Thoughts for a New Year

John Ringling went from being born in a shack with a dirt floor to being one of the richest men in America, and died with Three hundred and eleven dollars in the bank. 

Two Philosophies

You ask some people what they want in life, and they say, “Enough”. Enough to have a good life.

Others, when asked this question, no matter how much they have, will always answer, “More”.

The key to true happiness in life might be found, more often than not, in the contentment to be found in the former philosophy.

The Dalai Lama says that we should always be satisfied with our material wealth, and never be satisfied with our spiritual wealth, and always seek more.

The universe seems to provide. When it sees one who wants to make the world better, this quality is rare enough that it seems to have plenty of energy laying around, unused, for this endeavor, and often provides what is needed to help us on our path.

Blessings to all and Hopes for a Great New Year!

The Learning Trance

Sometimes learning even one part of the form to a higher level may engender the ability to go beyond our usual limits and expand our proficiency in other areas. 

Mastery of each sequence brings benefits as a result of the experience. The quality of one’s consciousness evolves as one’s form evolves. 

This is just common sense, and may apply to any area of endeavor, not just to T’ai Chi.

If we are confused by the complexity of any part of the form, (often the first moves), then we may carry this confusion with us as we perform our form. 

However, if we master one part, (again, often encountered in the beginning of the form), this feeling of mastery, competence, and equanimity then may enable us to rise to the occasion and really “Be there”, fully participating in each moment of the form and thereby able to clearly see and learn from (evolve) our form in each moment. 

This “Learning trance” may be likened to being “In the zone”, “Riding the wave”, or the experience of being totally immersed in the moment, in a Zen like state in which much is possible that might not be as accessible to us at other times. 

This “Peak experience” has been described in many other disciplines in which excellence may be achieved.

Systems

As we learn about how our system can work more effectively, the same principles may be applied to other systems. 

With T’ai Chi, we train our body parts to relax, come into balance, and move from the center with all parts participating and working together and helping each other. 

We may then apply these principles to effectively work as part of a group of people, (Students working on a project, etc. …), a county, a state, a government (country), a planet, solar system, galaxy, cluster of galaxies, a universe. 

An understanding of how all systems work is perhaps one of the more useful (Important) benefits which may accrue from the study of T’ai Chi.

Healing, (Powerful Prayer)

Pray for what you need, and include the phrase “I am ready.”, so it doesn’t take twenty years.

Snake creeps down, Rooster stands up

After the second Round Hand, also called ‘Cloud Hands’, or ‘Wave Hands Like Clouds’, we go into Snake Creeps Down. When done with a wide stance, (feet wide apart), this part is very aerobic, and a great exercise for young people. 

With the feet close together this exercise becomes more internal, what Mrs Chow would call “Small circles”. 

Mrs Chow could perform the entire form with Small circles incredibly fast, and perhaps do the entire form in under two minutes (I never timed her), all with perfect grace and balance. Even with small circles (feet relatively close together, not necessary to scrape the floor or ground with hands), I find a wonderful, delicious healing stretch in coming on to the back foot with hands together and raised and turning 135 degrees to the outside (Right), circling, and coming back to the front foot.

After this, we then perform ‘Rooster Stands Up’, also known as ‘Stand Up and Make Seven Stars’, which takes us to the second backwards walk. 

I sometimes ponder how this part may relate to the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters, a constellation in Taurus, near Orion. They are actually the seven brightest stars in an open cluster of stars, the closest star cluster to our solar system, and about which there are numerous myths and stories from many diverse cultures around the world.

Later, after the second Snake Creeps Down, (After the third Round Hand), we go into a section of the form in which we perform the same 135 degree turn balanced on one foot while our hands circle in a large figure eight, or infinity sign, and then proceed to the conclusion of the form. (The subject of a future discourse).

Expand Eden Into Space

We return back to Stand Up and Make Seven Stars. In this part the hands separate (open) vertically, and then sweep around horizontally as the right leg comes up and one stands on one foot, while the other foot sweeps around and is planted behind one to begin the backwards walk. 

This movement seems to acknowledge the vertical and horizontal space all around us, and when performed consciously, perhaps may expand our Chi out into space towards infinity.

The step by step, or ‘Square Form’ can be very useful in acquiring the details of this part of the form, and also in perfecting Snake Creeps Down.

Stained Glass, Handwriting

Sometimes I think that the form may be likened to a stained glass window. 

One day, when it’s cloudy, it looks one way. On another, sunny day, when the sun is behind it, it’s very different. Perhaps, on another day, a bird or a butterfly flies by behind it. 

The picture it presents is always changing, always fresh.

It is always a presentment of the current moment, and as such, the form is always alive and new.

Handwriting

Each person’s form is different, like handwriting. 

We all use the same alphabet, the same principles of slow, relaxed movements originating from our centers. Yet each of our forms is individual and unique, an expression of our own place in the universe. 

It is always fresh and new, and, like our handwriting, or our fingerprints, is uniquely our own. And yet, we can all read each other’s handwriting (mostly). 

We all use the same letters and the same language, and yet, what we perform is uniquely our own, a perfect expression of our current moment in space and time.

:)

The Two Wolves

There are two wolves inside each of us. This comes from many old traditions, and is often associated with Good and Evil, or compassion and self interest. When divested from this judgmental, polarizing, limitation, one may find much that is useful.

One is Spirit, Evolution, Growth, all the things we see beyond hard science, that which we know in our hearts is true. This is the realm of Spirit.

The other one is Hard Science, Classical Western Education, a materialism which says that entropy is all. All things, according to this tenet, eventually run down and decay, including the observable universe since the Big Bang.

Which one will survive? No one can serve two masters (Jesus). The one that we feed is the one that will win, within us. This simple fact evolves out of the idea that Man has Free Will. 

If we rise to the occasion and grasp the day, Carpe Diem, much is attainable that seems to bely common sense materialism.  It’s not the easiest path. 

When one embarks upon the path of spirit one may Create Order out of Chaos. 

Within this act of Creation one may awaken our connection to the larger possibilities which we may associate with the concept of God. 

How real this is may  be tested through empirical, pragmatic means by how well it works for us in furthering our goals. Positive results may then foster a faith in this process, strengthening the power (functionality, effectiveness) of the system.

Ideally we can take that which is useful from each wolf - not waste anything - and use that which is useful in creating a better, more inclusive world of which we are an integral part. 

Namaste.

Moving from the Hips

Movements which originate from the body’s center are a hallmark of good T’ai Chi. 

These movements usually exhibit an integration of all the parts into a unified whole, with all the parts coordinating harmoniously, supporting , reinforcing, and strengthening each other. In this way it may be said that the whole becomes more than the mere sum of the parts. 

For the human body in the gravity field, the spine may be viewed as the center of the body, with the hips at it’s base and the shoulders at the top. Out of these extend the neck and head, arms and hands, and legs and feet, out to the extremities. All may benefit from exercises generated from the center. 

Some of the largest muscles in the body stem from the hips, at the base of the spine. These upper leg muscles turn the hips. This energy is then transmitted through spinal rotation, through the shoulders and arms and on out through the extremities, and similarly down through the legs and on through to the lower extremities. 

This is usually accomplished in the lower, weight bearing structure by centering over the weight bearing side, rotating this side in balance, and passing energy out through the non-weight bearing side, out through the non weight bearing extremities.

This energy transference requires relaxed connections between the parts, and this relaxation is dependent upon one’s being in balance within the gravity field. 

In simpler terms, balance allows relaxation which then allows the cooperation between the parts, engendering the integration that allows efficient energy flow and unification of the parts, that which we call Chi.

Energy Transference Through Combining Rotation and Linear Motion

A hip rotation, translated into linear motion through relaxed and stretched joints, connects outward moving energies from the center through the various parts. 

Similarly, energies entering the body through the extremities may travel through the body and be registered directly within the center, without much of the filtering and delaying which often takes place when input between the extremities and the center travels through electrochemical means, as takes place in the nervous system.

Both systems are very useful, especially when they work together and complement each other. 

Such terms as excellence, mastery, and even proficiency often evolve out of a productive dialogue between these two sources of real-time information. 

In practical terms, this may be studied within the framework of this moving from the hips.

Synchronization

In addition to 1) Relaxing and only tensing what is needed for balanced movement, eliminating extra movement and tension; 2) Shifting the weight 100% between the sides and moving only parts without weight on them; and 3) Moving from the center, there is a fourth principle that becomes more and more obvious as the form evolves. 

This principle; 4) may be generally described as Synchronization.

 It manifests as the coordination of two or more separate parts, such as, when in the first lesson, the head is turned from looking at the left hand to looking straight ahead, and the left hand is turned from palm up to palm down. This occurs as we move into the horse stance, which Mr. Chow called “Riding the bicycle”. 

Moving the Fist

This “Synchronization” principle also manifests at a higher level, when we look at the relationship between the circle and the square. 

As we pull the fist back from an extended position (A straight line, the Square), to the Tan Tien, (Just below the belly button), the wrist and elbow are both gradually bent, so that the alignment of the fist does not change in relation to the direction one is facing. (These angle changes are a rotation, the circle), creating an example of Stillness in Motion - The fist is in motion, but it’s direction, (the angles of it's relationship with the environment), remains still. The movement is thus originated from the center, the spine/hips axis.

Retreating the Leg

When one retreats the foot after turning to the left after the first Round hand, beginners merely bring the leg back.

 More advanced practitioners do this by rotating the hip outward to move from the center, and simultaneously rotate the toe inward, again creating the appearance of stillness in motion as the foot seems to retreat in a straight line. 

These synchronized rotations in opposite directions enable the hand or the foot retreat to originate from the center. 

The hand/fist movement is easier to work with, as it takes place in front and in view, and is not part of the weight supporting structure.

 We are not usually looking at our feet, (Out of sight, out of mind), and it is much more difficult to change movements that may directly affect our balance.

Synchronization of Change of Direction and Weight Shift

Another example of synchronization takes place when one changes direction and shifts the weight at the same time, as in Cloud hands. 

At first, the player is facing 45 degrees to the right and the weight is on the right foot, then one both turns 45 degrees to the left and coordinates this turn with a weight shift to the left foot, and back and forth, as one performs the Cloud hands (Also known as the Round hand).

Similarly, in the Walk, the weight goes to the right and the left foot is moved, the weight goes to the left side and the right foot is moved, back and forth.

(This principle is much more evident in the continual, round form than in the step by step square form).

Small Steps

In the backwards walk students often begin with large steps, putting the toe down first. Then, as the heel is lowered, they go off balance. They fall back onto the foot they are placing before it is solidly placed on the floor or ground. 

Energy Blocks

During the time that one is out of balance, until the back foot has landed, muscular strength is required to keep from falling. This tightness, or muscle tension, inhibits the Chi flow through the body. 

These subtle, often un-noticed energy blocks then prevent the parts of the organism from working together as an organized whole. The system’s ability to create energy, depending on the coordinated synchronization of the parts, is inhibited.

Foot Placement

The solution to this problem is to take smaller steps and to plant the foot flatly behind one, rather than putting the toe down first. 

It is sometimes helpful at first to even exagerate this and put the heel down first, stretching and loosening the achilles tendon, in order to get used to this change.

Instead of placing the toe of the moved foot several inches behind (and next to) the un-moved foot’s heel, the backward step should be small enough that the toe is placed parallel (next to) to the arch, between the heel and the toe of the front, un-moved foot.

The weight is then shifted from the front to the back leg. It is only shifted after the back foot is firmly placed on the ground or floor.

(When I first learned this lesson, it was a break-through for me. It was the point at which my T’ai Chi came into focus).

Wisdom

When we are young we are valued for the strength of our backs, for our ability to produce. We are warriors and explorers and workers. 

As we age we become valued for our wisdom, experience, understanding, and compassion. We become Elders of our community, Sages.

Wave Hands Like Clouds

Two parts of the form which may offer much in furthering the evolution of balance and relaxation to the student, at the point when he/she is ready to go beyond memorizing arm and leg movements are the Walk, and then the Round Hand, also known as Wave Hands like Clouds.

This sideways walk combines and synchronizes the shifting of the weight from side to side with a forty-five degree turn back and forth to the right and left. 

Three Levels

Mr. Chow used to say that there were three levels in learning the Form. The first was learning to shift the weight from one side to the other. The second level occurred when one began to shift the weight one hundred percent. The third level began when one became able to shift the weight back and forth one hundred percent comfortably and easily. 

Cloud Hands is a part of the form where this evolution moves from the theoretical to the practical.

Bounce

When the Round Hand (Cloud Hands) is performed without shifting the weight one hundred percent, Mrs. Chow would sometimes point out to the student that as they lifted a foot, if there was still some weight on that foot, their head would “Bounce” up and down as the weight that was still on that foot shifted the balance and required an adjustment. 

When all the weight is removed off the foot before lifting it, there is no “Bounce”, and the balance is not disturbed.

The Round Hand is performed three times in the form. When learning the first Round Hand, these observations become pertinent. At this point the one hundred percent weight shift becomes necessary to the proper execution of the form in balance. 

The acquiring of this skill is essential to the relaxed hip turns which take place after the first Round Hand, which become more integral to the form after this point, when the hip rotations start to occur while balanced on one foot.

Work on this section raises the performance level back all the way through to the beginning of the form. It may serve to move the practitioner’s consciousness from the placement of body parts (arms, legs, etc.) toward an attending to the balance and relaxation. 

Because these qualities are always in the present moment, attending to them begins to transform the student’s experience and facilitates a most powerful meditative state. 

Again, the form doesn’t have to be perfect for this to begin, and Practice is all that is required for this process to take place.

Blessings to All

Calling the weather, and other stories

A Breeze comes into the Sweat Lodge

Once, when I first started participating in the monthly Sweat Lodge events in 1994, the door of the lodge was sometimes opened to let some cool air in during the sweat. During my first Sweat there, after the door was opened, as Barrett Eagle Bear picked up an eagle feather a cool breeze blew through the lodge.

A Squall blows through our Wedding

At our wedding ceremony in 1999, out of a clear blue sky, as Barrett performed the ceremony, a fierce storm appeared and blew through the tent, then passed and the sky was blue again. We were married outside the Sheraton hotel on the water by the entrance of the Miami river  into Biscayne Bay. The hotel, which isn’t there any more, was next to the Indian Circle site which is still preserved there. 

The Trees at Chekika

At Chekika State Park, which used to be called Grossman Hammock, and was the site of an old Indian village and some shell mounds, the trees would seem to wind up in a counter-clockwise movement when the winds blew, and unwind each time the winds paused. 

Chekika Stories

Esoteric Trees

It has been said that an esoteric tree has it’s roots in the air. At Chekika, the soil was shallow, with coral rock a few feet underneath the surface. There were banyon trees growing there, and I remember a huge one that had blown over in a storm. The trunk was laying horizontally on the ground and the roots were standing as a vertical disk, a seeming monument near a path. The intricate interwoven roots looked like Celtic Runes in the tropical forest. 

In 1942 a well was drilled looking for oil, and hit water far below the surface. This spring fed an upper and lower pond in the park. There was a run from the spring head a few feet to the first pond, and the second pond had a cleared part with a small beach, which was a local attraction of the park. A few years ago, as civilization expanded out to area, the spring was capped and replaced with city water, as the sulfur smelling waters, which had created a magical oasis full of diverse life and spirit, had to go. The area is now less open to the public, and not maintained as well as a park. (This seems to be in keeping with the goal of protecting the Everglades). For me, in another time, this was what the Indians might have called a place of power, where spiritual insight might be found.

A Miracle at Chekika

Once in the 1970’s, or perhaps the sixties, I was camping with friends at the park, which was then known as Grossman Hammock.  The Grossmans owned the place and were wonderful caretakers who willed it to the state to continue to be a park. The state re-named it Chekika, after the Indians who had once lived there.

 On the drive out there, we passed near the Kendall Gliderport, where people sometimes jumped from planes with parachutes. The abandoned runways there were sometimes used for para-sailing, which we sometimes did a few years later. 

That afternoon, while engaging in what might loosely be described as a vision quest, I attempted to walk across the rocks in the spring run, just below the spring head. It looked shallow and easy, but the rocks were covered with slippery dark green moss in the current. In retrospect, it was amazing that I walked half way across the run without incident, before slipping and falling (without injury) in what I can only describe as a mind altering experience. 

Just before this fall, we had been discussing the concept of the Warrior’s death, and the idea that it is our fears which keep us separate from becoming one with the universe and encapsulate us in these bodies on our path through life. (Jimi Hendrix: “I know how to die when it’s time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to.”). The Idea being that at the time of death (Hopefully not soon!), when there is no fear to separate us from the universe, we become one with it. This might be described as going straight to Valhalla. But back to the story:

As I fell, I seemed to have a cosmic experience. When, dripping wet, I exited the spring run, I was in a totally different space than before I fell. I felt enlightened. I was at peace. 

Later that day, as we drove home, we saw police cars and vehicles in the distance in the field by the glider port. At the time I fell in the spring run, one of the jumpers’ chutes had failed to open, and he had died instantly that day. 

Adjusting the Action

Bringing a Guitar Into Balance

I wrote this description of the repair/maintenance of a guitar, then realized that it might also apply in other areas of endeavor as well. There might be similarities found which might make useful these instructions for other purposes than that solely of the provenance of the luthier.

Part I:   The Truss Rod - Tightening the truss rod may be likened to the adjusting of the stays on a sailboat mast. In order for the mast to be straight and vertical, the pressure on the stays, or guy wires, must be equal on all sides. 

On a guitar this means that the pressure that the tightened strings pulling the fretboard (or the mast) up is exactly countered by the truss rod on the other side, inside the neck. This is set up in the shop or factory at the time of manufacture, but over time, the wood compresses at the truss rod ends, and the rod needs to be tightened to allow for this. (When tuning up a bicycle, one often has to tighten the nuts clamping the pedal cranks to the crankshaft, in a similar way). 

On a guitar, however, over-tightening and pulling the fretboard backwards may occur. A proper adjustment may be made by using one of the stretched strings as a straight edge, holding it against the frets at the first fret and at the highest fret, allowing a slight curve for the strings to vibrate. A good starting place might be to be able to insert a business card between the string and the midpoint fret between the ends of the string (at the first and highest fret). 

Part II:   The Bridge Saddle - filing down the bottom side of the saddle sometimes needs to be done after adjusting the truss rod, in order to lower the string height at the higher frets. (This also decreases the angle out from the neck, and lowers the outward pressure on the neck from the strings). 

Marking a line on the sides of the saddle before filing it helps to gauge how much to take off.  Hold the saddle in a vice and file it with a mill file, or sand it against a sandpaper block, with care and attention given to keep the bottom of the saddle straight and square. If too much material is removed, sometimes a shim may be inserted, but often a new saddle must be fabricated. (This can turn into an upgrade, plastic to bone, bone to ivory, etc.).

This is the point where the sound is transmitted from the strings to the soundboard, and also sometimes to an under-saddle pick-up. It requires some expertise and attention to detail.

When the strings are lowered closer to the fretboard, this reduces the pull on the neck and sometimes causes the neck to straighten even more over the next few weeks! This is in addition to the immediate goal of bringing the strings closer to the neck in order to make the guitar easier to play, and may improve the playability even more over time, especially with older instruments! 

Part III:   Leveling Raised Frets: - When the action is lowered to facilitate very easy fingering, un-even fret height, usually not a problem with slightly higher action, may cause buzzing or may cause the same note to be played when fingering the fret or frets below the raised fret. If the fret above the fingered fret cannot be tapped down into it’s slot, then it may need to be filed down with a fret file, a short file that can rest on several frets in order to lower the one sticking up. This should be practiced on a cheap guitar or two before attempting work on someone else’s guitar!!! It is not for beginners. Dressing the frets afterwards with special files is recommended. (See guitar building instruction books for details).

(Perhaps adjusting dysfunctional behaviors may be likened to this process, and is the subject of a future paper.)

Values (Finding Balance)

Sometimes we value success over propriety. At other times, compassion may be considered more important than success. Sometimes true compassion might mean being kind to ourselves and accepting our own imperfections. 

A couple of stories that were told to me by friends come to mind, but I’m hesitant to relate them here until I receive their blessing in this endeavor. So much has transpired over the years that I feel the need to move slowly in order to give myself a chance to rise to the occasion and be at my best when I reconnect with them. 

Perhaps this means giving time for sanity to arise out of my complicated thoughts and allowing simplicity to emerge. Sometimes these things have a life of their own, and resolve themselves in their own time, if we only give them that time. It is enough for now to pay homage to these obtuse thoughts before moving on…

Impermanence

Impermanence is that which makes all things precious. 

Some Phrases in Lakota

Mitake Oyasin.  (traditionally translated as “All My Relations”, including our relationship with the ancestors, the rocks, trees, two leggeds, four leggeds, winged and finned creatures, stars galaxies, planets, and so on…) (Pronounced run together as one word, “Mi ta’ quee ah’ seen”). Sometimes used like “Amen”, or “Aloha”.

Wa Chek ee ay Suta.   Pray Hard. (Two words, Wachekeeay and Suta).

Doksha Keelay.     See You Around. (Native American sign language, hand circles vertically in front once from level of heart up passing the eyes, back down to heart level, palm facing in, -see ya- then horizontally, palm down, out and around and back to body. -around-.

Mitake Oyasin,

Daniel