An aspect of the Ancient Chinese Health Arts that is great fun is learning to think differently. We all get in ruts and as humans we have… Read more “Cultivating Different Ways of Thinking and Interacting”
Category: Daily Practice
On Keeping it Light
One of the hall mark’s of Zen and Taoist training is the idea that you both have to treat what you are learning as the most important… Read more “On Keeping it Light”
Ta Mo’s 18 Hands of the Saint
Do Not delude yourself. Behold the mind and you Behold the Buddha -from Ta Mo’s Sermon Three canto 7 From the translation by Sifu John Fey… Read more “Ta Mo’s 18 Hands of the Saint”
This Confounding Human Consciousness
One of the most slippery aspects of learning about the body/mind is this confounding human consciousness. A very human belief is that how we perceive life is… Read more “This Confounding Human Consciousness”
A Place of Abundance, Authenticity, and Natural Beauty.
For many Millenia, our mystic friends from many traditions, have described a place that coexists alongside our normal waking consciousness. In our Tradition, we call this place… Read more “A Place of Abundance, Authenticity, and Natural Beauty.”
Why Would You Want to Cultivate Chi (QI)?
As I mentioned in a previous post on Cultivation, the goal of a cultivator is to have a free unrestricted flow of chi (Qi) in the body/mind.… Read more “Why Would You Want to Cultivate Chi (QI)?”
Perceive the World?
After many years of engaging my thoughts and imagination with movement and meditation, I am reminded daily how much my thoughts affect not only my body/mind but also how I perceive the… Read more “Perceive the World?”
A Little Rumi, A Little Meditation
I wish I could tell you that it is easy getting up every morning and engaging some kind of practice.
Cultivation and the Internal Arts of Ancient China.
When you play the Internal Arts of ancient China you will hear the term Cultivator used. I remember it seeming a very odd to use a gardening term for Meditation, Chi Gung, Hsing I, Pa Kua, Li Ho Pa Fa, and Da Cheng as well as in Northern Shaolin Kung fu. Over the years during the many hours of practicing these Arts it has become clearer.
I was speaking to a community gardener the other day and we were speaking of starting gardens, he was telling me that before you plant it is a good Idea to cultivate the soil for a year, loosening the soil filling it with composted dirt, removing the weeds, all so that when you do finally plant the differing plants the soil will support growth and the plants will grow healthy and strong.
So what are Cultivators in the internal arts Cultivating? They are cultivating the field of the body/mind so they can have chi flowing freely, unencumbered throughout the body/mind. Each art approaches this task differently and each art informs the other and accomplishes different aspects of what it takes for free flowing Chi.
- In broad terms, Chi Gung is about broadly tuning the Body/Mind. The questions it asks are:
- Am I relaxed?
- Am I grounded?
- Can I put my mind into the planet?
- Can I gather myself at My Tan Tien, a place three and a half inches beneath my belly button and inward? Can I extend outside of myself?
- Can i feel the thickness of the environment around me?
- Do I feel a lightness generated at my crown?
- Can I bring Chi in from my surroundings?
- Can I send chi out in all directions?
- and Can I have the mental flexibility to focus on each, forget each one and keep them all in mind like a juggler spinning plates? In short, it is like tuning your body/mind as you would tune a guitar.
In broad terms, Tai Chi asks: Can I take all of those internal adjustments from the chi gung and communicate them outward in a broad way.
Hsing I is about taking all of those internal adjustments sending them outward in a much more refined and clear way. It is about refining communication.
Pa Kua is about listening to your body/mind in a profound way.
Li Ho Pa Fa is about listening, sending and receiving and then sending out again. a Good metaphor would be like playing jazz sending out a tune, listening for a response, then sending out a musical response. It is a creative conversation with chi moving within and without.
And finally, Da Cheng brings it all home again on a much deeper level within the body/mind. The player is changed intrinsically by the chi flow and the chi flow moves both outward and deeper within the Body/mind.
So, as a general paradigm for the cultivator, making a place for chi to flow in a body/mind this tells us a lot about the nature of chi and what things need to be cultivated for a free flow of chi through the body. If you haven’t been a Cultivator the amount of chi flowing through you is slight. A cultivator learns to move a tremendous amount of chi through the Body/Mind because they have spent the time to cultivate the fields of the body/mind so that it can support a free and even flow of chi. For the Taoist, a free flow of chi means life and creativity so all of the ancient Taoist arts are cultivating being in tune with and closer with the Tao.
On Daily Practice
One Great Point Of Ignorance that I see from day to day in the world bustling about in our country and I am sure in the world… Read more “On Daily Practice”
Shaolin Daily 