Cook Ding's Kitchen: Don't Try

Cook Ding's Kitchen: Don't Try: An excerpt from an article at the NY Times on Edward Slingerland's "Trying Not to Try" is below. The full article may be r...

Weekend Sun Style Course

I have just taught a weekend Sun style tai chi course on behalf of Re-vitalise at the Abbey,Sutton Courtney in Oxfordshire.

It's a great place - see The Abbey with a fantastic Hall and the vegetarian food was superb!

I will be teaching another one in September at Marsh Farm inWiltshire- see Marsh Farm

It was a great group and here are a few photos.

In Between

It's the space between you and your partner that is alive and meaningful.

Work with that.

My Favourite Books

Xing Yi Nei Gong is a terrific book translated by Tim Cartmell and Dan Miller.

Although this deals with XingYi the exercises are great even if you don't study it. The book has a lot of information and the section on Standing Practice is just as applicable to Tai Chi.

You can get a DVD of the exercises but I didn't think it was very good.

I don't know if this book is still in print. It was published by High View Publications - ISBN 1-883175-04-6

John Kells - Mysteries of Reality

Mysteries of reality number thirty-four

The heart is very important. It is so large and strong it is like the offspring of the guts and brains together. It has to be approached indirectly for this to properly exist. The thymus is a single weighted separation that grabs onto the heart and melds with it. This melding is a version of merging, which the back of the heart does with the sacrum as it pulls down with the sacred cord. The front of the heart seeps into the guts, and horizons become melted in the sacred cord leading to the back brain. The back brain circles down inside the body to curl about the shadow body. The time this is a single weighted separation, it is a moving quality that seeks its own level. It is not a block, it has a root in the world and then another beyond infinity, which are horizons accessed by the back brain. There is softness that delineates the ordinary body as it prepares to leave the mother at birth. The father pulls on this by instinct, and acts as a bridge between the mother and soft shadow energy that seeps upwards into the dark energy and pre-life structures of the thoughtless mind.

Double-handed Chinese Sword

This is cool!