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Greetings Friends,
Welcome to the 8th Green Mountain Tai chi Newsletter.
I hope all has been well for all of you. Here in Vermont spring has sprung. What a joy! It is a time for renewal, rejuvenation and growth. Everywhere one looks is the deep green. I take this energy in for nourishment no different than the green spinach we had with dinner the other night. It is the time to re-connect with the earth after it was covered over with ice and snow. I love getting into the dirt (I don't think I ever kept my clothes clean as a child), weeding the garden and growing the veggies. Finding my root once again. Enjoy and treasure the renewal and growth of spring and then surely the natural joy and expansion of summer will be revealed.I really like the dirt and plants but my deepest connection is with the rocks. Just like food, plants, water and air, rocks carry their own medicine. Each is individual and ancient. All that is required of us is to listen, observe and trust the wisdom of this great earth we inhabit. In turn we will find our own special connection to nature. As Master Jou, Hsung Hwa would often say " Observe nature, observe yourself, teach yourself".
All the thoughts and writings in my newsletters are my own, unless I am quoting another. Many are condensed versions of longer articles I have written. I take full responsibility for any of it making sense and for any of it being nonsense. If you have any comments, questions or opinions about any of my thoughts or ideas I would very much like to hear from you.
Peace, prayers and happiness,
Rich
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Announcements
Wednesday Tai-chi class
in Manchester
is now 5:30-7:30 p.m.
This will be a mixed level class for the summer
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Upcoming event:
An evening of Taoist philosophy
and meditation
This event will be informal, free
and open to the public
If desired, bring a notebook for the talk
and a cushion for the meditation
Where: Teleion Holon Community Farm
2106 River Road, Manchester
When: Friday June 13
6:30-8:30 p.m.
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Tai chi Tip
Push Hands
Push hands is basically the practice of Tai chi while connected to another person. It is one of my favorite things on this earth to do. I know, I say this about anything related to Tai chi and Qigong but this time I really mean it, really. It can be an incredibly fun, meaningful, energizing and rewarding experience.
What is the central focus and intention of push hands? Is it to push your partner or is it to not allow your partner to push you? I do not believe it is either. These are simply the result, not the original intent. So if not these, then what? It is to learn to establish and maintain inner balance and harmony. From the place of stillness and inner harmony you can then listen to the external incoming force of your partner. You then can find the balance and harmony of the whole that has gone beyond you as an individual and has grown to include you both. When balanced, in harmony, rooted, centered and connected you can easily listen, yield, neutralize and re-direct any incoming force.
Find stillness within and rootedness below and you will find it when you connect with a partner. Lose stillness and root in yourself and all is lost.
Tai chi players are no push overs, so go find a partner and have some fun!
Happy practice!
Beginner and intermediate/advanced
Tai-chi classes are held each week in both Manchester and Pawlet
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100 day commitment
Our 100 day commitment ends this month on May 29. We began this short trip on a full moon, February 20. For some, the trip has been long and arduous for others smooth and enjoyable. For some, it can seem like success and feeling good. For others it can seem like failure and disappointment or anywhere in between the two. What is important here is that we committed ourselves to being aware of a small piece of our practice, to what we can see now as a small part of our life journey. It is a practice of commitment, not whether there is success or failure. For they are two sides of the same coin. The question is not only whether you were able to fulfill your commitment (which if you did, you will receive a certificate stating just that) but has it helped you get closer to understanding the meaning of your practice and the relationship with your practice to your life?
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Life philosophy
Being and becoming
Attaching to and identifying ourselves with our life experiences leads us to become who we are. We even say, "that which has happened to me made me who I am today". The downfall of this way of thinking is that we feel a need to use our experiences to grow and become something. This in turn leads to an underlying sense disatisfaction with who we are. If we were not disatisfied on some level, then why the need to become something else? So we are always searching for the next and better (or more painful) experience to find our true identity.
When we can see our life experiences as just that, experiences that our being was or is having, we then have no attachment to them and do not rely on them to form our identity. When these experiences are not what formed who we are then what are we left with? Our true and original self. That which we are now, have always been and always will be. We see that we no longer need to become anything. With this we can see that whatever is happening in our lives as another experience our being is going through. These experiences are not meaningless. We are just not attached to them. They are meaningful as a tool to help point the way not to becoming something, but pointing the way back to the seed of our original self, pointing the way to the source of our being. Return is the way of Tao.
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Thoughts For The Month
When we can let go of what it is we think we want,
we will then receive what it is that our heart desires. That which nourishes our original spirit.
-Rich
They make a lot of medicine but they don't make a medicine to cure regret
-Grandmaster Li,Cheng Yu
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Sites worth checking out
my site, of course
Definitely worth checking out
Master Chen's site
I have never personally experienced Holotropic Breathwork, but I know Lenny and Elizabeth Gibson very well and feel confident in recommending them and their work if it resonates with you.
I know Karin and Drew and highly recommend them both. Karin is a marketing whiz. You would have to ask Drew what it is he does but I can tell you it is definitely cool and can really improve the way you approach your life.
Karin Witzig
Drew Rozell
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Richard Marantz www.GreenMountainTaiChi.com
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