Tag: Taoism

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One Foot In Death

Steve Rowe

Blood, Sweat and TearsContemplating deathWalking with one foot in life and one in deathGiving a perspective others don’t haveThen in meditation and trainingMoving both feet into deathWith just a little toe left in lifeWhen you’re as familiar with death as lifeYou lose fearYou gain that broader perspectiveFinding your immortalityYou gain balanceFinding the line between yin and yangThe middle path, the TaoThe way of the warriorPiercing the veil of illusionRealising that what you were before you were born,What you are when you’re deadYou still are nowWatching the theatre of lifeNot happy or unhappyBut peacefulThose that opt for an ‘easy life’Missed the … Continue reading One Foot In Death

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Everything Changes

Steve Rowe

The one thing in life that never changes is the fact that it’s always changing. Children grow upAdults grow oldExperienceIllnessTragedyRelationshipsTimeGradings They all change peopleThey change usThey change people we knowThis is important We can’t expect people to be the sameFriendsPartnersStudentsTeachersOurselves Quite often disappointment arises when we expect people or things to stay the same. They don’t. They can’t. Love, friendship, relationships, respect can grow stronger or fade away. Eventually everything peaks, and everyone and everything turns to dust. This can be scary or a comfort – it’s up to you. Continue reading Everything Changes

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It’s 3am…

Steve Rowe

It’s 3am….I have ‘restless body syndrome’The immortal me wants to talkI have 2 partsThe mortal meAnd the immortal meThe ‘human being’ meAnd the ‘being human’ meThe indoctrinatedAnd the unindoctrinated When I start to meditateI breathe deepI find stillness and silenceThe body calmsThe emotions calmThe mind calmsAt first there’s confusionThen everything settles Like the windows on a computerEmotion and thought shut downAllowing the immortal me to come forwardThat which is always looking out my eyesWho I talk to when I talk to myselfStill, silent, and always presentWho I have always beenWho I was before I was bornWho I am when my … Continue reading It’s 3am…

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How I Became Vegetarian

Steve Rowe

It was the 70’s.I’d been dragged up on a South London council estate, gone to the worst school in London, left school with no qualifications and drifted from job to job falling into the security world. From boxing, kickboxing to karate and spit and sawdust gyms doing bodybuilding to bulk up for the violence incurred at work. I thought respect, friendship and love, were all based on other people’s fear of me…. Until Tai Chi led me into the Taoist, Zen and Buddhist practice of mindfulness. I found dependent origination and the practice of patient kindness – that led me … Continue reading How I Became Vegetarian

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How Can we ‘Unfold?’

Steve Rowe

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?’

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Morning Harmony

Steve Rowe

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

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Overthinking in Meditation

Steve Rowe

Overthinking in Meditation There’s a lot of advice on how to meditate, the problem can be that if it’s making you think or try too hard it might be getting in the way. It shouldn’t be a burden. Try the opposite and instead of trying to do something – don’t do it. Let go of all the advice and instructions and watch everything pass by without interference or attachment. Treat it like the relief you feel when you had a lot to do but now don’t have to do it, you’ve got time off instead. The only thing you have … Continue reading Overthinking in Meditation

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The Coin Of Desire

Steve Rowe

Someone said the other day that you have to get off your arse, follow your desires and live – or you’re just existing. The thought struck me that sitting still, not being subject to your desires and just existing is actually better. The Buddha said that suffering is borne from desire. When you get to appreciate that desire is the survival mechanism of the body and actually doesn’t belong to you, you can see it objectively instead of being subject to it. Desire is a thirst that can never be fully quenched, it will always want more or go from … Continue reading The Coin Of Desire

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Get Real

Steve Rowe

Doesn’t matter how much you imagine it, it’s never the same as direct experience. Be it violence, cancer, enlightenment, mental health problems, amputation, or penetrating the shell to get that spontaneous freedom within your art. I feel sorry for the people that have an ‘easy life’ because without that essential hardship and paying their dues, they never get the essential insight and wisdom. So many are just travellers in life, wearing the masks and having an easy time, and it makes me wonder, WTF are they doing here? They’re like the ‘copy and paste’ internet version of humans. If you … Continue reading Get Real