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More to come! My project with dear friend, Yuliya is coming together- stay tuned!
Imagine:
Making a practice that issues from the simplicity of your own Heart/Mind when it is clear and open. One that begins to help you manifest your authenticity, your holiest meanings, not only for your benefit, also for the benefit of those connected to you through your shared patterns of destiny. I know of one way to do this, and that’s learning and growing through the practice of Qigong. Gentle movements, settling breath, and the effortless effort of intention together in one place – you. This is of course, a skill- Qigong is cultivating skill with the vital energy of Being alive- aliveness; some people say this, “Is-ness”. Be aware of it, sensing it, knowing its timing and sometimes awkward missing it altogether.
Mastering Qigong takes at least a little commitment. It’s full of missed steps, opportunities, and yes- sometimes failures to practice or do the work honestly, wholeheartedly. But falling short is not all there is. We all have that sense, do we not? There’s got to be more. I don’t point this out because I’m bored, or disillusioned. I say this because I am excited. I know in my heart of hearts that yes, there actually is more, and we will find the doorway into it through acceptance of this condition, this now. Qigong practice meets you exactly where you are, and step by step, makes you a friend to that person there.
Perhaps this sounds like a rather tall order, an impossible task. There are bills and dishes to do, kids to nurture and get off to school, to soccer, to chess club, to whatnot, and all. Money to be made and managed. A job that needs doing and career to be built and built brilliantly at that. The constant need to “better” (whatever that means). Scores of social obligations and an array of self-appointed pressures. There are the things that stick in the craw- what your parents said once that made you feel deeply misunderstood, the judgements all around that humiliate and defeat (temporarily), the exhausting entanglements of social and political circles. And don’t get me started on hopes and dreams, the fun, the joy the childlike soul wants; the environment we all share, our responsibility to it and what the hell is even the right thing to think or say or do? Be still my angst!
Though this is not a discourse on Daoism, or any religion, the art of Qigong does pay respect to the deep traditions of Daoist, Buddhist, and Confucian ideas that underpin the practice by offering a thin taste of those wisdom traditions-the philosophies of transformation and of simplicity. The practice is working with the very vital substances, the Qi of the world, individual space, the Earth, the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars; this is our shared universe. Our home in this time and space is the center of a sphere of influences that play upon us outwardly and inwardly. If we are sincere, we can to a certain extent play upon them. During practice, we can feel the flows we create as we move in certain ways and breathe and keep the connection to our deep selves clear so we can manifest our better angels while remaining fully human. In the comfort of your own imperfectly perfect skin.
Is there a Qigong for that? (spoiler alert: yes, all of it. Qigong’s all up in that)
Born of the Daoist project of observing and seeking synchronicity with the Way, the Buddhist project of understanding suffering and its cessation, the Confucian notions of order in the Universe it connects the parts together. This fits nicely with Christian concepts of faith, hope, charity, and love; pagan workings toward the Great Work, and the Reiki Precepts. It even has its humanist tone; the elegant sciences of physics, astronomy, geology, biology and all the “-ologies”. We are All One through evidence and through mystery. Blessed Be.
Nothing and Another Minutia
(2005)
Hunger and its equivalent snags
Weaken, but don't defeat.
I smile though I’m no Buddha.
Perfect practice has not been captured along with my other attachments.
I am not especially Christ-like either
No tattered ambition goes down in flames there.
But you know what?
I’m good- or is it, I’m well?
Oh well,
One thousand times a day set free.
Just now, my little son beams as
The light streaming in through the blinds
Accents his commotion and his ecstatic countenance;
In other words,
He is doing a dance by the window.
He does it and shines while he does.
He doesn’t even notice I have seen him do it.
We don’t know anything especially clever, but,
In the end, even this means nothing.
It’s enough.
Today is my birthday and it’s in the window of the influence of the new moon tomorrow. (Whoop, whoop!!) My new moon wish is that we all drop devotion to those patterns that no longer serve a good purpose. May we open our doors for a fresh, prosperous, and fulfilling Way.
.
Seek to thrive always. The world needs more you's.
Cyndi