Taijiquan and Seeing

 "Looking and seeing are two different things. In tai chi we see without looking. When we look, we focus our gaze on some point. As we do that, there are subtle changes in our facial muscles which affect all our muscles. We see what we're looking at but miss the rest. Imagine having to deal with multiple opponents. The ideal is to see as if you're looking from behind your head so that your vision broadens. An easy way to understand it is by holding your arms at your side as if making a cross with your body. Can you see your hands with your peripheral vision? If you can, that's what your seeing should feel like. As you do that, you will notice that things get quieter and softer, more relaxed, and seem to slow down."
- Joe Eber, Facebook Post 

"Eyelids relaxed:  The eyelids should be relaxed like a curtain. As the eyelids relax, the mind is able to calm down and release the tension of the body’s muscles. The facial muscles also need to be soft and relaxed. As always, your outlook should be aware but not focused. Another reason to curtain the eyes is to hide your intention from others. In a martial arts’ sense, this is used for effective defense and offense.

Center the vision:  Set the eyes straight ahead but do not focus outward onto anything in particular. I tell my students to see, without looking; likewise to hear, without listening. By not focusing on any one thing, we cultivate awareness of all things. A centered vision helps to engage our peripheral vision so that we get a better sense of what is going on all around us. This also encourages awareness of our internal environment; our sense of feeling, balance, movement, and posture. A centered vision pertains to seeing both within and without."
-  William Ting, Essential Concepts of Tai Chi  

"What is the color of your head from the standpoint of your eyes?  You feel that you head is black, or that it has not any color at all.  Outside you see your field of vision as an oval because your two eyes act as two centers of an ellipse.  But what is beyond the field of vision?  What color is it where you can't see?  It is not black, and this is an important point; there is no color at all beyond your field of vision.  This little mental exercise gives us an idea of what is mean by the character hsüan.  Although its dictionary definition is "dark, deep, obscure," it actually refers to this kind of no color that is the color of your head - as far as your eyes are concerned.  Perhaps we could say that the invisibility of one's head, in a certain sense the lack of a head, is the secret of being alive.  To be headless, or have no head in just the same sense I am talking about, is our way of talking about the Chinese expression wu hsin, or "no mind."  As a matter of fact, if you want to see the inside of your head all you have to do is keep your eyes open, because all that you are experiencing in the external, visual field is a state of your brain."
-  Alan Watts, Swimming Headless, 1966 

Vision, Seeking, Sensations, Perceptions, Looking  By Michael P. Garofalo

Seeing, in solo Taijiquan practice, refers mostly to being visually aware of one's immediate physical environment your moving within.  With home indoor practice, that involves awareness of tripping hazards, walls, chairs, etc.  Adjustments are made accordingly.  Take in the big picture of where you are practicing - outdoors or indoors.  A wider angle of vision is preferred.

Some aspects of seeing in Taijiquan practices involve carefully looking at an imaginary opponent, your hands, or in a specific direction.  Looking is a focused kind of seeing, and the field of vision is more circumscribed.  

Concentration and Gazing in Yoga Practice

"Drishti (IPA: [ dɽʂʈi ]; Sanskrit: दृष्टि; IAST:dṛṣṭi), or focused gaze, is a means for developing concentrated intention. It relates to the fifth limb of yoga (pratyahara) concerning sense withdrawal as well as the sixth limb dharana relating to concentration."
Drishti - Wikipedia


While doing various yoga postures the eyes gaze at and concentrate on eight specific parts of the body: 
middle of the thumb
eyes lowered, imagine gazing at third eye in the middle of the forehead
tip of the nose
palm of the hand and fingers
look to left side or right side
look upwards at sky or ceiling
navel
toes


"Simply speaking, drushti is sensitive awareness to that which you are doing. This has two aspects that are vital to every aspect of our practice. First it means bringing your mind to bear exactly on what you are doing. Not doing one thing while thinking another. This actually means learning not even to be thinking about what you are doing. Rather, just be doing it, feeling it. In the beginning we must think before we act. Then we act. Then think again. But we must learn to separate these two processes so that we can act with precision and clarity, without the distraction of thought. Eventually we will learn to trust the intelligence of the body and will be able to dispense with the thinking process more and more. Then our practice becomes meditation in action."

"The second aspect is to feel the effect of what we are doing. Not only at the point of the action itself, but throughout the whole structure of the body and the quality of the mind. We must feel its impact on the functioning of the body, breath and mind. We use this feedback to go deeper into the poses by making adjustments according to the four secondary techniques of asana, vinyasa, bandha and pranayama. Then through the dynamic created between our intention and our actions, a meditative awareness emerges."

- Godfrey Devereux, Dynamic Yoga, 1998, p. 24 

Seeing, Looking, Watching

Yoga:  Posture Lists, Research, Reading Lists, Notes   By Mike Garofalo

Meditation

Mike Garofalo's Yoga Classes in Red Bluff, California 

Qigong (Chi Kung)

Body-Mind: Theory and Practices


"Seeing is a gift that comes with practice."
-   Stephanie Mills   

"What we see depends mainly on what we look for."
-  John Lubbock    

 

Positive Psychology and Secular Ethics: Good Reads

Lately, I have been reading for many hours each day as I recover and heal my knee from my fall last Sunday (10 Sep 2023).  Here are some of the better books I have read:

The Twelve Monotasks: Do One Thing at a Time, Do Everything Better.  By Thatcher Wine. Little Brown Spark, 2021, index, notes, 263 pages.  VSCL, Hardbound + FVRLibrary.

If you want good ideas, tips, techniques, exercises, and methods for enabling yourself to focus, concentrate, and fully engage yourself in specific tasks in your daily life then read: "The Twelve Monotasks: Do One Thing at a Time, Do Everything Better" by Thatcher Wine, 2021. He gives specific recommendations for "monotasking" in the areas of reading, walking, listening, sleeping, eating, travel, learning, teaching, playing, seeing, creating, and thinking. A fine book in positive psychology!

Secular Faith: How Culture Has Trumped Religion in American Politics.  By Mark A. Smith.  University of Chicago Press, 2015, index, notes, 287 pages. FVRLibrary.

A sociological and historical study about how the secular society in America has moved away from traditional religious anti-progressive and oppressive values regarding slavery, divorce, homosexuality, abortion, and women's rights.  A very good analysis and careful research into how the Christian religion supported slavery, rejected divorce, persecuted homosexuals, rejected birth control, and treated women unfairly and denied women rights; and how secular compromises changed our views and laws regarding these issues and practices in American society over the past three centuries. A respect for individual liberties, rights, and freedom are more popular in American secular culture in 2023. For example, despite the Moral Majority, Christian Coalition, and fundamentalist "family values" agendas in the ongoing Culture Wars; all States now have "no-fault" divorce options, and these religious groups these days place a low priority on trying to restrict or make divorce illegal or persecute divorcees, as they did in the past.

The Existentialist's Survival Guide;  How to Live Authentically in an Inauthentic Age. By Gordon Marino. Harper One, 2018, bibliography, notes, 260 pages. FVRLibrary.

A philosopher and librarian and boxer digs deeply into real life issues such as anxiety, depression, despair, death, authenticity, faith, morality, and love.  Strong on Kierkegaard and similar authors. Hope, courage, and honesty but little emphasis of facile happiness. Existentialism has a gloomy demeanor, and life can be very gloomy.

Being and Nothingness: An Essay in Phenomenological Ontology. By Jean-Paul Sartre.  Translated by Sarah Richmond.  Washington Square Press, 1943, 2018, bibliography, index, 853 pages.  VSCL, Paperback. 

This complicated, obtuse, lengthy, difficult, and noted book will take me four months to read and study.  I have read a number of essays and fictional books by Sartre, and studied him in college in 1964, but have never challenged myself to study his magnum opus until 2023.  I'm not sure if I am up to understanding his complex views in my old age, but I will try. 

Daily Somatic Practices in 2023

 In 2023, my Daily Body-Mind-Spirit Practices include: 

the Yang Style Traditional T'ai Chi Ch'uan 108 Movements Long Form;

the Yang Style Taijiquan Standard 24 Movements Short Form;

the Eight Immortals Cane Form Yang Style;

Wudang Chi Kung, Warmups, Exercises, Ideals;

and Daoism: Principles and Practices.

Yang Style Taijiquan - Traditional 108 Movements T'ai Chi Ch'uan Long Form

Standard Simplified Yang Style Taijiquan 24 Movements Short Form

Eight Immortals Cane Routine #1, Yang Style

Wudang Qigong , Warmups, Exercises, Ideals, Meditation

Daoism: Principles and Practices

 

 Today, January 23rd, is my birthday.  I am 77 years old today.  

Tai Chi Chuan Practice Principles of Ken Gullette

Key Components of an Effective Chen Taijiquan Practice

Signposts on a Martial Arts Journey: Tai Chi, Hsing-I, Bagua, and the Art of Life.
By Ken Gullette, 2013, Kindle E-Book
Chapter 47: Why Your Tai Chi is So Weak

The Real Concepts of Tai Chi Chuan Practice

1.  Establish and Maintain a Ground Path

2.  The Most Important Energy is Peng Energy and It 
     Must be Maintained at All Times

3.  All Movements Must Be Connected Through the Body

4. Silk Reeling Practice and Skills 

5.  Dan Tien Rotation

6.  Opening and Closing the Kua

7.  Maintain a Centered Stance

"The best you can do for yourself is to NOT believe everything an authority figure tells you, but to investigate and research and read, watch videos and compare, and don't close your mind to the possibility that you might be learning poor quality Tai Chi."  

Sifu Ken Gullette's excellent website with instructional DVDs, books, online videos, Zoom classes, and support of learners.  

Benefits of Conscious Relaxation

"True relaxation is always a dropping into ourselves, a movement toward our core and very center of self.  In addition to distorting what we can see, hear, and feel, the inability to relax and release tension will inevitably fuel the involuntary internal monologue of the mind.  As we become more enmeshed in the drama that our mind is scripting about ourselves, our ability to relate in a wholesome and relaxed manner with the current condition and circumstances of our lives becomes further distorted. ... The relaxation of tension in our bodies melts the armoring that keeps our bodies hard and inflexible.  This hardening of the tissue creates a layer of numbness that keeps our awareness of the rich web of shimmering sensations concealed and contained.  Relaxation allows the armoring to begin to soften and melt away.  The inevitable result is a much greater awareness of sensational presence and a diminution of the ongoing involuntary monologue of the mind.  Learning how to relax by surrendering the weight of the body to the pull of gravity and remaining standing at the same time significantly catalyzes the practice of mindfulness."
-  Will Johnson, Aligned, Relaxed and Resilient, 2000, p. 55



"To be relaxed means to release tension, but not to let go of substance.  There is a quality in-between stiff and loose which is stable, yet flexible, that has fullness without being rigid, that is calm in motion yet conveys a vigorous presence.  For lack of an equivalent English word, I refer to this concept as flowing within firmness, firmness within flowing.  Flowing and firmness do not gain support from a rigid skeletal posture or strength from muscular tension.  Rather, their integrity comes from expansion.  Expansion is the ability to spread out in all directions.  This is the key to relaxing without collapsing."
-  Ting Kuo-Piao, Understanding Flowing and Firmness, 2000


"Relaxation of the whole body means the conscious relaxation of all the joints, and this organically links up all parts of the body in a better way.  This does not mean softness.  It requires a lot of practice in order to understand this point thoroughly.  Relaxation also means the "stretching" of the limbs, which gives you a feeling of heaviness.  (This feeling of heaviness or stiffness is a concrete reflection of strength.)  This feeling is neither a feeling of softness nor stiffness, but somewhere in between.  It should not be confined to a specific part, but involves the whole body.  It is like molten iron under high temperature.  So relaxation "dissolves" stiff strength in very much the same way.  Stiff strength, also called "clumsy strength," undergoes a qualitative change after thousands of times of "dissolution" exercises.  Just like iron which can be turned into steel, so "clumsy strength" can be turned into force, and relaxation is a means of gradually converting it into force.  Our ancestors put it well: "Conscious relaxation will unconsciously produce force."  There is truth in this statement."
-  Yang Zhenduo, "Yang Style Taijiquan", p 16


Relaxed (Sung, Song, Fan Song):  Quotations, Bibliography, Resources

Standing Meditation

T'ai Chi Ch'uan

Somaesthetic Practices and Theory

Sit Quietly: Focus and Forget

"Teach us to care and not to care.
Teach us to sit still."
- T.S. Eliot

"You are sitting on the earth and you realize that this earth deserves you and you deserve this earth.  You are there - fully, personally, genuinely."
-  Chogyam Trungpa

"Remain sitting at your table and listen. 
Do not even listen, simply wait, 
be quiet still and solitary. 
The world will freely offer itself 
to you to be unmasked, 
it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy 
at your feet."
-  Franz Kafka


"Sit quietly
focus and forget
rest with the great achievement.
The ancient child asks
"what is the great achievement?"
It is beyond description in any language
it can only be felt intuitively
it can only be expressed intuitively.
Engage a loose, alert, and aware
body, mind, and sound
then look into the formless
and perceive no thing.
See yourself as a sphere
small at first
growing to encompass
the vastness of infinite space.
Sit quietly
focus and forget then
in a state of ease and rest
secure the truth of the great achievement.
Employing the truth will not exhaust its power
when it seems exhausted it is really abundant
and while human art will die at the hands of utility
the great achievement is beyond being useful.
Great straightness is curved and crooked
great intelligence is raw and silly
great words are simple and naturally awkward.
Engaged movement drives out the frozen cold
mindful stillness subdues the frenzied heart.
Sit quietly
focusing
forgetting
summon order from the void
that guides the ordering of the universe."
-  Tao Te Ching, Chapter 45, Translated by John Bright-Fey, 2006


"There are many matters and many circumstances in which consciousness is undesirable and silence is golden, so that secrecy can be used as a marker to tell us that we are approaching the holy."-  Gregory Bateson, Angels Fear



Sitting in the Garden

Zuowang Meditation

Spirituality and Nature

Sensitive Awareness: Drishti

"Drishti (IPA: [ dɽʂʈi ]; Sanskrit: दृष्टि; IAST:dṛṣṭi), or focused gaze, is a means for developing concentrated intention. It relates to the fifth limb of yoga (pratyahara) concerning sense withdrawal as well as the sixth limb dharana relating to concentration."
Drishti - Wikipedia


While doing various yoga postures the eyes gaze at and concentrate on eight specific parts of the body: 
middle of the thumb
eyes lowered, imagine gazing at third eye in the middle of the forehead
tip of the nose
palm of the hand and fingers
look to left side or right side
look upwards at sky or ceiling
navel
toes


"Simply speaking, drushti is sensitive awareness to that which you are doing. This has two aspects that are vital to every aspect of our practice. First it means bringing your mind to bear exactly on what you are doing. Not doing one thing while thinking another. This actually means learning not even to be thinking about what you are doing. Rather, just be doing it, feeling it. In the beginning we must think before we act. Then we act. Then think again. But we must learn to separate these two processes so that we can act with precision and clarity, without the distraction of thought. Eventually we will learn to trust the intelligence of the body and will be able to dispense with the thinking process more and more. Then our practice becomes meditation in action."

"The second aspect is to feel the effect of what we are doing. Not only at the point of the action itself, but throughout the whole structure of the body and the quality of the mind. We must feel its impact on the functioning of the body, breath and mind. We use this feedback to go deeper into the poses by making adjustments according to the four secondary techniques of asana, vinyasa, bandha and pranayama. Then through the dynamic created between our intention and our actions, a meditative awareness emerges."

- Godfrey Devereux, Dynamic Yoga, 1998, p. 24 

Seeing, Looking, Watching

Yoga:  Posture Lists, Research, Reading Lists, Notes   By Mike Garofalo

Meditation

Qigong (Chi Kung)

Body-Mind: Theory and Practices


"Seeing is a gift that comes with practice."
-   Stephanie Mills   

"What we see depends mainly on what we look for."
-  John Lubbock    

Walking and Mental Clarity

"For someone who walks regularly, their body is better able to deliver oxygen to all systems, including the brain, because they’ve improved their cardiovascular function. Not surprisingly, regular walkers report better mental clarity and ability to focus. Creativity is enhanced because walkers have the ability to relax their mind and let it wander around while they’re walking. Outdoor strollers can have the benefit of beautiful scenery as well as just seeing things from a different perspective, which stimulates creative thought and the imagination.  Whether you want to improve your body, your mind or both, the benefits of walking should encourage you to make the time to do it."
-  Mental Benefits of Walking, Creating a Good Life


"Recent studies have indicated the numerous "mental benefits" of walking such as: slowing mental decline, lowering Alzheimer's risk, improving sleep, improving mood, and improving concentration."
-  The Mental Benefits of Walking from Arthritis Today, 2010.

 
"Scientific studies have shown that their are numerous benefits of walking: improves insulin sensitivity and thus prevents diabetes, improves one's sex life, saves you on gym costs, can reduce the need for certain medicines, reduce fibromyalgia pain, helps with overcoming certain cancers, reduces stroke risk, and improves memory."
-  The Eight Astonishing Benefits of Walking, The Mother Nature Network


Walking: Quotes, Sayings, Poems, Information    Compiled by Mike Garofalo.  


The Tour de France begins today.  The Tour begins in England this year.  The riders will race in the beautiful green rural Yorkshire area today.   The Brits are bicycling sports enthusiasts so the turnout should be excellent.  Millions of people will line the 118 mile racing course.  Enjoy!

Sensitive Awareness

"Simply speaking, drushti is sensitive awareness to that which you are doing. This has two aspects that are vital to every aspect of our practice. First it means bringing your mind to bear exactly on what you are doing. Not doing one thing while thinking another. This actually means learning not even to be thinking about what you are doing. Rather, just be doing it, feeling it. In the beginning we must think before we act. Then we act. Then think again. But we must learn to separate these two processes so that we can act with precision and clarity, without the distraction of thought. Eventually we will learn to trust the intelligence of the body and will be able to dispense with the thinking process more and more. Then our practice becomes meditation in action."

"The second aspect is to feel the effect of what we are doing. Not only at the point of the action itself, but throughout the whole structure of the body and the quality of the mind. We must feel its impact on the functioning of the body, breath and mind. We use this feedback to go deeper into the poses by making adjustments according to the four secondary techniques of asana, vinyasa, bandha and pranayama. Then through the dynamic created between our intention and our actions, a meditative awareness emerges."

- Godfrey Devereux, Dynamic Yoga, 1998, p. 24