New -sawed

      clean-smelling house

      sweet cedar pink

              flesh tint

      I love you

              Lorine Niedecker

       mist softened and wet

       musk of wild garlic and horse mown grass

       spacious and silent amid bird calls

       spring morning path 

Here is the first posture of the Short Form . I'm practicing with Michael and Brendan. Welcome to T'ai Chi, I hope you find this demonstration helpful. Ann


Introduction, Preparation, Beginning from Yin&Yang on Vimeo.

" The question arises : How do you increase your ability to maintain concentration on the ball (or whatever your focus might be) for long periods of time. On this subject something can be learned from Bahkti yoga. Bahkti is the yoga that aims at achieving perfect concentration of mind through devotion. Indian yogis in particular have recognised the power of love in overcoming distraction of mind. Bahkti yoga teaches that love of the object of concentration makes it possible to focus one's attention without wavering, and eventually to become one with that object.
There is a story told by holy men in the East which may make this point more memorable. A seeker after Truth sought out a yoga Master and begged him to help him achieve the enlightenment of perfect union with his true self. The Master told him to go into to a room and meditate on God for a long as he could. After just two hours the seeker emerged distraught, saying that he could not concentrate, since his mind kept thinking of his much beloved bull he had left at home. The Master then told him to return to the room and meditate on his bull. This time the would-be yogi entered the room and after two days still had not emerged. Finally the Master called for him to come out. 'I cannot; my horns are too wide to fit through the door.' The seeker had reached such a state of concentration that he had lost all sense of separation from his object of concentration. "
-fron W.T Gallwey's The Inner Game Of Tennis

     Watermelons and Zen students

     grow pretty much the same way.

     Long periods of sitting

     till they ripen and grow

     all juicy inside, but

     when you knock them on the head

     to see if they are ready -

     sounds like nothing's going on.

                      Peter Levitt

Most of the work with a koan takes place alone while sitting zazan, because in reality there's nothing anyone can give us. There's nothing that we lack. Each one of us is perfect and complete, lacking nothing. That's why it is said that there are no Zen teachers and nothing to teach. But this truth must be realised by each one of us. Great faith, great doubt, and great determination are three essentials for that realisation. It is a boundless faith in oneself and in the ability to realise oneself and make oneself free, and a deep and penetrating doubt that asks: Who am I? What is life ? What is truth ? This great faith and great doubt are in dynamic tension with each other, and work to provide the real cutting edge of koan practice. When great faith and great doubt are also accompanied by great determination (the determination of " Seven times knocked down, eight times get up " ), we have at our disposal the power necessary to break through our delusive way of thinking and realise the full potential of our lives.
John Daido Loori