Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation Taoism/Tai Chi

Right in the middle is where life really happens

I really liked today's guided meditation by Jeff Warren, which I regularly listen to on the Calm iPhone app. So much so, I made a transcript of what Warren had to say. The ellipsis (...) in the transcript below indicate a marked pause in the guided meditation.  This afternoon I shared some copies of the transcript with my Tai Chi class. There's a close connection between the notion of staying in the center of a movement and basic principles of Tai Chi.  More philosophically, I enjoyed Warren's observation that when we're right in the middle, we have the greatest ability…
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Posted inBooks Taoism/Tai Chi

I love the natural concreteness of Daoism

Abstractions are fine. We humans have evolved to be able to conceive of abstract ideas such as love, justice, infinity, God, and so much else. But it's possible to get lost in a maze of abstractions where each idea leads to another idea, and then another... no exit in sight.  Daoism (or Taoism) is my favorite philosophy, along with non-religious Buddhism, because it's wonderfully concrete. I've practiced Tai Chi for seventeen years, which can be viewed as Daoism made physical.  Yin and yang aren't abstractions in Tai Chi. They are directly experienced realities as a yin move flows into a…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation Taoism/Tai Chi

Another guest churchless post from John

Here's another guest post that I fashioned out of an email from John, a guy I regularly communicate with. I always enjoy his thoughtful responses to stuff that I've written about. I believe TNH stands for Thich Nhat Hanh. Hey Brian, how are you and yours doing? Hopefully as well as you can be. As always, I’ve been enjoying your posts. Especially the two about what we can learn from the internal arts. It is funny when I tell people that tai chi has legitimate martial applications for self-defense. They look at me like, right…. Like you, I trained in…
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Posted inTaoism/Tai Chi

More thoughts about Tai Chi and martial arts

This is a follow-up to my previous post, "Internal martial arts have a lot to teach us."  I probably should have been more explicit about what I meant by a lot to teach us. What I meant to focus on, with semi-success, was the general applicability of internal versus external approaches.  Let me attempt a fuller explanation now. A few commenters observed that when it comes to fighting ability, an Ultimate Fighting dude (or dudette) almost certainly would kick the ass of a Tai Chi practitioner, even one skilled in the martial side of Tai Chi. I agree. But this…
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Posted inTaoism/Tai Chi

Internal martial arts have a lot to teach us

For about thirteen years I trained in the external martial art of karate. For the past seventeen years, since 2004, I've trained in the internal martial art of Tai Chi. Yes, Tai Chi is a martial art. At least, it can be. Tai Chi Chuan is martial. (Chuan is translated as "fist" or "boxing.") Most Tai Chi instructors aren't interested in the Chuan part, and don't understand it well. I've been fortunate to learn Tai Chi from someone who started practicing it after many years of hard style martial arts experience, so he is expert in how Tai Chi can…
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Posted inBooks Buddhism Taoism/Tai Chi

Stillness can make action more effective

I'm continuing to enjoy Domyo Sater Burk's Idiot's Guide to Mindfulness.  Today I read her take on getting comfortable with stillness and silence. This appealed to me, not only because I've been meditating every day for over 50 years, so I understand how difficult it can be to keep the mind and body more or less still and silent. This also is espoused in Tai Chi, which I've practiced for the past 16 years. Of course, you can't be perfectly still in Tai Chi, which I like to call "Taoism in motion."  But listening skills are a big part of…
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Posted inBooks Taoism/Tai Chi

“A good traveller has no fixed plans,” says Lao Tzu

The Eastern religion that I was an active member of for 35 years, Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), liked to talk of being on "the path." (One of the RSSB books is called "The Path of the Masters.") Well, my attitude toward religious or spiritual paths has changed a lot. And it keeps changing.  More and more, I'm convinced that not only is there no evidence that any path leads to God or some supernatural reality, it isn't even wise for someone to consider that they're on a life path in this physical world.  At least, that's how I see…
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Posted inBooks Taoism/Tai Chi

Flow is key to poker, and also to life

I'm reading a fascinating book about poker, "The Biggest Bluff." The author, Maria Konnikova, has a Ph.D. in psychology from Princeton after graduating from Harvard. So she's obviously smart. But she knew nothing about poker until she decided to learn the game under the guidance of Erik Seidel, a poker champion with tens of millions of dollars in earnings. That would make for interesting reading all by itself. What makes this book much more intriguing is how Konnikova's background in behavioral science enables her to discover important life lessons as she starts to play poker with the goal of entering…
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Posted inTaoism/Tai Chi

“Trying Not to Try” — I’m still trying to digest this book

Some books are meant to be read, re-read, and then re-re-read. I think I'm on my re-re-reading of Edward Slingerland's marvelous Trying Not to Try: The Art and Science of Spontaneity. I've written a couple of previous blog posts about the book:The social value of getting wasted"Trying Not to Try" is a great book about wu-wei, spontaneous actionI love this book because I love Taoism. Or Daoism, if you prefer that spelling. I also love modern neuroscience. Since Slingerland combines ancient Taoist philosophy and cutting edge psychological research in his book, Trying Not to Try hits a literary sweet spot…
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Posted inTaoism/Tai Chi

I’m feeling the fear and sharing my Tai Chi video anyway

As the title of a book says, Feel the fear and do it anyway. So I'm taking that advice and sharing a video I made today of me doing a Tai Chi form. Watching the video was fear-inducing, or at least anxiety-inducing, because I do my best to avoid looking at myself in the lengthy mirror that's on one wall of the room where I've been taking Tai Chi classes. But since we've been learning the Compact form -- which lives up to its name by not requiring much space to do it in -- I figured it would be…
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Posted inAtheism Buddhism Death/Rebirth

Here’s the problem with living: we’re going to die

This isn't exactly breaking news, but I'll say it anyway. Each of us is going to die.  Those seven words are undeniably scary. Life isn't always pleasant. Yet the gulf between having a difficult life and no life at all is more than immense. It's immeasurable. There's no way to compare being alive and being dead, or existence and non-existence. The worst day anyone can have is on a different dimension than not existing at all. Understand: I'm not saying that life is always worth living. Suicide and death with dignity testify to the fact that sometimes people prefer to…
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Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation Taoism/Tai Chi

My “spiritual” Theory of Everything is coming along nicely

Once in a while I get a glimpse of how things really are, or ideally are, spiritually speaking. Now, I put "spiritual" in quotation marks in the title of this post, because the way I use the word, it has nothing to do with God or the supernatural -- which in my view don't exist. Rather, when I speak of spirituality, I mean a quest to understand how best to live life. The ancient Greeks called this philosophy, literally "love of wisdom." However, these days philosophy usually is considered to be not a way of life, but an academic discipline.…
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Posted inBooks Taoism/Tai Chi

The Book of Chuang Tzu praises uselessness

There's religious, spiritual, philosophical, and mystical writings. Then there's The Book of Chuang Tzu.  It stands apart, because there's nothing else like it. This Taoist classic is humorous, crazy, confusing, paradoxical, entertaining, wise, weird, and so much else besides.  I've read it several times, in various translations. It's one of my favorite books, in large part because there's no way to pin down exactly what's being taught in the collection of, as the back cover says, "the stories, tales, jokes and anecdotes that have gathered around the figure of Chuang Tzu." Since I'm feeling increasingly useless, the older I get,…
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Posted inTaoism/Tai Chi

Wu wei and no free will work well together

Today I got this question via email: Hey Brian, quick question.  But there might not be a quick answer.  LOL Do the concept of  wu wei and the absence of free will work together?  For some reason, I’m having trouble really understanding wu wei and how it works. Most of the time, I think I understand it from an intellectual stand point.  But then walking in it is a whole different animal. Wu wei is a Taoist term that literally means non-doing. But "effortless effort" is how I think of wu wei. It's when things are going really smoothly, when we're…
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Posted inTaoism/Tai Chi

Is God a Taoist? Sure. This dialogue about free will proves it.

My atheist mind goes back and forth between Taoism and Buddhism when I try to decide which secular version of these philosophies appeals the most to me. Since I'm heavy into Tai Chi, which basically is Taoism expressed in human movement, I've got an inclination in that direction. Taoism also resonates with me because its writings often are considerably less serious than the Buddhist variety.  In large part this is because Taoism really doesn't have anything comparable to Buddhism's enlightenment or satori. Nor does Taoism have dogmas akin to the Four Noble Truths. Its a lot more free-flowing, unstructured, and…
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Posted inTaoism/Tai Chi

“Trying Not to Try” is a great book about wu-wei, spontaneous action

Has this ever happened to you? You're going to bed a bit early because you have an important meeting in the morning and need to be well rested. Reclining your head on the pillow, you say to yourself "I need to get to sleep, so I'll make sure I'm relaxed."  An hour later, you're still awake, even though usually you fall asleep in just a few minutes. It's dawning on you that trying to sleep is keeping you from sleeping.  So now you try not to try to fall asleep. Which, of course, is still trying. That doesn't work either.…
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Posted inTaoism/Tai Chi

Tai Chi has taught me that flowing is way better than forcing

I've been learning Tai Chi for about thirteen years. That makes me a near-beginner in this oh-so-subtle "soft style" martial art. Before taking up Tai Chi I studied "hard style" martial arts for about the same length of time. So I guess I've reached sort of a balance point. My previous Tai Chi-related posts are here, on my other blog. For some reason I haven't written about Tai Chi for five years. This hasn't been from a lack of interest. It must be because Tai Chi is something I do and experience much more than I think about it.  Well,…
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Posted inReligions Taoism/Tai Chi Vedanta/Advaita

Indian and Greek thought are both dualistic. Chinese thought isn’t.

Oneness has a lot of appeal. It's simple. Nothing is simpler than one. (Well, maybe nothing is simpler, but since there is no way to know what nothing is like, since it doesn't exist, who knows?) Also, oneness has a lot in common with love. Love brings us together, which is a big step toward being one. Duality, on the other hand (a good phrase to use when talking about duality), posits two things that are inherently different. Like most people, I've had the idea that Eastern forms of spirituality are more into oneness that Western forms are. The cartoon…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation Taoism/Tai Chi

The spiritual implications of drink when thirsty, eat when hungry

I'm a firm believer in living naturally. Not unnaturally naturally. Just naturally naturally.  Meaning, do what is natural. But don't make a fetish out of this, don't strive to do it, because trying too hard to be natural leads to artificiality.  When it comes to drinking and eating, here's some good advice: Drink when thirsty. Eat when hungry.  This sounds very Zen. And it is. But it also makes a lot of scientific sense. For example, check out "Just drink water when you're thirsty like a normal person, study finds." After much deliberation, a 17-member expert panel representing four countries…
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Posted inFree will Science Spiritual practice/meditation

Experience of conscious will is an illusion

I don't believe in free will. But like most people, I have a feeling that my intention to do something is what causes that thing to happen.  So we have two things going on: (1) A scientific world view doesn't support a belief in free will. As I've written about a lot on this blog (type "free will" into the Google search box in the right sidebar to find the many posts), there is no evidence of an immaterial self/soul that somehow floats free of the material/physical goings-on in the human mind. So there's no entity within us which can…
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