Tag: meditation

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Drawing Lines From Insight

Steve Rowe

Whilst meditating this morning my mind was connecting the chi to the breath. As I breathed in it moved it from the lower dantien through the coccyx, up the back, over the head where it collected between the in and out breath and as I breathed out I sank the chest to drain it down from the tongue back down to the lower dantien. I found myself naturally drawing the line with my hands in front of the body and that drew a mental image of the shape of Daruma meditating in the cave. (I wish I could draw, AI … Continue reading Drawing Lines From Insight

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The Warrior’s Time

Steve Rowe

The ancient warrior stood on the hillOverlooking his villageThe cold ate into his bonesIt permeated every injuryReminding him of every battleEvery widow he’d madeEvery child rendered fatherlessAnd he knew it was his time. He recognised the look every dog hadWhen it could barely stand or walkAsking him to take its bodyNow he could barely stand or walkFrom leader to barely seenFrom influencer to ridiculedSo much experience he could pass onBut younger ears are deafThey tell himHe doesn’t understandThe world’s not like it anymore. And yet generation after generationKeep making the same mistakesThose that can see itAre considered dementedAnd don’t understand … Continue reading The Warrior’s Time

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Everyone Has A Story

Steve Rowe

As the government turns on people with disabilities, removing independence payments and most importantly social help of all kinds, no one can understand the full import of what becoming disabled means. We all have a different story and I’m lucky that I’m still able to work and support myself, with a lot of family, friends and students around me to help. Others are not so lucky. Having been an independent, fit, strong career martial artist for most of my life, becoming disabled and losing my leg meant that I lost 95% of my life. If asked if I would rather … Continue reading Everyone Has A Story

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The Black Hole

Steve Rowe

There’s a yawning black hole where his heart used to be.It reaches down into infinity.It’s like another dimension reaching up.Telling him that this illusion is only one of millions.His body is of little consequence.He is drawn into this life’s movie.The character he plays is merely for experience.Sadness, depression, guilt, anxiety and addiction teach him lessons.In fact far more than the balancing joy and happiness which only offers temporary relief.The yawning hole permanently aches, it’s an elevator that only goes down to bring the demons up.It can’t be fixed, it’s there for the duration.The bigger the challenges, the more he grows.The … Continue reading The Black Hole

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Open A Portal

Steve Rowe

Our life is chasing one thing but always empowering its opposite.We can’t have one without the other.This is the way of the universe.We call it karma, action creates reaction.We chase happiness and in doing so empower sadness.The more happiness we chase, the more sadness is always on its back.We only know happiness exists because we have sadness to compare it to.Otherwise how would we know we were happy?We can only be rich by making others poor.We only know one by knowing the other.We don’t really want happiness, it’s a drug.We want peace.How do we get peace?Through balance.Recognise the effect one … Continue reading Open A Portal

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It’s A Matter Of Perpective

Steve Rowe

Was giving a private lesson to Kieran Evans yesterday and we were discussing perspective. I asked him if he was the centre of the universe or just a part of it. We often talk about how we are like a wave on the sea, we arise from the source, are separate but still made from it and when our body dies we return to it. The Tao Te Ching states ‘the space between heaven and earth is like a bellows, the shape changes but not the form”. But what if we turn that on its head? What if we are … Continue reading It’s A Matter Of Perpective

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Recovery & Rehab

Steve Rowe

It takes longer than you think to recover from injury, surgery, illness and grief. And you never fully recover, scarring and weakness can be physical, emotional and mental. And sometimes you never get better, only worse until you die. If you’ve always been healthy, often your mind and emotions think you’re healed even when your body hasn’t. Get back to normality as soon as possible, but it needs to be a new normal. Damaged and replacement joints are not like the original ones, illnesses like cancer and sepsis take a deep toll and grief has only eased, it never fully … Continue reading Recovery & Rehab

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Moving Chi

Steve Rowe

‘There is stillness in movement and movement in stillness’ – Yang Chen Fu This skill can be used in ALL martial arts, adding the internal to the external. Neigong (inner work)In stillness, (meditation and standing postures) we learn to open our body, opening the joints, fascia, lungs and empty spaces filling them with chi energy. We attach and harmonise our mind to our energy and breath (Sanchin, Saamchin) using our attention and intention to ‘follow our breath’ we stimulate and move the energy around the body. In the standing postures we learn to use intelligent and alchemised emotion to colour … Continue reading Moving Chi

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Abraxus the God of Effect

Steve Rowe

I remember journeying to Watkins books in Charing Cross Road in the 70’s to buy this book, unobtainable at the time from nowhere else. Apart from Tai Chi, Karate and Iaido, Zen, Buddhism and Taoism, I was also studying paganism, and ritual magic and had read Carl Jung’s ‘Memories Dreams and Reflections’ so this was a natural follow up as he had written it whilst being possessed by a spirit. As you can see from the screenshot the beginning very much followed the start of the Tao Te Ching using different terminology, but as you can see in the quote … Continue reading Abraxus the God of Effect

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The Magic Jian

Steve Rowe

We study the names of the jian (Chinese double edge sword) techniques in great depth. The jian is the ‘magical’ sword in Chinese culture (a bit like King Arthur’s Excalibur) and the names carry the mythology and cultural stories that go along with it, and most importantly, tell us the ‘spirit’ and mindset that the techniques are done with. They are poetic, they include real and mythological creatures, they are shamanistic as we take on the spirits of various types of dragons, gods, swallows, cats, wasps, phoenix, wild horses, lions, tigers, rhinos, apes, celestial beings and observe and copy everyday … Continue reading The Magic Jian