Mandala

I have been looking through some old photographs today and found this. I watched the monks making this sand mandala in 1990 over a week in Dharamsala, North India, I think this one was at the Dalai Lama's temple. After it was finished, which took about a month, there was a ceremony and then it was burned, and thrown in the river.

I saw these incredible spiral plants growing in old porcelain sinks just outside the newly built alpine house at Kew Gardens, where cool air is continuously piped over exquisitely formed tiny gem-like plants. I was far more intrigued by the cold climate flora than the hot-house giants, and these low-growing jewels seemed to draw me in towards them.

Sunday Class

There will be no Sunday class this weekend (4th-5th) as all the usual hosts will be with me at the BTCCA at the second Heartwork weekend. Normal Sunday service resumes next week.

Sabre Classes Dates

I have booked the halls for our short course of T'ai Chi Sabre classes to follow on from Mark's workshop on the evening of Saturday 18th November. We will be in the 'garage hall' of the Wyness Hall, Inverurie for 3 of the 4 sessions, and in 'Barra Base' room at the Inverurie Academy for the other class, which is where I teach Wednesday night T'ai Chi Beginners. Both rooms are excellent for the purpose and are 5 minutes from each other in central Inverurie. The dates and venues are below and all classes run from 7pm until 8.30pm. The rooms cost about £28 per session, so I will need 6 students to confirm for the course to run, please let me know if you would like to attend. If you can only do 1, 2 or 3 classes, the usual guide applies, come to the first and then as many consecutive classes as you can make. It is not possible to come along if you miss the first class, unless you do a 121 with me to catch up. We will have a good section of the Sabre Form for you to work with by the end of the course. Subsequently both Mark and myself will teach the rest of the Sabre Form during 2007. There will be a CD available with Mark demonstrating the Form for those students taking the course, as an aide memoire.

For me, some of the effects of learning and practising Sabre have been a feeling of opening across the heart area, and a sense of reaching out far more than I did previously. All the T'ai Chi principles that we work with still apply in this Form, and it will only strengthen your practice.

Dates:
21st November: Wyness Hall
28th November: Inverurie Academy
5th December: Wyness Hall
12th December: Wyness Hall

All classes cost £5.

Bokkens
You will need a bokken or wooden (not metal) T'ai Chi Sabre to take part. Straight wooden swords are not appropriate for this form. Cheap bokkens can be bought online and also at Sillets of King Street in Aberdeen. www.bokkenshop.com in Japan has a wide range of bokkens of all sizes and prices and send to the UK in less than a week. I have already loaned all my spare bokkens. If you are under 5' 6" tall, you may like to try a medium size bokken for ease of use. Generally, cheap pine bokkens are lighter than hardwoods such as oak, but weight and quality vary in the £6-12 range. David's Sunuke wood bokken is very heavy! My Isu wood bokken is a little heavier than red or white oak, but there is little in it. Feel free to contact me for advice.

Sky Bicycles

One of the band who are staying here this weekend recording their next LP takes alot of Polaroid photos. This is of the geese flying in formation across the sky this afternoon. I love their wonderful squeaking sound, like rusty old sky bicycles.

Candle Lit T'ai Chi

Last night there were huge storms across parts of Scotland. Two friends are staying in Braemar and say many old trees are down, sadly. The gusts affected this area between 6.30 and 8.30pm, just as students had set off to my home for T'ai Chi. 6 students made it here and as we drank a preliminary cup of tea, the lights went out and we had a 2 hour power cut. Luckily I had warmed the room before folks arrived, and we held the class in candle light. I think we may do this more often, as it was really magical, and encouraged a kind of wonder and softness in us all. As we were working on relaxing and sinking when lifting a foot, kicking or stepping, the soft light seemed to help. As we had our post-class cup of tea, the lights came back on!

Spiralling cyclamen at Kew.

Relaxed Gaze

Thanks to Davina who sent me this link to a BBC webpage. The research is interesting as it seems to concur with the increased quality of vision that we experience when we use T'ai Chi's 'relaxed gaze'. For more, click on the link below.

'The harder you look, the less you see

Sustained attention can actually worsen perception. The harder you focus on something, the less well you may actually see it, US researchers have discovered. '

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5326742.stm

More Helen Keller Quotes

The best and most beautiful things in life cannot be seen, nor touched, but are felt in the heart.

All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.

Thanks to Dave Peter for pointing me to these.

Lost and Found

I am now back in Scotland, and except for 3 days in London for the Heartwork weekend in November, I am here right through until 16th December, at least. It was wonderful to go to classes taught by Mark and John when I was down, and to work with Steven also. A minor downside to the trip is that the airline has lost my bag, although they assure me it will be returned at some point. Also, a CD pouch of about 15 of my very favourite CDs was lost or stolen during my travels, but I am working hard on not being too frustrated about it... I've sold or given away so many of my possessions in the last two years that I thought it wouldn't annoy me so much, but I was wrong! I guess that I am still really into my music.

Classes are at my place on Thursday night and Sunday afternoon, all welcome.

Rothko Chapel

http://rothkochapel.org

Davina emailed that she has been to the Rothko Chapel, a centre for peace in Houston. I have never wanted to go to Texas, the heat puts me off, but this place is one of two reasons that I may have to go. The other reason is the city of Austin, which has a fabulous music and arts scene and is a haven of free thought within the otherwise conservative heartland.

She has also said that Thursday class will be held at hers and Paolo's place, 7-9pm, to help with her jet-lag!

London

I will be away from Sunday evening until the evening of Monday 23rd October. I should get email most days.

Thursday group - don't forget to practise; form and spiral warm ups if you are not going to meet up with other T'ai Chi students, otherwise, partnerwork too!

New students, do a little every day of whatever you can remember: warm up set, form, walking.

Everyone: a little every day is better than one big session only once a week.

"Sometimes under-preparation is very good, because it instils fear and fear is galvanising. It makes you break out of yourself. If you're prepared, then you think you're ready, and if you think you're ready, then you're not ready."

Meryl Streep, talking about approaching each new film role, in a recent interview.

From 'Essence of T'ai Chi Ch'uan'

To enter the door and be shown the way,
you must be orally taught.
The practice is uninterrupted,
and the technique (acheived) by self study.

(page 65 of Lo/Inn/Immaker/Foe)

Classes During October Holidays

The following classes will run during the next two weeks, all classes at Turriff and Inverurie resume in 2 weeks' time, week beginning 30th October.

Sunday 15th October 2-6pm at my home.
Thursday 19th 7-9pm at Paolo's or Heather's (venue TBC, watch this blog!)
Sunday 22nd 2-6pm (as above, venue TBC)
Thursday 26th 7-9pm at my home.
Sunday 29th and subsequent Sundays, as normal, at mine.
I am available for 121s from 24th October.

All students are welcome at all classes.

I will be in London studying Heartwork with Steven on Wednesday afternoon, with John on the Wednesday evening, assisting at T'ai Chi lessons with Mark on Monday and Tuesday evenings and attending Thursday evening and Sunday afternoon class (where we are working on the Sabre Form). I can be reached by email and by mobile while I am away.

Truly a busman's holiday. (Which suits me fine!)

So there are two parts of practice. One is endless disappointment. Everything in our lives that disappoints us is a kind of friend. And we're all being disappointed in some way or other. If we're not disappointed, we never wear out our desire to think and reestablish ourself at the top of the heap with victory. Nobody wins in the end; nobody's going to survive. But that's still our drive, our system. It can only be worn out by years of practice and by life; that's why our practice and our life have to be the same thing.

Charlotte Joko Beck

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.

Helen Keller

Sunday 8th October

I will be away this weekend down in London visiting friends and doing T'ai Chi, I am back on Monday for the class in Turriff. Sunday class is at Heather's, contact me for details. The photo is tonight's beginners class at Inverurie Academy. All classes run as normal next week then we are off for two weeks for the Tattie holidays. However, I would like Thursdays and Sundays to continue during that fortnight, and I will post the location and times for those who want to drop in to do T'ai Chi rather than take 2 whole weeks off.

Kokoro

Some of you will remember the wonderful Japanese wwoofer Ryoko, who stayed here from December 2004 to Summer 2005. She did lots of T'ai Chi with both myself and Mark so you may have met her at workshops or had tea with her in the kitchen... We have always kept in touch (funny it's the three T'ai Chi-practising wwoofers who email and write to me the most) and I hope to visit her in Japan, Chiara in France and Laura in Beijing next year. She is often in my mind and always in my heart as an inspiration. When she arrived, her face was impassive, she had never left Japan and had felt squashed by her office job and parental expectations. She described herself in broken English and by miming as having a 'closed heart'. Over the months, through gentle coaxing, T'ai Chi and her own desire to really engage with life and people she transformed herself. When I said goodbye to her last Summer she would laugh heartilly in public, which was new to her, and was always breaking into a smile. She had a confidence that was not built on maintaining a facade, but seemed to be based on having seen the richness of life which comes from really connecting with it. She knew how impoverished the heart is when it hides in its little cave, whether through one's own fear or by the pressures of a wider culture.

She taught me some Japanese whilst she was here, and she became fluent in English. We often talked about 'heart' and the Japanese term for it (interestingly also the same word for mind or spirit) is kokoro. I was just looking up some Japanese / English dictionaries online and found these words and phrases which caught my attention. I feel a heart connection to Ryoko that is always present, and beyond time or distance.

kokoro - heart, mind, spirit.
kokorogakayou - to understand each other well / to call forth a response in another's heart.
kokoronooku - inner heart.