Thursday, February 10, 2011

Are you willing to be made nothing?

Twenty degree below zero temps began this glorious sunshine-filled day. By midafternoon temps now top 10 degrees and the sun still shines brightly.

During this morning's T'ai Chi Chih class practice I, again, focused on being instead of doing. It felt remarkably good. FACT: It's wonderfully refreshing to move without judgment, criticism, or evaluation. To simply move. Slow and free.

After practice our class discussed how it feels to practice TCC with this simple intention. One student mentioned that she read yesterday's blog and specifically focused on being rather than doing. It did feel different, she acknowledged.

Another student who is quite adept at being (you can see joy shining on her face while she moves) is coincidentally named Bea. We teased her that, given her name, she is predisposed to being or Bea-ing.

And, yes, we read and discussed the final 81st verse of the Tao Te Ching. Wayne Dyer calls this verse "Living without Accumulating" and he encourages his readers to "Reduce yourself down to zero or no-thing-ness." Then Dyer quotes D.H. Lawrence:
Are you willing to be sponged out,
        erased, cancelled,
          made nothing?
Are you willing to be made nothing?
      dipped into oblivion?
If not, you will never really change.
T'ai Chi Chih practice is truly about embracing change from one moment to the next, one practice to the next. Allowing instead than forcing. Flowing rather than starting and stopping. Letting go in place of holding on.

Now that we've completed one full circuit through the Tao Te Ching, we'll let go of it for the moment. Next week we begin to read and discuss Buddha's Brain. And then, who knows?

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