Hope Less To Enlightenment

You must have hopeYou can’t live without hopeThis is not trueWhen you reach a point in lifeWhere there is nothing leftNothing in the futureNothing you can haveEverything is out of reachNothing you wantNo desiresAs the self diesThere’s nothing to hope forYou are dead insideIn that darknessIn that stillnessIn that silenceLies immortalityUniversal consciousnessThe language of wisdom and insightNormally hidden by wantsAnd not wantsDesires and addictionsWhen hope diesSo does the selfAnd enlightenment arises.By Steve Rowe Continue reading Hope Less To Enlightenment

Dependent Origination

Your DNA goes back to the emergence of life on this planet about 4 billion years ago when simple self replicating molecules occurred. Every part of evolution after that is still inside of you. You have died and been reborn millions of times to become who you are. Every time you feel small or worthless remember how you got here and what you’re made of. It’s all in your DNA, it’s there for you to call on when needed. Dig deep, meditate on every life inside of you, not just human, but every life form, through mammal to reptile right … Continue reading Dependent Origination

Yang Family (Yeung Gar) Tai Chi Chuan

Historical facts about the founder of the Yang family (Yeung Gar) style of Tai Chi Yang Lu Chan are varied and often disputed, but he did teach in the Imperial Palace and also many high level dignitaries. I would speculate that this contributed to his notable skill and his ability to deal with opponents utilising the Tai Chi skills of a ‘soft front and a strong back’, often referred to as ‘a sharp needle, or iron bar wrapped in soft cotton’. He needed to be effective but retain a dignified approach, negating an opponent’s force with a blend of skill … Continue reading Yang Family (Yeung Gar) Tai Chi Chuan

You’re Enchanted!

You’re living inside a witches ‘glamour’ spell. You’re enchanted. Put inside a meat vehicle and subject to the spell’s glamour, you think that life is precious, you think it’s full of love, joy and happiness, not realising that your body is gradually rotting, will get sick and die and you will not be able recognise those glamours without an equal amount of anxiety, anger, unhappiness and pain. How do you deal with this? Life is movement, so sit still, breathe deep and you can get outside the spell, you can see the illusion and when seen, the glamour disappears… Continue reading You’re Enchanted!

Where Did We Go Wrong?

I was watching the BBC series ‘Human’ about our evolution and wondering when we changed from living in harmony with the planet and became the disharmonious, damaging, self inflicting, nasty virus we are today. It seems that it was around ten thousand years ago when we started to change from roaming hunter gathers who only took the minimum of what they needed when they needed it to settling in one place and ‘farming’. We altered, bred and farmed crops and animals to harvest and kill for food and stored the extra ‘for a rainy day’ changing our society and the … Continue reading Where Did We Go Wrong?

3 Qualities Of A Good Martial Artist

Do you want to know whether someone has a deep understanding of their martial art? Here’s 3 things to look for: Are they ‘in’ or ‘on’ their feet and legs? If they are ‘standing on their bones’ they can be easily pushed over, a skilful practitioner is balanced and can drop their weight into the soft tissue in the legs down to the feet by softening down through the body, and push directionally from there. Are their arms driven from the waist? Flapping the arms around is weak, but if driven from the feet, legs and then the waist, it … Continue reading 3 Qualities Of A Good Martial Artist

Training With Pain & Fatigue

Training this morning with chronic fatigue, chronic arthritis, only one leg and sprained my neck and chest yesterday using a transfer board at an awkward angle to get from wheelchair to car. Was obviously seated, moving with care to not make anything worse and was using my breathing to open and then close all cavities, tissue and joints in the body filling them with energy to assist healing and reduce pain. Turning disadvantage into advantage was using my hip bones against the chair as my ‘feet’ and pain makes me extremely focused, mindful and concentrated, and the sensitivity makes me … Continue reading Training With Pain & Fatigue

We Are Still Quadrupeds

We are still quadrupeds. We spiral outward in our feet to rotate the femur in the hip socket to open the hips, lifting the pelvic floor and bowing the legs and lower spine. We spiral inwards with our hands to rotate the humerus in the shoulder socket in the opposite direction to the hips to raise the upper back completing both the spine and arm bows. These actions complete and connect the 3 bows (spine, arms and legs) also connecting feet and hands. Humans are still built as quadrupeds so our hips and shoulders work together in opposite directions to … Continue reading We Are Still Quadrupeds

Martial Arts Are Not Binary

Martial Arts are not binary. There are different types of people in every art and style and they are practiced in a myriad of different ways. Every self defence situation is pretty unique and a good martial artist has a toolbox of mental, emotional and physical strategies that they are able to use in a spontaneous way according to the situation to resolve it. I have used and seen used strategies and techniques that would be laughed at by the ‘one handed typist’ trolls and finger wagging reel makers that permeate our social media feeds. If only life was as … Continue reading Martial Arts Are Not Binary

Eagle Vision

Eagle Vision People used to ask me how I could judge and grade a class of 30 students at the same time. Eagle vision is a skill using peripheral vision where I could watch the entire class at the same time and constantly pick out those above and below the standard I was looking for. It’s a state of mind where I utilise my awareness and instinct above thought. It enables me to read people and situations quickly and at a far deeper level than the thinking mind that is slow, laborious, easily distracted and reaches an apathetic state very … Continue reading Eagle Vision