Month: October 2024

Tao Te Ching ExplainedLeave a comment

Heaven And Earth Last Forever

Steve Rowe

Tao Te Ching Part Seven“Heaven and Earth last forever.” Heaven and Earth combined are seen as the Tao, the giver and taker of life. The alchemy of being human from earthly desires (jing energy) aspiring to the heavenly spirituality (shen energy).“Why do heaven and Earth last forever? They are unborn, So ever living.” To understand that which is always there is unborn, infinite, immortal and eternal therefore often not seen or recognised as being the container that contains all life and its potential. “The sage stays behind, thus he is ahead. He is detached, thus at one with all. Through … Continue reading Heaven And Earth Last Forever

Tao Te Ching ExplainedLeave a comment

The Valley Spirit Never Dies

Steve Rowe

Tao Te Ching Part Six “The valley spirit never dies; It is the woman, primal mother.” ‘Valley spirit’ because it’s the Tao that underlies everything that is the primal mother, giving birth to everything in the universe and receiving it back, this is the same as western pagan thought. Diana the goddess giving birth to Herne the hunter at the beginning of each pagan year and receiving him back at the end, the circle of life. “Her gateway is the root of heaven and Earth. It is like a veil barely seen. Use it; it will never fail.” Seen as … Continue reading The Valley Spirit Never Dies

Tao Te Ching ExplainedLeave a comment

Heaven And Earth Are Impartial

Steve Rowe

Tao Te Ching part 5. “Heaven and Earth are impartial;They see the ten thousand things as straw dogs.The wise are impartial;They see the people as straw dogs.” Heaven and earth are not subject to human justice and morals but the universal laws of nature. Too many people expect karma to adhere to human values and it doesn’t. Learn to harmonise with the way of nature. “The space between heaven and Earth is like a bellows.The shape changes but not the form;The more it moves, the more it yields.More words count less.Hold fast to the center.” The earth has been around … Continue reading Heaven And Earth Are Impartial

Tao Te Ching ExplainedLeave a comment

Something From Nothing

Steve Rowe

Tao Te Ching no 4 Quantum physics tells us that something spontaneously arises from and disappears into nothing. Taoism already knew this. The human gift and curse is a reflective conscious mind. It anticipates and complicates and works best when in a calm, wordless, insightful state. Our defining mind by its very nature can’t define the infinite, but our still insightful mind can experience it. Continue reading Something From Nothing

Tao Te Ching ExplainedLeave a comment

Emptying Hearts And Stuffing Bellies

Steve Rowe

These can be the hardest verses for Westerners to understand as our entire society is based on the opposite. It’s said that Taoism comes from early Buddhist travellers from India to China. The second of the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths is that all suffering is born from desire. The desire to be gifted, to gain security by collecting wealth and to want or not want is to suffer and cause suffering to others. To empty hearts is to not desire, weakening ambition, stuffing bellies and strengthening bones is filling the dantien/tanden with life energy and circulating it through the body, … Continue reading Emptying Hearts And Stuffing Bellies

Tao Te Ching ExplainedLeave a comment

When One Becomes Two

Steve Rowe

Tao Te Ching part 2.Part one explains that the Tao is beyond the definition of human thought, but explains that it can still be experienced. Part two shows how as soon as we define anything we automatically create its opposite and complimentary parts. How can we ‘have’ unless we have ‘not having’? ‘Difficult’ without ‘easy’, ‘light’ without ‘dark’, ‘hot’ without ‘cold’ and ‘voice’ without ‘sound’? This can only be understood in stillness and silence by doing ‘no thing’ and taught by direct wordless transmission. All traditional martial arts have this aspect to their teaching. The wise person is able to … Continue reading When One Becomes Two

Tao Te Ching ExplainedLeave a comment

The ‘Way’ of The Martial Arts

Steve Rowe

“The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and Earth. The named is the mother of the ten thousand things. Ever desireless, one can see the mystery. Ever desiring, one sees the manifestations. These two spring from the same source but differ in name; this appears as darkness. Darkness within darkness. The gate to all mystery.” This opening of the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu changed my life. Gifted to me by my first Tai Chi teacher over 50 years ago when I was in my 20’s … Continue reading The ‘Way’ of The Martial Arts

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Fingers & Thumbs In Tai Chi

Steve Rowe

Carrying on from my posts on cupping and flattening the palms of the hands to pump the energy and the power of mudras to manipulate it on discharge I thought I’d do a post on fingers and thumbs as they manipulate both. All these posts are on my blog. The thumb controls a large part of the hand and the ‘tiger’s mouth’ (the area between thumb and forefinger) and is used extensively for trapping and guiding the opponent. The forefinger ‘points’ and directs the hand and energy also stretching to work the other part of the tiger’s mouth. The middle … Continue reading Fingers & Thumbs In Tai Chi

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Tai Chi Teachers

Steve Rowe

When someone spends ages telling us what taiji/qi/neigong/qigong isn’t, I’m waiting for them to tell me what it is. When they’re telling us that we’re all ignorant and don’t understand and only they do, my spidey senses are alerted. When we’re told that you have to spend years to understand and train it I can definitely smell snake oil. Whatever art or system you train in after your first session you’ll be better than you were before it. Then you build your skills as the days, weeks, months and years go by, exactly the same as if you were learning … Continue reading Tai Chi Teachers

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Semantic Satiation In Tai Chi

Steve Rowe

Semantic satiation is when you’ve repeated a word many times and it loses its meaning and becomes just a sound, this can also happen with tai chi techniques. You’re practising your form day after day, month after month and year after year, the form has become a moving meditation, suddenly that technique that you’ve done so many times feels wrong. This is how when your mind and movement have gone from ‘absorption’ to ‘insight’, the conditions are right for these insights to arise. Your mind is receiving messages from the body to tell you ‘this isn’t right’ and that it … Continue reading Semantic Satiation In Tai Chi