Coherence and Resonance

April 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment
St-John-the-Baptist

Coherence and resonance are two related terms that sometimes are confused. Coherence refers to the degree of unity within a particular system, like a car or a human body. How much wholeness is present? Resonance is the degree that one system vibrates with another. Do they cooperate or fight? Both are terms that are helpful in describing whether things are coming together or splitting apart. Any living creature can be said to be coherent just because it is alive. It has wholeness, existence as itself. None have absolute coherence. They are more or less coherent moment-by-moment. When highly coherent there… Read More

Filed Under: Deep Poop, Exercises, Healing, Love or Fear, Martial Arts, Western Gate

The Paradox of Wardoff

March 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Through experience of the touch one can gradually comprehend and understand jin. Through understanding jin one can reach divine-like clarity. Wang Zongyue, Taijiquan Lun The “Wardoff” posture in taijiquan is an expression of peng jin, an expanding (yang) “up and out” type of internal power. Like all jins, peng is dependent on a whole-body energetic connection. Energetic coherence. Without that, your Wardoff will suck. In Wardoff With Left Arm, the substantial arm (left) is curved in front of the chest to create space. This is a really weak muscular connection. Try it. Have someone push on your forearm, starting slow… Read More

Filed Under: Deep Poop, Exercises, Martial Arts, Videos, Western Gate

Tao of Buberville

February 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment
buber-blue

Human life itself is the bearer and reality of all transcendence. Tao, ‘the way,’ is unity in change and transformation, and the perfect revelation of Tao is the man who combines the greatest change with the purest unity. Though Tao is the path, order, and unity of everything, it exists in things only potentially until it becomes living and manifest through its contact with the conscious being of the united man. Tao appears in men as the uniting force that overcomes all deviation from the ground of life, as the completing force that heals all that is sundered and broken.… Read More

Filed Under: Events, Exercises, Love or Fear

Parkinson’s Disease and Taijiquan

February 13, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Did you catch the NPR report about Parkinson’s Disease and taijiquan? It’s also in the New England Journal of Medicine. There was a substantial reduction in rate of falls in the taiji group (one hour, twice weekly, six months). UCLA brain scientist Dr. Michael Irwin thinks that the practice of taijiquan re-trains the areas of the brain that control movement. While this is hardly new ground for most of us in the body/mind/spirit integration network, it is always good to hear when the scientific community tests it out and confirms our experience. For many reasons, integrative activities like taijiquan don’t… Read More

Filed Under: Deep Poop, Exercises

Song

January 15, 2011 by 2 Comments

When the body is calm and the mind uncluttered, only then can one observe the subtle. Chang San-Feng I lead off Chapter 13 (“Beyond Relaxation”) of Taijiquan: Through the Western Gate with this quote from Chang San-Feng, Daoist sage and legendary founder of taijiquan. I was happy to come across that quote again. It is the key to moving meditation and to any study of the internal martial arts. It all starts with song (pronounce soong). As I discuss in Western Gate, song is often transliterated as “relaxation” but that misleads us into thinking of it as a gooey passivity.… Read More

Filed Under: Exercises, Martial Arts, Western Gate