According to Lester " Wanting is not having,  wanting brings up a feeling of lack. " Check this out for yourself. Think of something you really want but don't have. . . . . . . .

 See what I mean it brings up that sense of missing out or lacking inside.

When I first realized this I started to suppress my ' wanting ', thinking that pushing my wants down would help  - ostrich approach,  if I bury my wants  they will somehow go away. This didn't work and led to a lot of frustration until I listened again to Lester and understood how he worked. When I was ready I heard him say,
 " Can you allow yourself to want  'whatever it is ' as much as you do ? "
And
" Can you allow yourself to feel the SELF  that is already whole and complete that has no wants."

Repeat allowing up your wants and them becoming aware of the awareness that knows the wants and also knows what is beyond all wanting. That which is already beyond even completion.
Does this dissolve the wants ? Sometimes,  but what is even better the space created by the realization that one is already whole  and complete allows for the manifestation of our desires. It is as if when we stop thinking we have to have them they just begin showing up.
So what Lester is saying is let up your desires allow yourself to really feel them and also allow yourself to explore your true nature that has no desires because it is already whole. Come to realize that the external world can never complete what is already whole. Does this stop us enjoying the world ,  paradoxically we can enjoy it all the more when we realize that we don't need it to complete us.

" Whatever you pay attention to grows . "  With this in mind I have decided to pay attention to LOVE.
 Lester Levinson's teachings are a great inspiration and help in this endeavour.
Here are some of the polarities he suggests we work with :

I want to be loved - I allow myself to love..

I need love  - I  am love.

Could I allow myself to hate  ( any person,  place , or thing ) as much as I do ?
Could I allow myself to love  ( any person, place, or thing  ) as much as I do ?

Working with these polarities I find myself becoming more open and loving.
Try it for yourself  right now think of someone place or thing that  you  dislike.
Pick something that's not too big to begin with. Now allow yourself to let up the
dislike feelings as much as you can.  Ok ?

Now allow yourself to let up the loving feelings as much as you can.

Review, do you still dislike the the person place or thing as much as before ?

Many find that the dislike has diminished or disappeared  by just doing this once.
However repeat as many times as necessary to dissolve the non love feelings.

I hope you find this exercise  as beneficial and freeing as I do.

 

                     And Joy is Everywhere;

                     It is in the Earth’s green covering of grass;

                     In the blue serenity of the Sky;

                     In the reckless exuberance of Spring;

                     In the severe abstinence of gray Winter;

                     In the Living flesh that animates our bodily frame;

                     In the perfect poise of the Human figure, noble and upright;

                     In Living;

                     In the exercise of all our powers;

                     In the acquisition of Knowledge;

                     in fighting evil:
                    Joy is there Everywhere.

                                    - Rabindranath Tagore

   

Here is the video of the Tai  Chi  warm ups once you watch this one the others  will pop up and you can access them there on vimeo. Im  posting the mini form postures here again for the beginners classes.

I think that we are all  ' beings of light ' , however our light is mostly obscured from view, hidden under layers of fear and defence. We need and intuitively search for ways to clear these obstructions, if we are lucky we find people and practices that help us to recognise and heal ourselves of these blocks to the internal light. The    practice of Tai Chi is one method of working on ourselves , it is amazing to see how much people 'brighten' even during a class.
 There is something in the way that Tai Chi circulates in the body that really activates the internal light. I have observed this over and over, people come to the class looking tired and grey and as we practice together their skin tone changes and brightens , they begin to glow.That internal light begins to shine again.  Then all one needs to do is keep up the practice and bit by bit the blocks  crumble. More light  shines both from the outside in and from the inside out.
 While I  watch people as they practice I can 'see ' and ' feel' the movement of the ' light ' in and around their bodies. How and when this began to happen I have no idea but it is clear and beautiful to watch. As people progress the pathways become clearer and smoother and more and more beautiful to watch.
I now wonder if these are the same paths used by the  ' Reonnectivec  ' frequencies as they move through and heal our bodies.

Somewhere we know that without silence words lose their meaning, that without listening speaking no longer heals, that without distance closeness cannot cure.

- Henri Nouwen 

                                   I would describe myselt
                                   like a landscape I've studied
                                   at length, in detail ;
                                   like a word I'm coming to understand ;
                                   like a pitcher I pour from at mealtime ;
                                   like my mother's face ;
                                   like a ship that carried me
                                   when the waters raged.
                                                            -Rikle

Short Form for Tuesday's Blackrock Class, Mini form (for beginners) on the post below .

Here are the first 4 lessons of the Mini Form for the new beginners.

The education of attention would be an education par excellence .
       - William James

This is exactly what Tai Chi teaches us. In training our bodies to perform precise movements we develop awareness. Awareness of when we get ' it '  right, of when it flows naturally , slowly but surely we learn about attention and how it affects our Tai Chi and everything we do.
This in my opinion is about the best training for life it ensures that you will put your full attention into all your activities and get the most out of endeavours..

I have been thinking about yesterday's blog post . John ( husband ) read it and asked me if I thought there was something wrong with reflecting on the past. He interpreted my post to mean all thinking of past or future to be a waste.  ( A big discussion ensued ). And so I'm going to write some more about what I was referring to. I think reflecting on  past or planning for future events is great , what I was talking about was being able to be as fully present in whatever task one is doing. When listening really listen, when training be there etc. Does this mean the mind doesn't wander , no but when one can be present even to the wandering of one's mind one has the power to bring one's attention back again , and again and again. As a Zen master once said " It's not how often one falls asleep it's how often one wakes up that counts".

Sometimes when I'm out walking Suzie ( above ) , a blog post starts growing in my mind. It incubates,
 sometimes it incubates for days on other times it's pretty much done by the time we are home.
Here is today's.
I'm currently reading Caroline Myss's Anatomy of the Spirit. In it she says " I saw that for an alternative therapy to succeed, the patient must have an internal concept of power - an ability to generate internal energy and emotional resources, such as a belief in his or her self -sufficiency."
I certainly agree , reflecting on the changes in my life due to my training in Tai Chi and other mind work it is clear that I have a much stronger sense of personal power now. Also  I can see this happening in my students

as they practice and gain more confidence and mastery of their bodies and minds , they feel and look more present. They begin to occupy their rightful space , and claim their own personal power. When someone has good posture and  ' fills ' their body right out to and even beyond the skin , they are fully alive, they really are here not lost in thoughts of past or future . Our power is always in the here and now, and  we train to develop the concentration needed to live a fully present life. 

Mini Form Lesson 1

A big welcome to all Tai  Chi  participants whether you have just begun or are coming back for more !
I love new terms as I get to experience the wonder of sharing Tai Chi and widening the circle of people
 who benefit from this wonderful art.
Practice , and you can look forward to increased energy, awareness, flexibility ( in both body and mind )  fun, and joy to mention just some of the rewards.
Give yourself a few minutes each day and relax into your practice. You will come to know yourself in a whole new way .  This practice has opened my life in so many amazing ways , my wish is that it will do the same and even more for you .

Astrology is meant to be a primarily predictive science.  It is meant to be for understanding ourselves and also for understanding other people.  I've had a number of interviews recently where I was amazed that people thought it was fatalistic.  It's not -- absolutely not.  There is nothing in a horoscope, that blue-print, that pattern, that you cannot change if you want to.  I've seen this over the years.  It's the stories of the cycles and rhythms you are going through, and what you have brought over from the past to work out.  It shows your character.  You can read it the day a child is born; you can tell what they have brought over as a blessing and what they have brought over as a challenge that they have to change.  But that is only the personality pattern.  Behind the personality lies your real self, and you center yourself in that essential thing.

A great while ago, an Eastern teacher taught me something and I've watched it work over the years.  We are vibrationally connected to everything that happens to us.  There is only one way we can change what we do in this life, and that is by changing our attitude toward it; this changes our consciousness.  This is a cosmic law that few people know.  By changing your attitude, one of two things has to happen.  Either person or the problem will be completely removed without any harm to anyone, or that person or problem will change so much that you will be able to live with it very easily.  Now, in over thirty years, I've never seen it proved wrong in a person who changed their attitude, their consciousness.

           

This world of appearance is not the creative world; this is the world of manifestation that always changes.  We create our conditions inside us and if we want to change what is manifesting in the world of apperance, we must change ourselves and our conciousness.  That's how we change what happens.  I've seen this verified over and over.  Never saw it wrong.

When we change our attitude, we start blessing that which we are fighting against.

--Isabel Hickey

Reading this I was reassured that all true paths  lead to similar insights. Earlier this morning I had been thinking about how my life has changed over the years . It seems to me now that each course or training that I undertook helped change me ‘vibrationally’ and so my external world has changed with me. It is good to reflect and see how much easier life seems to me now, how much more kind and connected it feels .  If you look into your life I’m sure you will find evidence too for how your life is reflecting your vibrations.

Feel how you can raise your vibrations by sensing the love inside , we are all love finding our way home to love completely. not

"When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free."

 -- Wendell Berry