Tag: Taoism

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Space – The Final Frontier

Steve Rowe

Tao Te Ching Part Eleven “Thirty spokes share the wheel’s hub;It is the center hole that makes it useful.Shape clay into a vessel;It is the space within that makes it useful.Cut doors and windows for a room;It is the holes which make it useful.Therefore benefit comes from what is there;Usefulness from what is not there.” ‘Some thing’ can only exist by the grace of ‘no thing’. Space, apart from filling the void is 99.9999999% of an atom. If the space was removed from a human body the remaining matter would be as big as a speck of dust. It pervades … Continue reading Space – The Final Frontier

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The Universe Police

Steve Rowe

I was floating around as a spirit in the universe with a kind of unresolved yearning. Then the universe police caught me in a net set out for spirits like me and I was given a ‘life sentence’ and suddenly found myself imprisoned in a meat carcass on this planet. At first I was confused, selfish, hurt and hated prison, as a result the other prisoners hated me and I hated them, my ‘teenage years’ were tumultuous and painful. I caused a lot of danger to myself, my cell, others and the prison itself. As the years went by I … Continue reading The Universe Police

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

Don’t Fill To The Brim

Steve Rowe

Tao Te Ching Part Nine “Better to stop short than fill to the brim.Oversharpen the blade, and the edge will soon blunt.” A lot of modern stress, anxiety and illness is the result of our modern stressful living. We seem to have lost the art of pacing ourselves, we are constantly pressured to do more, to become more and push ourselves beyond our limits. To not ‘fill to the brim or oversharpen the blade’ is good advice to stop at the point that where we can improve but not go too far. “Amass a store of gold and jade, and … Continue reading Don’t Fill To The Brim

Tao Te Ching ExplainedLeave a comment

Emptying Hearts And Stuffing Bellies

Steve Rowe

These can be the hardest verses for Westerners to understand as our entire society is based on the opposite. It’s said that Taoism comes from early Buddhist travellers from India to China. The second of the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths is that all suffering is born from desire. The desire to be gifted, to gain security by collecting wealth and to want or not want is to suffer and cause suffering to others. To empty hearts is to not desire, weakening ambition, stuffing bellies and strengthening bones is filling the dantien/tanden with life energy and circulating it through the body, … Continue reading Emptying Hearts And Stuffing Bellies

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

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The Tao Through Yin & Yang

Steve Rowe

Today’s Neigong In the beginning you use physical strength to hold the 5 standing positions, With time you feel the energy; The yin energy in the yin postures; And the yang energy in the yang postures. After a while ‘neutral’ is balanced between the yin and yang; Then you feel the balance in the other postures; The yin in the yang; And the yang in the yin. Every posture has an energetic ‘stasis’; Each energy balancing its opposite; The muscular force is at a minimum; As the energetic takes over. Then you search for the stasis in every posture in … Continue reading The Tao Through Yin & Yang

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Intensity In Meditation

Steve Rowe

  I teach that for mindfulness, meditation and Martial Arts, the mind needs to be aware, focused, sensitive and intense. The right kind of intensity is a key factor and often misunderstood. You cannot be half hearted. The enemies of the mind are apathy and distraction, to avoid them the mind must be intensely focused and that requires the right kind of effort. To me, after posture and breathing are correct, it’s like getting into an elevator and dropping instantly 100 floors down. This is both my meditation and fighting mind, it cannot be disrupted. Sometimes it feels like I’m … Continue reading Intensity In Meditation

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If I die tonight

Steve Rowe

Dedicated to my good friend the late Graham Wednes. If I die tonight will the universe stop? If I return to the Tao it will be like a wave returning to the sea; No more ‘being human’ and only ‘sensing’ the infinite; From whence I came, I will return and be it once more. My ‘place of refuge’ becomes my home again. In the infinite, all time exists all of the time, the theatre of life exists because the pot is stirred; When stirred, one plays off against the other in a binary fashion, simple appears complicated as the picture … Continue reading If I die tonight

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Winner Or Loser?

Steve Rowe

Winner Or Loser? So many people just don’t get it. If you want to be a winner, you have to learn to win more than you lose. Firstly you have to decide who and what you want to be. If you want to be a good traditional martial artist then you have to do more work in that direction than in any other. It’s your choice. Draw a line in your life and call it ‘Zero’. Every moment you are mindful, in good posture, breathing properly, caring, polite, courteous, determined, resolute, courageous and working with emotional intelligence  you are in … Continue reading Winner Or Loser?