Some Words from Walt
What follows is an excerpt from Walt Whitman’s Preface to Leaves of Grass (1855). It’s an excellent perspective and a starting point I return to whenever I feel as if I’m off track.
“This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body“.
Reflecting
I’ve come to embrace sayings like “tomorrow begins right now” and “today is the first day of the rest of your life”. While there is no point in living in the past, there is great value in not forgetting it. Although one day is as good as the next for reflecting upon the past, the habit of celebrating the New Year especially focuses my thoughts during this time.
Tenses of Being
Knowledge represents the past.
Anything you can know has already happened. What you know is based on perceptions of the past: taught to you by others or memories from your own experiences.
Imagination represents the future.
We imagine things that could be: maybe things we want to be, maybe things that will be. They are possibilities. The future is a cloud of possibilities.
Awareness is now.
Now is neither knowledge nor imagination. Awareness is the bridge between what has been and what will be.
Can We See Without Desire?
Today I heard a man repeat the old saying, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. It caused me to pause and think about just how extensive the effects of desire are upon our “eye”.
Joined the Tai’Chi Network
I saw an ad on Facebook for www.drtaichi.com and noticed it was by David-Dorian Ross, who has quite an impressive background in the area. I actually have a DVD by him (if I remember right, it came with a little red rubber, sand filled ball that is slightly larger than a baseball. Although I don’t know where it is since I hid it from my cats so they wouldn’t puncture it somehow) on beginner’s tai’chi.
So I decided to sign up and see what I could see. The first thing I did was sign up for the mailing list then I joined the social network that has been set up through SocialGo.
Although it’s currently very small, I think it’s a fun idea and has a lot of potential. If you’re interested in tai’chi, I recommend this site as it’s purpose is to bring together people who are interested in the subject. I believe Mr. Ross is sincere in his desires to educate and connect others with something that has obviously been a central passion in his life.
There are various levels of membership, starting at FREE, all the way up to a (as of now proposed) Student membership where you are able to interact directly with an instructor as you have more of an online school experience.
From making new friends to having a structured learning experience, this seems like a good place for those new to tai’chi as well as experienced practitioners.
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