Practice! Something that all tai chi and meditation practitioners (and musicians) seem to have to grapple with and a very challenging word for me personally. I like to joke that I wish I took up a "hobby" which would have had concrete projects or clear end goals, instead of tai chi and meditation, a second life's work (building model cars?). So I'm here, grappling with practice guilt, discipline, and personal time management skills, just as much as I'm grappling with the bass (should I be practicing right now instead of writing this blog?).

What is practice? At the Tai Chi and Meditation Centre (TCMC) we use the noun "The Practice" sometimes, as well as practice in its verb form - "remember to go home and practice your new moves".
I checked a couple of dictionary entries about practice, and they point to a couple of ideas -
From www.dictionary.com:
Noun: habitual or customary performance; operation: office practice.
Verb: to follow or observe habitually or customarily: to practice one's religion.
Verb: to perform or do habitually or usually: to practice a strict regimen.

- but there is something about my Mac's built in dictionary's definitions I like:

noun: the actual application or use of an idea, belief or method, as opposed to theories about such application or use.
verb: perform (an activity) or exercise (a skill) repeatedly or regularly in order to improve or maintain one's proficiency.

To me the notions of application and improvement go well with the internal martial arts, qigong and vipassana we study at the TCMC. Why engage in a habitual or customary performance (the tai chi form, meditation)? To me the goal is inquiry, the act of testing "the actual application or use" of what you are "practicing". This means taking the things you are learning home and examining them to see if you can find a personal connection or truth in them. "Examine" is the sometimes horrifying word that my bass teacher here uses to cut right to the core of something I have taken for granted for years, and have allowed to develop unconsciously. Examine means that the action in question must be systematically practiced in order to be able to gain full conscious control over it - performed "repeatedly or [and!] regularly in order to improve". To me, this applies exactly the same for the left hand playing arpeggios on bass as it does to the left hand doing ward-off in the tai chi form.

Practice, in terms of "actual application... as opposed to theories," means it isn't enough to go to class and be told how things are. It means going home and examining the things you have been taught, and finding out if they are true- whether or not they work for you, if you can make them your own (and if you can't, it gives you questions to bring back to the next class, so practice actually makes class better).

To me, "regularly" is an important word here. Since practice can be daunting, especially as you learn more things and wonder what you should be working on, I think it is important to build up a practice (the noun), that is something you do habitually/regularly so that you are constantly going back and examining these skills. In the context of tai chi and meditation, this means constantly examining yourself, as you are looking to bring the object of practice into consciousness. Practice as inquiry is a form of meditation (I wonder if vipassana meditation, as basically pure inquiry, might be seen as pure practice?). It's always the same moves in the form everyday (or same posture on the cushion), so what changes? What changes is YOU - your attitude, your perceptions of progress or lack thereof, the things that are preoccupying your mind and preventing you from focusing. The things we practice are a touchstone to our internal states, and in the case of tai chi and meditation, practicing is an opportunity to learn from our habits and reoccurring patterns of behaviour and thought, giving us the possibility of freedom or space from ourselves. I've found that going at regular practicing with a spirit of inquiry (I always find starting again after a long break seems arduous), makes practicing fun and exciting, and leads to revelations about both the objects of practice (tai chi, music) and the subject of practice - yourself! Of course, as we head further down the non-dual "Zen and the Art of Archery" route, the practicer and the practiced merge, the place we are all "practicing" to get to!

The spring is one of my favourite tai chi times of year, a chance to re-birth a practice that may have become a bit dormant in the winter (or constrained by the size of my living room). I'm looking forward to bumping into you all in a Toronto park this spring - Happy Practicing!

Several years ago, I found a quote in one of Ken Wilber’s works that referred to spirituality as “one’s ultimate concern.” I responded almost instantly with affirmation when I read this, as it seemed to encompass the elements I also advocated. To my surprise, Wilber went on to introduce three complementary aspects of “ultimate concern”: the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. These are not terms of his own; they are borrowed from the Greek philosopher Plato. Wilber does, however, give them a very interesting interpretation.

We respond to the Beautiful with awe and wonder. Scenes of natural splendour and artistic masterpieces suspend our thought, and cause us to pause, entranced. The Beautiful is not only our inner sense of what is aesthetically compelling, but also of what constitutes moral rectitude. Beauty of spirit, then, on a personal level, is a balanced, integrated and harmonious whole; an individual whose words and deeds reflect the distillation of wisdom, reverence, and compassion.

The True is our outer domain, and to me is best represented by science in its essential form. Mathematical and physical principles that help us make sense of our external environment are also part of the True nature of spirituality. Hence, at the deepest level, there is no schism between “art’ and “science”, or religion for that matter. These are simply different lenses through which we are able to look. I read recently of a math teacher who put Pythagoras’ theorem on his blackboard, then underneath it wrote the famous quote from John Keats’ poem “ Ode on a Grecian Urn:”
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty"---that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
What a brilliant summation of the two perspectives! This teacher saw that the Truth of science and the Beauty of art are two aspects of the same thing, approached either from the outside or the inside.

As we are individual, so are we collective. No one denies that we are the results of the societies and environments that determine us, and conversely we can influence those collectives by words and deeds. The Good is who we are viewed from the collective. Everything from the tenets of social intercourse, to the systems we develop to ensure justice, to our engagement in social comity, to our economic and political systems all contribute to our sense of the collective Good. The extents to which our societies are inclusive, just, and peaceful are the measure of the degree to which they incorporate the elements of the Good.

Our practice at the Tai Chi and Meditation Centre is to pursue and refine these aspects of ourselves. The triumvirate of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful correspond to the Chinese “Three Treasures,” and address the summation of ourselves as individuals and as a collective. Martial arts develop our outer, corporal element- the True. Meditation and Qi Gong turn the focus more inward- the Beautiful. Finally, we commit ourselves to our practice in the company of other like-minded folk in order to establish a harmonious community- the Good. The historical Buddha proposed a very similar three-part discipline with his canon of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

Spirit is both immanent and transcendent. Of the transcendent we will say little here. Of the immanent, the Good, the True, and the Beautiful are its manifestations. All admit of the possibility of a scale of values. All admit an endless progression of refinement toward the sublime. All are part of an attempt at a truly integrated view of spirituality.

Jeff Willis

In the USA, from which we increasingly seem to take our lead, partisan politics has become particularly nasty, with some people openly depicting President Obama in an insulting racist manner. Town hall meetings are packed by people who are there just to shout down the speakers; Americans are taking to the street for the first time in a long time. The reason? Improved, possibly government-backed health care for the ordinary person!! It is interesting that George W. Bush faced no such reaction when he took America into two wars, using (as has been proven and at the time was being questioned) misleading or false “facts”. He even escaped censure for using torture… which incidentally enmeshed individual Canadians and the Canadian government. Many lives were needlessly lost, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. No one complained then (or now) about America’s federal military budget, which is larger than health care.

In Canada, Stephen Harper bases his (so far successful) political tactics on the aggressive (sold as “committed” or “passionate”), hard-nosed, Bush-Cheney style and he also takes his policies from them – especially the no government/ no regulation part. Despite this stance, however, Harper obviously loves the power that comes with government and has shown no reluctance to spend money on his favourite projects and to throw fat consulting contracts and jobs to his supporters.

What can be done? We need much more compassion and cooperation all around, but way before that, we need to listen to each other with open hearts and open minds. We need to find some deeper meaning and fulfillment in our personal lives… otherwise we just get frustrated and angry, taking it out on the nearest person. Sounds simplistic, but that is what commonly happens to even the most educated, privileged and sophisticated.

Unfortunately, we seem to be moving in the other direction, partly driven by technology and the media. Technology is a tool, but is not completely neutral, since it has definite characteristics, which include complexity. The internet, for example, has both positive and negative aspects. Among the positive is the ability for the downtrodden to broadcast their plight and for people to network and share information. On the negative side, you have hackers, (child) porn sites, identity theft etc. In terms of news and even politics, people are encouraged to give their opinions immediately, but what are these opinions worth if there is no introspection or if they are relatively uninformed i.e. people are just spewing out their unexamined biases… republican vs democrat, Christian vs Muslim etc. If there is too much information or if there is no information, in the end, the result will be the same. People will just go with what they already feel, albeit unexamined.

Especially since Bush-Cheney, there are signs that in American (and possibly Canadian) politics, an aggressive, partisan, even lying approach is effective. This is a complex issue, but here are just a few reasons why this is happening.

1. On national TV, most programs invite the two opposing sides to state their case. If one side is more aggressive, sensational and deceptive, then they tend not to get penalized for their behaviour because the “2-sides” format subconsciously suggests parity and also it is easy for the “nastier” side to find some small, even isolated example to “prove” that the other side does the same thing. A classic example of this 2-sides effect was the issue of Global Warming. The vast majority of scientists accepted global warming as a fact, but polls showed that the average person thought that scientists were evenly divided in their opinions. Another continuing example is Fox news, which routinely spews lies and invective with no real backlash or consequence whatsoever.

2. The Republicans started deliberately manipulating public opinion, consciously employing specious and illogical arguments and appealing to emotion rather than logic. One of their chief strategists and consultants during Bush-Cheney and up to the present is Frank Luntz, who specializes in finding (through focus groups) “hot button issues” – single words or concepts that will trigger people’s emotions and override their logic. Such words have included “elites”, “socialism”, “communism” and recently in connection with health care, “Washington takeover” or “Government takeover”. In a recent strategy paper, Luntz advised Republicans to employ 4 strategies: appeal to jingoism/ Americanism; personalize issues ( e.g. Frank the plumber); stay away from facts and adopt misleading slogans; focus on taxation rather than spending; use fear to pass legislation (which has worked so well for them). There are signs that Harper is also pursuing a similar strategy with his control of the PMO and all statements coming from his ministers. Stay “on message” with the “hot button”(?) Harper-defined issues.

3. The competitive media market place demands continuous “content”, regardless of relative importance. This means that the distinction between what is truly important and what is not is blurred. Life is being trivialized and our attention spans are shrinking….which means we find it harder to distinguish innate Quality in a person (apart from the voice coach, designer, stager, speech writer etc) or issue. Thus Michael Jackson is much more important (in terms of media coverage) than Obama, Korea, Israel, Iran etc.

4. One of the big political issues in the USA is government control or no government control. The biggest winners in the no-control game are corporations, including media corporations. Fox is an obvious example, but there are many others. Do you think if anti-corporation legislation is being passed, the managements of the media corporations are going to idly stand by? Do you think that if a giant advertiser (say a corporation like Monsanto) is being investigated by some of its journalists for questionable conduct, the management of a media corporation won’t step in and squash the investigation?

As I said, this is a complex issue and I could go on, as I have done in my book, “Ageless Wisdom Spirituality: Investing in Human Evolution”. I would welcome feedback and if any readers want to take these matters further.

Shifu Andy James

PS A major contributor to violence not mentioned above (it’s a vast subject by itself) is the impact of the Entertainment industry and popular culture: movies, TV, print media, music, video games and the internet. From a very early age, we expose our children to violence (and also sex, often perverted) as a form of entertainment, so it shouldn’t be surprising that we see it enacted on our streets and in our homes. Studies have shown that exposure to violent images does increase our own violent tendencies and the effect is stronger is there is interaction, as in video games.
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Re: Why are we so Angry? (Donna Oliver)

A great introspection very well put. Andy,many thanks for bringing this into the light of consciousness.

In summation, personal greed usually wins out over integrity and power becomes the fuel. Government betrays its people by wasting our hard-earned tax dollars for its own political purpose and gain and is not held accountable. Corporations step over independents using their wealth and coercion and that is tolerated because of political dependence. The media increasingly twists reality into opinion, leaving out inconvenient truths, and cergymen use their position to lure children into unspeakable acts. And like parents who still teach children if they are bitten to bite back, we succumb to the erroneous idea that if one can feel what we feel, they'll know how much it hurts and stop doing it.

These are our role models. If they can step all over us and get away with it, dammit, why cant we? So we set out to do just that. Retaliation is the primal response. After all, the ultimate leaders of the U.S.'s response to the horror of 911 reinforced this lesson extremely well.

But most of us are just the little guy. No power, no way to fight the powers that be. So we are angry. It festers inside, just waiting for a justification to be released. And there are many.

War, proclaimed or coveted, has been our initial response for eons. Why haven't we found a better way?

Because that would take skill and time, not to mention a deep introspection of ourselves and humanity in general.

C'mon guys! Isn't it time for the influential to step up and change what isn't working for the benefit of all of us?

This is, I fear, a most difficult challenge with enormous obstacles in the way. Yet if there is to be a real change in the world's spiritual evolution, there must be a clear a path to insight.

I would like to add my insights from a Medical Qigong point of view.

Abuse causes trauma and is stored in the tissues and block the flow of energy. This is called being stuck. When we feel stuck we feel pain. Pain is unpleasant to us so we look for a way to alleviate it; 'brilliant' minds have created 'wonder' drugs to mask it, and we go out of our way to avoid it at all costs.

And the cost is dear. Overpriced prescriptions, and the unleashing of our pain on anyone or anything that happens to be in our way are only two. How many more innocent lives must be lost in war before we understand what the prophets have known for centuries? That an eye for an eye is just simply that...two lost eyes.

When abuse happens to us, this breach of trust in humanity is a shock to the heart. We expect at least an apology, otherwise it surely must be intentional. If intentional, then surely we have every reason to be angry. Society is betrayed when those in power intentionally deceive us or hurt us. So we build our fortress walls around ourselves and set up for war.

Retaliation is the primal response. After all, the country's top leaders' response to the horror of 911 taught us this lesson extremely well. For the rest of us, we feel helpless, as our grief over betrayal turns to anger and resentment. We feel powerless so we take it out on society in general. This can explain the increasing obsession with violence and pornography which makes us feel in control and all powerful. Take advantage of the meek. Bully.

This action can only breed more of the same which is aA vicious cycle of feeding Ego. A viable solution is to learn to use different tools to fix this age-old problem.

The Divine has given us the gift of verbal communication and understanding that no other life force below us has. Medical Qigong theory teaches that we can do better in dealing with conflict resolution by understanding ourselves physically, energetically, emotionally, and spiritually. The key here is forgiveness- of ourselves, the abusers, and unforeseen karmic events that lead us into the potential for deeper understanding and healing awareness. When we understand the dynamics of relationships and how we contribute to them, this becomes an easier task. The illusion of our own exclusion will fade away and we will begin to love and accept others, as we recognize and accept the enemy within. By not contributing to negativity, we can be part of the necessary change. Indeed, this is everyone's responsibility.

We are the world, so if we can change ourselves, we change the world we live in. We all have a Berlin wall to knock down.

In small, significant ways, many ordinary people are doing this.

Reference: Chinese Medical Qigong Therapy, Jerry Alan Johnson, Ph.D., D.T.C.M., D.M.Q. Chapter 32, Healing the Patient's Emotional Traumas.
Shifu Donna Oliver

As a teacher and student of the internal martial arts, I've noticed a common theme occurring over the years.

Partnered work is a necessary part of martial practice, not only as a way of testing your skills and gaining an understanding of application, but more importantly, as a methodology for dealing with relationships overall.

Occasionally, there are interactions between class participants that stir up conflict, on a verbal or non-verbal energetic level that require a much deeper introspection than our first response. One such example is when one of the participants utilizes their skills to undermine the other.

As my teacher has cautioned, this behaviour can stop you from truly learning – not only about the internal martial arts but about the deeper meanings of life itself. Some of the great Tai Chi masters (and fighters) talk about “investing in loss”… meaning learning from mistakes and not necessarily having to “win” all the time.

We set out to have a look at this and obtained feedback from some students and teachers.

What I'm hearing and sensing from some everyone, as well as my own experience teaching, is that people want a way to move forward in their practice. While I understand that continual practice of the basics is what makes one a master of them, it seems that we do yearn to feel like we have made some progress, which in our society, means we move onto "better", more complex techniques or forms. This is our reward. So if we are in a class with beginners, and doing the same thing as they are, perhaps the question is: What sets us apart, and how do we know when we are proficient? Or are we ever?

When we practice with a partner, we test our skills, and after several years of study, we think we have learned a thing or two, which of course we have. However, when we can't perform a simple application, or respond correctly to a situation, what happens then? Ego really takes a hit.

Speaking from my own experience, when it happens to me, I tend to blame myself for my incompetence first, and then wonder what I’ve been doing all these years. I then let that negative dialogue go and move on, work harder etc.

Meditation can answer these questions, but not every one wants or is able to do that. So many just get frustrated and leave. They look for something else to fulfill their needs; whatever they came to us for in the first place.

For me personally, meditation has given me the skill to create a space to look at the situation at hand. I can go beyond the first responses, as I know they are the conditioned ones, and look beyond them to what is really going on inside. The real skill we are learning here, the real gem unto which we are stumbling, is how to deal with the toughest opponent of all, our ego.

Letting go of our learned defence mechanisms and moving toward trust and communication is not easily done in the midst of confrontation. What is happening at a deeper level is more profound and with the awareness developed through integrated mind-body skills, we can see and deal with the demons that jump right out in front of us. Indeed, they are there in all our relationships, begging for attention. What we are aiming for is to embody yin-yang principles in all aspects of our lives at all levels...which is quite a tall order!

Relaxing, letting go, and mindfulness (staying with the present) allow practitioners to more easily see that what we teach in Taiji on the gross, physical sphere also applies to the mental/emotional spheres. These skills are honed over time and sustained effort. This is the essence of Gong Fu.

I would like to thank everyone for their input. Our deepest challenges and difficulties are lessons for everyone to learn from.

Shifu Donna Oliver

I realized I hadn’t mentioned the Enneagram in this blog or in other recent writings, which is a glaring omission, since it is such a powerful life tool. I’ve never been a great fan of systems that claim to explain everything. However, 25 years ago, I was introduced to the Enneagram by my meditation teacher, Dhiravamsa with whom I was intensively studying to be a meditation teacher. At that time, in the early-mid 1980s, there were no published books on the Enneagram; it was a secret, direct-transmission system (originally from the Sufi masters) passed on from teacher to student. Dhiravamsa, one of the earliest high-level Eastern meditation masters to come to the West, received this knowledge from one of his own meditation students, Claudio Naranjo, who is regarded as a pioneer in integrating the Enneagram into Western culture, especially from the psychological perspective. From decades of experience, including my personal life and my interactions with many students and countless others, I consider this knowledge to be extremely valuable in terms of understanding human behavioural (specifically personality) patterns. It includes inter-personal interactions with family, co-workers, employers, employees, national leaders, and eventually, countries (some more obvious than others). In my broad estimation, I would say that 80-90 % of mature, human behaviour stems from the Enneagram personality types and early childhood experience… the latter often according with the Enneagram personality, which seems to be present at birth and therefore preceding specific early childhood experience.

To me, Personality is an individualized behavioural system which is analogous to the Physical body. We are “burdened” or “blessed” with specific attributes, which current societal norms might find “appealing” or “unappealing”. These are obviously and increasingly physical… we’re “hot” or “not”, depending on current social norms. However, we also have personality/ relationship characteristics, the impact of which society presently does not recognize… but which may be sub-consciously “appealing” or “unappealing” at deep, mostly unconscious levels. To me, it was obvious that George W. Bush was a paranoid manipulator, or at least subject to paranoid manipulators… as is Steven Harper in Canada. George W and Stephen H may be the same personality… or not… but in the end, they are subject to the same personality forces. These are not what they present on the surface. There are specific, easily determinable dynamics in play within their respective personalities…. which are not commonly recognized by the People. If this is true, then Democracy is lessened, diluted and undermined.

In the Enneagram system, the 9 personality types are depicted as being 9 points on a circle, with specific “arrows” of behavioural interconnection across the circle. If we look at this system from the broadest/ most profound perspective, we may conclude that the 9 points are just different perspectives on Reality… each legitimate and logically sound (because they are on the greater Circle)….but they do not encompass the Totality/ Oneness/ Circle of all perspectives. In order to move from our own specific, compulsive perspective, we need to let go and surrender… become Unattached (which is what the Buddha advised). In short, we need to embody not just one point of the Circle, but the Whole Circle, which requires a Spiritual journey of progression and transcendence of present impediments and compulsions.

Getting back to specifics, Canada is probably a #9 Enneagram personality, wanting everything to be “settled” and comfy… avoiding conflict at all costs. They want “harmony/ peace” but don’t like conflict or argument. Because they so want to be “settled”, they don’t have much self-starting initiative, relying on others to draw them into activity. Lo and Behold, the personality of the United States is a # 3, which is directly connected within the Enneagram system with the #9 personality and which leads the #9… which is what we see manifesting in many policy spheres….economy, global warming, military (Afghanistan) etc.

The USA is predominantly a # 3 personality with a significant # 1 component. The #3 personality is the Liberal/ media savvy/ marketing and sales/ image manipulation; the # 1 aspect is the Conservative/ Pioneer/ family oriented/ pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps mentality (which is prevalent in China). The #3 is predominant but the #1 is a very strong counteractive force.

As other examples, Japan and the UK are predominantly #4 personalities… sensitive, aloof from the masses (they are actually Islands). on which they look down but simultaneously envy. China is a #1 personality; India is predominantly #9. What a great and amusing Dance!!

AJ

PS: For those of you wanting to learn more about the Enneagram, Jeff Willis of the Tai Chi & Meditation Centre is giving a workshop in Toronto, November 26. Location: Fraser Studios, 115 Danforth ( near Broadview) Time: 7:00 p.m. Cost: $35

This seems so far from the world of ambition, incessant competition, and self-promotion that most of us are embroiled in. What are the roots of our modern predicament, and can there be any escape from its wearisome struggle?

Many centuries ago, the historical Buddha pointed out the origins of the fundamental dissatisfaction most of us experience as what he termed “Dukkha”. He penetrated even deeper to show with a scientific clarity that existence as we know it is characterized by change and insubstantiality. He made no claims to supernatural or divine inspiration, but claimed that anyone who was so inclined could share his perceptions. Moreover, he offered the possibility of transcending the dualism of earthly existence.

“Dukkha’s” forms are infinite. We endeavour to stave off the fact of the world’s and our own impermanence with a myriad of gambits. From fear, hate, jealousy, and anger, to greed, ambition, and lust for power in any of its forms, Dukkha ‘s reign seems unshakeable. Yet how many of us see that succumbing to anger, refusing to forgive, or using material accumulation as a substitute for authentic meaning are all forms of suffering? Refuge in drugs, sensationalistic sexuality and violence, and longing for recognition through media attention are still more manifestations. As we grow more numbed by the lurid, we crave ever-increased stimulation. Dukkha can be individual, but it can also be collective. A society’s insistence on success and its images excludes those who don’t fit the criteria. And for the select few who fit, there grows a disproportionately increasing shadow of those who do not. In the Daoist Chinese view, this can be seen as the play of Yin and Yang: for every light, there is a dark, and for every success there must be a failure.

To inquire into the nature of suffering is to begin to see the possibility of a different way of life, and this is the true meaning of meditation.

jeff w.

In 3 separate periods, probably totaling 1 ½ hours, I methodically searched an extended area around the gravel patch and the surrounding grass. I created mental grids in my mind, calculating the maximum bounce, and methodically scanned them inch by inch, grid by grid. I did this time and time again, with increasing frustration and puzzlement.

Yesterday, at the end of my wits, it suddenly came into my mind to try to locate it energetically, using my open hand as a kind of super, metallic scanner. I scan the energetics of humans, animals and plants but never thought to extend it to metals. I started my novel, scanning project and was surprised that my hand was immediately energized. After less than 2 minutes, my hand picked up enhanced energy from a planter box with young tomato plants. My first intellectual conclusion was that the plants had enhanced energy so that was to be expected. However, I decided to go with the flow and explore further. The errant spring was nestled in the planter, hidden under the low-lying leaves of a tomato plant… about 4-5 feet from where the spring dropped.

What does this mean? Perhaps nothing… perhaps something!

Andy James