Pure ISNESS

Rain falls continuously (night and day) striking the metal roof with a gentle thrum. Though it may not be pretty, it certainly is wet (which is exactly what we need!).

I was reunited with my Cornucopia T'ai Chi Chih class members this morning. It's been two months since our final summer class. Still, we fell easily into our weekly routine. As we moved further into practice I could feel the group tension fade and a lightness of being seep quietly into the room.

During tea time we discussed an article I received a year and a half ago from InnerNet Weekly: The Lovely State of Observation by Vimala Thakar (www.dailygood.org/pdf/ij.pho?tid=684). Thakar invites the reader to appreciate and understand the freedom and rewards that meditation can bring into one's life. He writes, in part:

Meditation is a way of living that introduces us to that other part of our life. The silence, the motionlessness, it introduces us to our pure ISNESS....

Meditation is coming home, to relax, to rest. If that takes place and one finds that though one has withdrawn and retired from activity, the inner movement goes on, thoughts come up, memories come up, then you begin to observe them. Till now you were busy carrying out functional roles, you were either the doer or the experience. From these two roles you have set yourself free voluntarily. You are now the observer. The inner movements come up, the involuntary movement comes up though the voluntary has been discontinued. You sit there quietly, you do not prepare to see, but if thoughts appear, then they are seen by you. It is a lovely state, the state of observation (my emphasis).

Of course, Thakar is writing about seated meditation but the same holds true for T'ai Chi Chih moving meditation. And, perhaps that is one reason why I feel so good after I complete a full TCC practice session. As I move quietly, letting go in the practice in order to embody the form (per TCC guide Sr. Antonia's October 2011 Newsletter as taken from Justin Stone's Spiritual Odyssey, p. 29), thinking eventually becomes feeling and inner awareness results.

Becoming the observer instead of the doer is a freeing experience. Nothing to do. Nowhere to go. Just noticing. Without judgment. Without a need to change or control. Pure ISNESS.