Let's Be in the Moment
One common spiritual desire I often hear is to be in the moment. I believe this to be true, but I think that we often want to short cut the disciplined effort that is required to be able to get there. We often mistake being in the moment as just doing what we feel like doing at any moment. I have participated in many “spiritual” drum circles where people get in a circle and drum “together”. However there often seems to be a problem. Instead of drumming together, people are drumming out their own rhythms and the sound, if you took the time to listen, would definitely take you right out of the moment. You will want to be somewhere else.
From a spiritual perspective, I believe that the desire to be in the moment really means that we want to be able to connect to and align with a higher power at any time. We really want to be and do in the moment what our purpose calls us forth to be and do.
Did you ever notice that some people in your life just seem to raise the energy no matter what the circumstances and others take it down. It has to do with what they are connecting to in the moment and that can become habitual. If we develop a discipline of connecting to a higher power, it will become our normal state. “To those who have will be given more ….”
So how do we distinguish what power we are connected to at any moment? It takes study and practice to learn the experience of the higher power. It takes the ability to take in data while staying calm and powerful. It takes working with a system that gives you real feedback so that you can become confident in your ability to continually distinguish the higher power from other distractions. The higher power is based in both practicality and mystery so it can't be recognized with intellect alone.
In Tai-Chi, I find all the elements are there to learn to be in the moment. Do you have a system that does it for you?
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Joe's World
Spiritual Freedom is Discipline – part 1
In many spiritual circles there seems to be a special admiration for the free spirit. The people who can just go with the flow and wing it. The spontaneous ones. They are the people who are supposedly most plugged in to life. But the question is, do those people truly experience freedom?
I have lived a lot of my life trying to be that free spirit, and from my experience, it does not really give you true freedom. In fact, I was experiencing a lot of stress below the surface because there was nothing I could count on and I was often less prepared to get the most out of myself. If you think about it, true freedom or aliveness comes from the interplay of flow and structure. Water flows powerfully in pipes and music has both notes and space. We often mistake structure as something that will keep us rigid, but if used properly, it gives us a powerful way to create.
We are amazed by sports figures like Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky, who seem to come up with moves out of thin air. We love a great guitar solo or a great dance performance. The great performers who create on the fly and make things look easy have spent many hours practicing and are so grounded in structure that they can be completely present. Their total presence in the moment allows them to be spontaneous because all of their intelligences (body, mind, emotions, etc) can work together.
That is what gives us a spiritual experience as the knowledge arises from someplace bigger than ourselves.
You could say that the way to freedom is by training to become present. And to become present, we must be aware of structure and flow. In Tai-Chi, we practice our form (structure) and we practice flow ( how we are moving while doing the form). In pushing hands we practice the interplay of both.
So think about the times in your life you have felt the most freedom with the deepest sense of inner satisfaction, not just a fleeting good feeling. Has there been both structure and flow at those times?
In many spiritual circles there seems to be a special admiration for the free spirit. The people who can just go with the flow and wing it. The spontaneous ones. They are the people who are supposedly most plugged in to life. But the question is, do those people truly experience freedom?
I have lived a lot of my life trying to be that free spirit, and from my experience, it does not really give you true freedom. In fact, I was experiencing a lot of stress below the surface because there was nothing I could count on and I was often less prepared to get the most out of myself. If you think about it, true freedom or aliveness comes from the interplay of flow and structure. Water flows powerfully in pipes and music has both notes and space. We often mistake structure as something that will keep us rigid, but if used properly, it gives us a powerful way to create.
We are amazed by sports figures like Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky, who seem to come up with moves out of thin air. We love a great guitar solo or a great dance performance. The great performers who create on the fly and make things look easy have spent many hours practicing and are so grounded in structure that they can be completely present. Their total presence in the moment allows them to be spontaneous because all of their intelligences (body, mind, emotions, etc) can work together.
That is what gives us a spiritual experience as the knowledge arises from someplace bigger than ourselves.
You could say that the way to freedom is by training to become present. And to become present, we must be aware of structure and flow. In Tai-Chi, we practice our form (structure) and we practice flow ( how we are moving while doing the form). In pushing hands we practice the interplay of both.
So think about the times in your life you have felt the most freedom with the deepest sense of inner satisfaction, not just a fleeting good feeling. Has there been both structure and flow at those times?
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Joe's World
Spirituality and the Ideal
There is an old joke you may have heard about a man who lived in an area where there was a flood that rose to just below the roof of his house. So he climbed on the roof and asked God to save him. Soon after, the police came by in a row boat and told him to hop in. He said “No, God will save me.” Later, a helicopter hovered over him and he sent it away saying “God will save me.” After he sent away a canoeist who came to help him, the flood got worse and he started to drown. He cried out to God, “ Dear God, I have always believed in you, but when I asked you to save me, you never showed up, and now I am drowning. Why did you ignore me?” And God said, “You idiot, I sent you a row boat, a helicopter, and a canoe.”
One way we can trip ourselves up in our quest for enlightenment is that we can hold some ideal of what enlightenment should look like. I always thought that I would really have arrived when in every second things worked out exactly how I wanted it to. I would never have a flat tire, I would never be in a traffic jam, everyone would love me immediately, etc.
So we can think that until we reach our ideal, we are not enlightened. Since that ideal of enlightenment is only in our head , it really isn't valid. So we can end up trying to obtain something that we will never have and miss what we really do have.
We can call for spiritual guidance but then we don't listen because it doesn't fit the ideal. Learning to listen and follow spirit takes practice. In Tai-Chi , this is what we practice. When doing the form, we go at a pace where we can watch what is happening with our body, mind, and emotions. We learn to observe from a place of inner quiet.
When doing pushing hands, we learn that when we have a preconceived notion about what we need to do, or what our partner is doing, we will put ourselves in a weakened position. When we can move fluidly based on what is happening now, we are in a stronger position. We train this awareness until our fluidity becomes a natural way to be.
We also learn to stay aware under any circumstance. One of my most memorable moments in Tai-Chi was not when I felt like I was dancing and being light on my feet, but when I got punched in the face. I was able to experience the awe of that moment and continue to flow and keep my energy level from dropping. Now that was a spiritual experience.
Do you define what spirituality must look like? How does that affect your ability to communicate with your heart and soul?
There is an old joke you may have heard about a man who lived in an area where there was a flood that rose to just below the roof of his house. So he climbed on the roof and asked God to save him. Soon after, the police came by in a row boat and told him to hop in. He said “No, God will save me.” Later, a helicopter hovered over him and he sent it away saying “God will save me.” After he sent away a canoeist who came to help him, the flood got worse and he started to drown. He cried out to God, “ Dear God, I have always believed in you, but when I asked you to save me, you never showed up, and now I am drowning. Why did you ignore me?” And God said, “You idiot, I sent you a row boat, a helicopter, and a canoe.”
One way we can trip ourselves up in our quest for enlightenment is that we can hold some ideal of what enlightenment should look like. I always thought that I would really have arrived when in every second things worked out exactly how I wanted it to. I would never have a flat tire, I would never be in a traffic jam, everyone would love me immediately, etc.
So we can think that until we reach our ideal, we are not enlightened. Since that ideal of enlightenment is only in our head , it really isn't valid. So we can end up trying to obtain something that we will never have and miss what we really do have.
We can call for spiritual guidance but then we don't listen because it doesn't fit the ideal. Learning to listen and follow spirit takes practice. In Tai-Chi , this is what we practice. When doing the form, we go at a pace where we can watch what is happening with our body, mind, and emotions. We learn to observe from a place of inner quiet.
When doing pushing hands, we learn that when we have a preconceived notion about what we need to do, or what our partner is doing, we will put ourselves in a weakened position. When we can move fluidly based on what is happening now, we are in a stronger position. We train this awareness until our fluidity becomes a natural way to be.
We also learn to stay aware under any circumstance. One of my most memorable moments in Tai-Chi was not when I felt like I was dancing and being light on my feet, but when I got punched in the face. I was able to experience the awe of that moment and continue to flow and keep my energy level from dropping. Now that was a spiritual experience.
Do you define what spirituality must look like? How does that affect your ability to communicate with your heart and soul?
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