Tag: kung fu

Tao Te Ching ExplainedLeave a comment

The Primal Virtue

Steve Rowe

Tao Te Ching Part Ten  “Carrying body and soul and embracing the one,Can you avoid separation? Attending fully and becoming supple,Can you be as a newborn babe?Washing and cleansing the primal vision,Can you be without stain?” A new born baby still belongs to the Tao, it doesn’t know yet that it will be indoctrinated into developing a ‘self’ by society, given a name, and becoming the subject of fear, anger, desire and addiction, separating it from the Tao. The skill is to engage in life and embrace the Tao, retaining that child like sense of wonder, this is washing and … Continue reading The Primal Virtue

Tao Te Ching ExplainedLeave a comment

Be Like Water

Steve Rowe

Tao Te Ching Part Eight This is one of my favourite parts of the Tao Te Ching because it gives the best and most simple advice on how to live your life. “The highest good is like water. Water give life to the ten thousand things and does not strive. It flows in places men reject and so is like the Tao. “ It reminds me of one of my favourite old Turkish saying “if you sleep on the floor, you won’t fall out of bed.” The more simply you live, the more content you will be. This leads on … Continue reading Be Like Water

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

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

ArticlesLeave a comment

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

ArticlesLeave a comment

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

ArticlesLeave a comment

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

ArticlesLeave a comment

Respect Is A 2 Way Street

Steve Rowe

Many martial artists learning capacity has an expiry date. They get what they want or need from a teacher or system and some stop progressing at that point or move on to someone or something else. It’s a hard pill for some teachers to swallow as they feel discarded and that the work they put into that person was wasted but that’s not true. If the student stops learning at that point they’ve reached capacity, but the teacher’s contribution still have added value to their life. Others have got what they wanted or needed from one teacher and now need … Continue reading Respect Is A 2 Way Street

ArticlesLeave a comment

Body Intelligence

Steve Rowe

Body IntelligenceThe more we train, the more get to realise and utilise this skill. The mindfulness aspect of training means that as we develop good posture and deep breathing: Our body calms down,Then our emotions calm down,Finally our mind calms down and becomes more aware, focused, sensitive and intense. This means that instead of trying to train subjectively and having to take instruction, as we’ve been indoctrinated to do with the desire to ‘become’ something, our new state of being is able to observe objectively to see and feel what is actually going on. This unified state of inner calm … Continue reading Body Intelligence