Joe's World

Looking back, I can laugh out loud at my spiritual journey because I believe I missed the obvious.
The brother of my best friend in high school studied personally with the Dali Lama and he tells a story about the first time he saw the Dali Lama speak.  To the best of my memory, the story goes that after his talk , the audience was able to ask him questions.  A student asked the Dali Lama what the secret was to living a spiritual life.  Everybody took out their notebooks and with baited breath waited to write down the profound words of wisdom that they were about to hear.  The keys to the kingdom.  They were ready to write down many words and many sentences.  As the Dali Lama was about to speak, everyone focused in , not to miss the the pearls that would change their life forever. 
And then came his answer.   “Be Happy”.  It seemed too simple.  Was that all there is?

Now I can't say for sure this story is true because I wasn't there, and the details may not be correct, but I think it has a great point.

How often do we make being happy so difficult, so complicated, so unimportant. I know that for most of my life spirituality was burdensome.  So often in the past, I got stuck in trying to be happy or convincing myself I was happy. I would list in my mind all the things I had that other people didn't necessarily have like a good paying “professional” job, ability to take excellent vacations, athletic ability, I was good in math, etc.   That is how I tried to convince myself how great my life was, but I wasn't authentically happy.  Authentic happiness does not have to be explained or rationalized.  I can see that for me, the thing that most kept  me from being happy was my mind.

Many spiritual seekers, I believe,  make the mistake of thinking that the mind has no place in spirituality because it gets in the way.  However, from my study of Tai-Chi, I have found that the mind is just as important to my spiritual growth as my heart and it is actually aligned with my heart, soul , and body in its spiritual functioning when I use it correctly.

When practicing Tai-Chi, I have noticed that when my mind is engaged in a way that is trying to figure out things and explain them , I am completely out of sync and have no idea what is happening around me, even though I think I do.  I can't listen to my teacher because I am too caught up in a world of knowing.  He will ask me to do something differently and I will do it the same way I always did it.

When my mind is in an observation mode, noticing the details around me, I am present to what I am doing and adjusting as I go along so that I can improve from my teachers instruction. My observational state of my mind allows all my other intelligences (body, heart, emotional) to work freely, effortlessly, and powerfully.  That state creates authentic happiness.  I may not get the Tai-Chi move correctly, but I know the next step for me and it is fun.

So the magic of practicing Tai-Chi for me is that I am training myself in a way to have authentic happiness in my life because I am learning how to use all my gifts together. I can have my spirit, my heart, my body, and emotions all work together and bring myself to that “spiritual” state even in stressful circumstances.

Spiritual principles are nothing new, but we often don't get to practice them consistently.  The magic of Tai-Chi at DojoKitchen is that it gives me practical tools to practice being authentically happy.  Practice makes permanent.

Do you talk about being happy without authentically being that way?  I honor your desire to be happy.  It is said that seek and you shall find.  Part of seeking I have found is finding the right tools.  Tai-Chi is that tool for me.

Joe's World

In spiritual quests, at least for me in the past, when something “goes wrong”, I would find myself doubting and even getting angry at God.  That has changed greatly since practicing Tai-Chi on a serious level.

For the last few weeks, I have had a tender knee.  In the past , I would have been mad about that , thinking from a spiritual perspective that my body should  be without pain, or should heal extremely fast. It would be my measure of  how spiritual I had become. So in the past I would be feeling unhappy about my injuries, never noticing how miraculous my body is.  Think about it, broken bones heal, wounds stop bleeding, etc.  How wonderful our bodies are.  I never realized how full my life can be no matter what the state my body is in.

From practicing Tai-Chi, I have developed a great respect and trust for my body that is undeniable and filled with joy.  I am using my tender knee to learn more about my body.  I have discovered that my quadriceps and hamstrings are more than one muscle.  I have seen how the knee interacts with the rest of my leg, pelvis, etc.  I have not had to curtail my study and I am enjoying and appreciating my body in new ways.  In fact, my skills are increasing due to my injuries.

And the best part is that as my knee heals, it is working better than ever.  And as my knee heals, the rest of my body works better.  The great thing about learning about your body is that you can have confidence that with proper care, which is actually fun to do, you don't have to give up your youthfulness. 

I am not advocating getting injured to learn, but in life when things don't go as you want, we have a choice about how we will deal with it.  When you can create a loving relationship with your body, you can expand that to all parts of your life.  You can see the magic of a loving spirit right here on earth.  Just because things aren't the way you think they should be doesn't mean that you can't be “unreasonably happy” as my teacher, Sang, says.

What kind of relationship do you have with your body?  How does that parallel with the rest of your life?  How does that map to your spiritual life?  Have fun noticing.

Joe's World

We often think and speak about spirituality as a far away mystical place or as an abstract intellectual idea.  In both cases, it is easy to miss the beautiful spiritual world we live in right here on earth.  It is easy to disconnect our physical life from our spiritual life.  We have heard many times that the physical world and the spiritual world are interconnected, but we don't have many tools to teach us how that is true, so we often get stuck in our knowledge and lack understanding about our own connectedness and true nature.

Tai-Chi, in my experience gives us an opportunity to intimately examine our true nature.  
We get to experience our miraculous nature and our child like nature.  It allows us to practice spiritual principles with our own body where we can see those principles work in the physical world.  This practice allows us to develop deeper faith in our creator and allows us to learn more clearly what we are passionate about.  While doing Tai-Chi I have learned to slow down and savor the moments of simple beauty such as smelling a flower or enjoying the taste of a juicy pineapple.  I have learned to enjoy the simple pleasure of smiling for no reason.

In the spiritual world of feelings and intellect, there is no place to test our wisdom.  We read and hear things, but how can we rely on them without testing them?  The physical world is the place we can get feedback and confirm the truth.  I imagine there will always be mystery and unknowns to life, but just as we can learn to drive a car without understanding physics and thermodynamics, we can harness our spirit and go beyond our limits by learning to map the spiritual with the physical.

When practicing Tai-Chi, you get a very intimate experience of the miracle that your body is.  Whether you experience graceful movement, centered thoughts, healing, or other things, Tai-Chi gives you an ability to do things that you never thought you could and it also allows you to know the elegance and strength that only a greater being can create.  This comes from practicing, observing, experiencing, and being curious.  It takes more than just thought.

Whether you practice Tai-Chi or not, have some fun this week noticing how your physical world relates to your spiritual world.