It’s important to take time and spaceTo be still and silentNo TVNo radioNo musicAnd no peopleStop filling your mind with crapEveryone else wants a piece of itIt’s too easy to give it awayMindlesslyBe stillBe silentTurn your senses inwardAnd find yourselfDiscover your powerOwn your own mindAnd don’t let anything or anyone inWithout filtering itDevelop your own locus of power. Continue reading Own Your Mind
During the day the emotional toolbox is goodBehind the trained emotions sits the abyssOnly rearing its head in the spacesEarly to bed avoids the fatigue and the black dogEvery night is the same dreamSearching for what is not there anymoreWaking at 4am exhaustedNot wanting to go back to the dreamWrite poetry5am get upMeditateTrainBurn incenseChantCommune with the infiniteRefreshedCarry onFall Down seven timesGet up seven timesNot bloody eight. Continue reading Fall Down Seven Times
Chinese Whispers In WW1 there’s a story that in the trenches commands were ‘passed down the line’ and by the time “send reinforcements we’re going to advance” had gone down a long line of men it had become “send two and sixpence were going to a dance!” We never know how much knowledge passed down orally has become corrupted. I come across it regularly because I’m old and have studied the classics for over 50 years and often know the uncorrupted versions. But even then, were the original and revered ‘masters’ that good? The stories and legends of both Tai … Continue reading Chinese Whispers
The Devine Feminine I’m told that being a man I can’t understand the feminine and that I therefore don’t have the right or ability to speak or write about it, but I can write from my own perspective and extensive studies in that area. To me femininity is not just about sex or what men’s expectations are, but the gifts that nature bestows on the female. The abrahamic religions talk about god creating man and that woman is made from a part of man, to me that’s the masculine hijacking the role of the feminine and it sits behind our … Continue reading The Devine Feminine
‘There is no first attack in karate’ is repeatedly brought up on on social media and I think is often misunderstood. The ‘kara’ in karate means empty, like in karaoke (empty orchestra). Its use here is as in the zen ‘empty of intention.’ A skilled karateka is a powerful peacekeeper, with that essential ‘soft front and strong back’. They don’t start violence, like any law enforcement officer, but handle it when it arises. In discussion so many people naively still think that karate (traditionally a stand up grappling art) is ‘block and punch’ in self defence, it’s far from that. … Continue reading There Is No First Attack In Karate
No Previous Experience Necessary.This one day a month for 10 months programme will be taught personally by Steve Rowe 9th Dan and his team of assistants, Steve is an internationally renowned Tai Chi teacher, Chairman and founder of Shi Kon Martial Arts International. The programme has been running for 10 years and has qualified over a 120 coaches, it is designed to certificate and give Tai Chi Students the ability to teach Tai Chi and run and administer a club to a basic level standard. Participants will be registered with Shi Kon Martial Arts International Association and the British Council … Continue reading 2027 Shi Kon Tai Chi Coaching Programme
How can we unfold? Everyone is different, we are as individual as snowflakes. Locked up inside of us is our own individual destiny and our skill is to allow it to ‘unfold’. To do this we have to learn the language of our instincts and listen to them. Only they can direct us accurately, but first we have to ‘unblock’ them. Society programmes us, family, friends, educators and politicians all tell us what we should be and what we should be doing to serve their desires. As this programming starts at a very early age, to fit in, we assume … Continue reading How Can we ‘Unfold?’
When You Walk Through The Mirror… We are programmed to think, to make lists, to take instructions and apply them. We are taught in feet, then inches, then hundredths of an inch and carefully examine every minutia of or technique. We ask questions, challenge the teachings and practice until we internalise and become them. Then something strange happens. Alongside those teachings a good teacher will also be teaching meditation, deliberately bringing us to this point. Our body does the form or kata and the meditation teaches us to continue paying attention so thought stops and the form becomes an act … Continue reading Walking Through The Mirror
This morning’s Tai Chi session –It was exactly halt light and half dark, a magical time.Burning quality oud incense.Facing Quanyin, the goddess of mercy and compassion.Playing ‘Solar Eclipse’ by Mei-Lan.Meditation – unifying mind, breath, energy and body.Qigong to warm the energy making it more fluid and loosen joints until it flows easily, rippling through the body.Yang Cheng Fu 108 moving the body and energy in harmony, pulsing, rising and falling, opening and closing, twisting and turning, swirling and reeling silk throughout the body.Finishing with silence and stillness until the energy has settled in peace, healing mind, emotions, spirit and body.A … Continue reading Morning Harmony
Through The Looking Glass….After the seminar todayWhen I was in the Dojo on my ownIn my wheelchairI saw myself in the mirrorOld, crippledIt wasn’t meNot who I amIt was like I was deadOut of my bodyMy reflection was like a photographOf me when I was aliveMy family sayingThat was my dad, granddadI could see my fatherMy grandfatherMy family line back to the beginningI was the one with no war medalsBut still had all the scarsAnd the missing limbI sat frozenMesmerisedLike looking into the futureThrough the looking glassA life full of a different kind of warsEating me upBit by bitPhysicallyEmotionallyMentallySpirituallySurviving them … Continue reading Through The Looking Glass
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