was lost, lost in a world of other valleys and mountains, which stretched beyond what the eye could see.

            Two travelling companions, both with minds set on the path to enlightenment, sat by their camp fire, the smoke meandering through the autumn turning leaves of the mighty oak and skywards towards the heavens.

            Aijin was the elder of the two by far and had travelled many a hard road in his search already; his young companion, Yufe, had been but a few years in pursuit of 'the great truth', the 'enlightenment', the 'oneness' that was foretold in the ancient manuscripts of all peoples. They travelled together because they believed they were on the same path, to the same place – a knowledge no person can truly have of another.

            Yufe was grateful for Aijin's older wisdoms and was never slow to ask questions, and questions he certainly had ... all the time. It was answers he needed, not questions. He reminisced briefly over an inscription he'd seen over an old temple door, 'If you leave not-answering I have no questions; if you leave unquestioning I have no answers', it had given him hours of pleasure – and some angst too.

            However, Yufe's question was more simple this time, “Why is it, old friend, that the 'temples of enlightenment' are always up there, high up in mountains, so far out of common reach, why do you think it so?”

            Edging closer to the fire and warming his outstretched hands, Aijin once again humoured his young friend and replied, “Well, it could be that to survive up there requires a special form of discipline to overcome adversity, or it could be that there, in that place, exists a simplicity with no distractions from our so called civilised society, or perhaps it is just to be closer to the great ether, the cosmos, or heaven as some might call it. Me? I think it’s more simple than that, I think we engage in the physical, kin to its twin, the essential spiritual and, for those who can see,  it relates well with the old saying, 'those who are carried to the city walls will never know how far it was’, and there are many things to discover on the way too. Perhaps it is a metaphorical journey; perhaps it is not a journey of, way up there, but of a journey deep, deep down, down inside us, which is why only we can make it. Many would sooner climb a mountain than climb into their own mind”

            Yufe too warmed his hands by the fire and developed the conversation further, “Quite possibly so, I mean, when something comes to us too easily then we often don't value it as much. I hear that in china they have a saying that to be a hero you must first climb the great wall. I have thought on this and say, hero or not, the wise man will go where he wants, wherever that is.”   

"Mm, I wonder, is that truly wise? Who knows what wisdom is? Come on, take a look at this and give me your opinion", said Aijin, reaching for a piece of crumpled paper in his bag, "'Walk with the man who follows the path behind him; talk with the man who only speaks when no one is listening'"

"Ah, pass it over, let me read it myself, this may take a little understanding," said Yufe, and after only a few moments concluded that neither made any sense; he remembered an old saying, 'change the way you look at things and the things you look at will change'; "Now that's wisdom", he thought, "I can understand that".
Yufe looked at the crumpled note in his hand, and changed the way he looked at it, however, even as the seconds and minutes ticked by, what he looked at did not change, "huh, perhaps that's not so wise either", Yufe sighed.
            “Mmm, who knows,” said Aijin, “perhaps we would be wise indeed to accept what we have here; perhaps it is what we really seek but know it not as yet; fresh air, good food, shelter, warmth, peace and harmony; one with nature in a safe place to commune with heaven and earth. Will we find better than this if we move on?”

            Yufe, the younger, deftly moved some embers with a crooked stick and pulled out some baked roots from underneath ....    Mmm ...  I'll let you know when I've eaten a couple of these,” he chuckled, reflecting that it certainly was a good life so far.  However, somewhere deep in the subconscious a mental note was being made to remind him later that only those who  risk truly live.  Peeling back the charred Yam skin he mused, “You know, once we reach our destination there will be nowhere else to go; I mean ... a puzzle solved is a puzzle no longer. What will we do once we arrive? They say a student has a thousand options, the master, only one. Surely it is also so with one who travels, and the one who arrives. We are on a journey to find an enlightenment that may imprison us in certitude that there is no place more to find.”

            “Pah! You think too much, the physical may end but the spiritual not, for spiritual is of energy and can never be destroyed, now pass me one of those yams while there are any left.”

            Yufe passed the largest of the yams across the glowing embers to Aijin, “you know, old friend, you know that we seek to be one, ..... You know, one with self, one with the universal and so on?”

            “Yes,” said Aijin, nibbling at the cooler edges of the fresh coked Yam, “what's your point now?”

“Well, what happens when we finally achieve this oneness, how will we know?

            Spitting out a bit of burnt skin, “easy – you will recognise that you are one and in that moment all will be revealed - the understanding of all past wisdoms will be revealed and doors to the future opened. You will have arrived at the beginning and recognise it all for what it really is.”

            “OK,” said Yufe, fidgeting nervously, as some possibly uncomfortable truths dawned on him, “when I recognise that I am 'one', by inference, there must be two of me, one that recognises and the one that is recognised;  ........ You’re right, I think too much ....... I often tell myself off about that.”

            “There you are then”, said Aijin, with a broad smile, “if you talk to yourself then you must already have become one, and in doing so discovered you are two! You are therefore the enlightened one amongst us. Perhaps that is the destiny of us searchers, perhaps the great puzzle is answered by knowing we are each more than one. Do you not recall Kai Lung's words? That there are three of each of us; that which he is, that which he thinks he is, and that which he intended to become”.

            Yufe stood to fetch some nearby soft pine branches, and so doing he spoke un-realising to himself once more, “Ah, so much to discover .... so much to understand ....  we are all students ......  to the end of our days”.

            Returning to the comforting glow of the fire with his bundle, he noticed that his companion was  collecting more fuel for the night time fire. “Nothing like using the 'now' to make a later 'now' a bit more  comfortable”, Aijin smiled..

            Fire logs neatly placed, and to the hoot of a distant owl, they both sensed that their journey for the day was nearly over. ...... Nearly.

            As evening fell and the silent curtain of dusk drew a veil over the landscape, they both settled on cushions of pine branches and leaned their backs comfortably against a fallen giant; their feet and eyes alike looking contentedly at the fire.

            After a while of fire gazing and silent contemplation, Yufe spoke of the journey they should make on the morrow, “we don't seem to be getting any where fast, do we?”

            “'Be not afraid of going slowly, only of standing still', says an old Chinese proverb; were we to go too fast our souls would find it hard to keep up”, advised Aijin.

            “It seems a long way before we will even clear the valley, shame we didn't have a horse to take the burden”, whisted Yufe.

            “Oh you poor young wanderer you; finding the going hard eh? Don't you remember what I said earlier, that those who are carried to the city walls will never know how far it was,” Aijin replied, admonishing his young friend.

            “I thank you for your timely reminder, you have not only been a wise and pleasant companion but your words have taught me much of that which I would otherwise have forever been unaware. I thank you”

            Aijin's reply was slow in coming, and in a quieter now, assuring voice he said, “You are kind, but methinks misguided on this matter, for words are but a crude and ineffective tool, you may hear them a thousand times and you will hear them and think you understand  ... and true, you may understand with the mind, but it will only be when you 'feel' the meaning that you will truly understand. Thinking is the enemy of feeling, when you are ready, and only then, the feeling will open the book of wisdom and you will read the story for the first time and know it”.

            “Well, your words have just opened the first page of my book, for I now sense the depths of something I saw  many years ago. An old man, a nomadic monk of some sort, was sheltering in my village and often being asked by the villagers to teach them what he knew. He said very little, much to their annoyance. Before he left the village he had this to say to them, 'You asked many questions and I gave you no answers; for I cannot help you, to find the great truth you must seek that which cannot be taught'.  Only now, all these years later do I sense that I have understood what he meant – but I'll try not to put it into words!”

            They both laughed and enjoyed their laughter and enjoyed their knowing. They felt that a piece of the great puzzle had fallen into place, and no words were needed, or possible.

            A yawn, a stretch, and another log on the fire and Aijin eased old bones into a comfortable position for sleep; -”I just hope I can walk in the morning – it's alright for you youthful ones, but my joints are a little stiff after a night under the stars”.

            “Well, sadly – or fortuitously – for  we are who we are – and probably exactly who we deserve to be as well. We must make the best of it. I'm sure you'll be fine – we're not dead yet”, Yufe yawned too, and was asleep as his eyes closed; eyes too late for the flickering firelight to give away the secret flight of an owl on its silent way to supper.

            Aijin, by an inexplicable quirk of habit against robbers, placed a small canvas bag of belongings closer by his side, not that there was anyone else within two days walk  from their resting place. He muttered an old comfort that his mother had oft-times told him, “child, anything that can be lost was never truly yours to keep”; and with his mother's  soft voice in his head, he was asleep.

            All was quiet except for the sound of quiet breathing and the odd  sharp crackle from the fire as it spat out a spark that it felt didn't belong.

            Now, away in his dream, Aijin's nostrils widened with the scent of incense in the Jade Buddha Temple, he was one among many but a  powerful silence pervaded the throng in the dimly lit and heavy timber beamed building. It was as though no one noticed that he was there, he watched as each person present performed some ritual before the statue, and after what seemed an eternity of meditation some of the monks stood and left, the great doors  thudding, with a sense of permanence, closed behind them.  The few that stayed behind, the chosen ones, the elders, the senior disciples, they gathered in silence to their master.

The master led them to one of the many ornate wall carvings and, unseen, slipped a secret catch that released a door leading into yet another windowless and timbered smaller room. Candles were lit and they filed in through the narrow doorway, following in the master's footsteps.

            Still unnoticed, like a ghost, Aijin had followed them all in, and heard the door clunk closed behind him. How lucky he was, he was so excited, for this was the special day of days when the senior monks were told the great secrets and the history of their forebears.

            The Master pointed to ancient paintings on the wall, flickering candles illuminated the scene. “This is the foundation of our future”, he said, “Here the founding monks began the building of the first temple – and in this very s room, in which we stand together now, like they stood together then. Know you this, you are all free as of this moment, you may all speak, you may ask any questions – please be free.”

            “Master, these figures, here, is this the Tai Chi that they practised?”

“Yes it is, but in a form now long lost, even to us, though through their practice it is recorded that they found a sense of peace and detachment that to them was never lost and always valued, hence the rarely seen expressiveness of the postures.”

            Another spoke, “And what of this, master, this symbol next to the Buddha?”

“An ancient symbol; again lost to the world except for this place and now to you. You ask now, and it is indeed about 'now'. The picture shows the Buddha exhaling and holding the out breath; on the long awaited in breath the Buddha experiences the breath of life itself and its existence in the moment, in the moment of 'now', beyond and before which nothing else has as much value. The symbol you mention is ancient and means, 'now and eternity are one'. This you must think on for yourself, though it is similar to an exercise in your own practice, to know it truly will take you longer than your young years.”

            A tall man near the wall held up his candle, “and Master, what of this picture that appears to be the night sky, in which little streams join to make a river, a river that cascades in a mighty waterfall  into a great lake where it spawns stars, planets and moons of its own?”

            “You chose wisely in your search”, the master smiled, “this signifies that nothing is original that didn't already belong in the great Universal in the beginning. All words and all wisdoms of men were written in the stars and though many think they are the first, it is not so. All knowledge is pre-written in us before birth it's up to us to find it. We all know already it is just that it has not yet become visible.” The candlelight reflected both on students and Master as one, and he continued, “It has been written that, 'sleep is the watering place of our soul, to which it hastens at night to drink at the source of life', when you meditate you can become one with this mystical river and it will l show you how to see these wisdoms – if you but let it do so, in a silence of your own, for how can you hear the river when you make so much noise yourself. Listen to the flowing river, for it will bring you many answers, and both at the beginning and the end, they will be the same ........  But wait;  .... Something disturbs our journey....  I sense that there is amongst us one that does not belong  ........”

            As the Master scanned the candle lit faces, our dreamer was filled with the dread of discovery, - in one short moment a strong hand gripped his shoulder, he tried to escape but no amount of effort would make his cowering body move, try as he might. The sound of a man shouting at him filled his ears and his mind – he fought desperately in his mind to realise where he was. Yufe took his hand from Aijin's shoulder, saying, “welcome home from your night mare, it seemed to last forever and I feared I would not wake you.”

            Aijin slowly began to relax his  taut muscles and freed his joints, “What a dream, if dream it was – so real – such wonder – I learned so many secrets in the temple”.

            Now both fully awake, Yufe implored Aijin to tell of his new found secrets.

            “Well it's really strange, I know I learned great things but I can't exactly tell you what, I don't have the words, it's all unclear now really ....... perhaps I'm not yet ready – that's why I was found out ..... I do know that the river has answers for me .... for us .... for all of us ...... but how will it tell us? I wonder if having seen the Temple, it will never be shown again, because it was only a vision, a tool, to show me of its existence ....... I'd like to go back .... but I think that door, the secret door, will no longer be opened for me – it will never be the same again - I'll have to open it myself next time ... yes, that's it, I must find the door for myself, and enter in.”

            Early forest mists were now made visible by the risen dawn, Yufe blew on the ashes of the fire and it breathed into life again, he looked up satisfied, “I'm sure you'll know the answers, they'll be in there somewhere, let me know when you find them.”

           “Aha”, said Aijin, “ of something I am sure, that you must walk to the city wall yourself, by me carrying you, you will not find your own answers, you would be a prisoner of another's words and never find the great 'freedom' that you seek. I will tell you what I discover but I think you will find them empty words till you become the discoverer or, perhaps, the discovery itself”.

            “Mmm, I sense you are right, I have  seen many times a secret discovered and passed on to those that had not sought; I saw that they heard the words but they carried no value to them, they had not endured the journey that makes the view worth while.”

            They, as was the awakening forest, were now fully engaged in the new  living day,  and all three of them, or indeed however many of them there were, were to rise with the Sun and live with the Sun till dusk would hide them again.

 

            How long that took was up to the Earth and the Sun, how far they went was up to them. They were their own destiny.

 

                          *******************

 

            Whatever your belief, beware, because it is you that lives in it.

 

                            *******************

8. Keith’s Sheep and the fence.

 
           “Now,” he paused in thought as he scribbled his notes in the Royal, while awaiting his roast dinner, “is it Tony's or Persephone's fence?”  ..........................................................

......................................

          It had all started to meander through the trackless neuron fields of his mind a few weeks before: - the usual gang were in their favourite pub after tai chi class; he couldn't remember what had sparked off the conversation, but it went a little like this. ...........”You have to search, but if you look too hard then you don't find what you want; it's a bit of a paradox really, but the very act of 'want' hampers your discovery – want is the fog that hides the path”.

            “A bit like sheep wanting the grass on the other side of the fence”, he offered.

Keith, knowing just a bit about farming, supped his real ale and said, “and do you know what? ..... as soon as they're the other side their first thought is to get back again!”    The image made them laugh and they returned to their crisps and beer.

            Not so very long after this event he was visiting his mentor and distant teacher, Tony, and mentioned the conversation. “Ah”, said Tony, “interesting. Now, using your mind, visualise what it is you want, just like the sheep see the grass, and in your mind approach the 'fence' calmly and with patient consciousness. When you arrive at the 'fence' imagine that you can remove it, and in its place there will be a space, a gap that separates where you were and where you wished to go. Enter that space using your mind, your imagination. In this space all is connected, physical and mental all become one; at this point you should find you are one with all, one with the universe – your search is over.”

            “Wow,” he thought, “I can sense the value in this”, and his neurons raced to create a memory of this mini enlightenment.

            Later that night he was to put the theory to the test. His mind was so active, what with the day’s journey and new information, but he needed to sleep. Sleep was where he wanted to be; the more he wanted to sleep to calm and refresh him, the worse the fence became. In his mind, he approached the fence, and surprisingly found the space; he entered the space and sensed that all became quiet and still, and sleep crept ever closer – that is until he thought, “hey, this is working!” and he was back on the 'wrong' side of the fence again.

            Morning came with a light fenland mist and, after breakfast, they drove to the workshop venue on 'Synergy and Healing' and all was soon underway. 


           He made a mental note to use this idea next time he meditated, ‘mmm, a nice idea’, he mused, returning his attention to the class.Tony was explaining how best to approach clients and chose to illustrate it with a story about a pet dog with an injured paw. “You want to help the dog”, he said, “you must approach calmly, with whole body, not just your hand; in the brief instant of the first touch it is a moment when you and the dog are one. (The space where the fence once was) but this connection of oneness can pass quickly and now Ego and you are the ‘great healers’ and dominating the situation as you ‘will’ your energy to ‘fix that paw’. You are no longer 'one with all', access to the great universal has slipped through your hands; where one is connected to the great universal there is no fear, no want, and in that place of nothing everything is yours.”


           Later that cold winter evening, as the car hastened homeward and the long road rushed under the wheels and backwards into a deepening darkness, he sat still, warm and comfortable in the middle. His mind wandered pleasantly around some recent teachings he had read;- 

            ‘Be of good heart’ went the voice in his head, ‘and begin a smile’ …… “That’s it”, he thought, “the beginning of what we want is actually found in the middle, it’s not at the beginning nor at the end; it’s not the straight face nor the smile, it’s that little bit of relaxation in the middle where it all happens, just before the smile – just where the fence was.”

.........................  Many miles and hours later, up on Exmoor, he spoke of his new found wisdoms and how he had tried to share them with others, but how he had failed to make them understand  – it was nothing to them. 

 Persephone sympathised and offered another glass of mulled wine, “perhaps,” she said, “it is we who put the fences there, if we were not to build them perhaps we would intuitively be one with the universe; perhaps the gap you speak of is the place where something greater than we exists, the very thing that allows the healing to be manifest


        Drinking down the warm wine, he wondered if we can ever stop building fences, only then, perhaps, we can really help others.

 
            Whose fence is it, Tony's, Persephone's, or is it yours?


             How many have you put up while reading this? 

 

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