Category Archives: Poems

Poems, Uncategorized

Seeing Your Soul

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Seeing Your Soul, this morning’s neigong…

When you meditate does your soul come to the front?
Like closing all the windows on your computer;
The background becomes the whole screen;
It was always there, you just didn’t see it before.

Your soul is connected to the source;
It is connected to all things;
It sees itself in the eyes others;
It is the uncarved block.

With practice, when you begin Tai Chi;
All the other ‘windows’ close;
And your soul comes to the front;
It is your place of perspective.

It knows the sound of silence;
It is your place of refuge;
A place to find balance;
Where wisdom can arise.

This is the real value of meditation;
A place of mindfulness;
The real value of Tai Chi practice;
A place to discover who you really are….

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Poems, Uncategorized

Old Man Martial Arts

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This morning’s neigong;
An old man has to be mindful;
He cannot move without thinking about it first;
Legs have to be balanced;
Care has to be taken with arthritic joints.

Every step is measured;
Every push is done with care;
Pain gives a measurement;
‘Training’ involves a higher percentage of mind.

BUT this is a good thing;
The young don’t have to think;
Their perception and perspective is flawed;
Their hormones and naïveté control them.

Many old MAists try to be young;
Making them feel old before their time;
“I can still do it” sounds so sad;
Like seeing your granny in a mini skirt.

“I am still learning” is fake;
“I now learn from my students” is fake;
You only have to watch them move;
Their 30 yrs study is 3 yrs repeated 10 times.

We are all swimming upstream;
You stop and you start going backwards;
You have to go deeper not higher;
Not accumulating, but decluttering.

The less we try to become, the more we are;
Simple is not easy;
Go deep inside;
And find your own wisdom.

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Poems

I Alone Am Still….

This morning’s neigong:
Once again the air is different;
Every day it changes as the wheel of the year turns;
Every day the smell and taste has a difference;
Nobody else seems to notice.

I alone am still;
I feel the stasis of the universe;
I am as I am because everything else is as it is;
As everything else is moving;
I alone am still.

People rushing to work;
Taking kids to school;
Birds flying, trees and plants growing;
I feel the earth turning;
Everything balancing everything else.

But I alone am still.

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Poems, Uncategorized

The Sky Weeps To The Earth

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This morning’s neigong:
The sky weeps to the earth;
And earth yields in empathy;
The tears soften and nourish the earth;
Which in turn nourishes everything attached to it.

Empathy is to yield and receive first;
To use the intelligence of our soul to understand;
To receive, with an open spirit;
And then to nourish the situation in a helpful way.

Just as the earth softens to the tears of the sky;
Humanity should soften towards any situation first;
Join with it to understand it;
Then bring it to a state of harmony.

For this we need a soft front and a strong back;
The balance of yin and yang within ourselves;
This has to be trained and understood;
This is the way of Tai Chi….

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Poems, Uncategorized

Tai Chi Is About Depth

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This morning’s neigong:
Tai Chi is all about depth;
It’s an iceberg rather than a mountain;
Not how much you know;
But how deeply you can experience.

Buddha means ‘one who is awake’;
Living fully in the present;
Experiencing life in all it’s richness;
We have a body and senses for just that purpose.

It is at is, right now in this moment;
The pressure of moist summer air on the skin;
Invigorating the internal system from the lungs;
Tasted on the tongue, smelled in the nose;
The sweet fragrant mix of roses and jasmine.

The softness of yin;
On the inside of the limbs and down the front of the body;
The empowerment of yang;
On the outside of the limbs and up the back;
The perfect harmony of the two…

The more yin your mind makes the yin;
The more you empower the yang;
And vica versa;
The depth of the experience becomes richer.

Tai Chi power is all about the depth of the awareness, focus, sensitivity and intensity;
And your ability to direct it.

 

Steve Rowe— at Shi Kon Martial Arts.

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Poems, Uncategorized

The Yin Yang Transitions

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This Morning’s Neigong:

The late summer slightly damp wooded ‘scent’ in the air;
When in yin it feels like the front of the body and the inside of the limbs are in the shade;
When in yang it feels like the back and outside of the limbs are in the sun.

In neigong we hold to feel and then gently transition to feel the intention change;
In the form we feel the spiralling action of the transitions;
The softness of the embrace at the front;
The power of the spine at the back;

How life needs the transitions;
From the tenderness of love;
To the power of resolve;
How often both are needed in one body at the same time;
For us to survive with intelligence and wisdom.

This is my present;
This is my gift;
I only need to have the direct experience in this moment;
To understand why Tai Chi is life.

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