Momentum in reverse

Enneagram

My tweet for the day: "When the wheels of momentum turns in reverse it is time to take  break and get an elevated perspective"

Everything just seem stuck today, nothing going forward. Momentum is that force in your life that pushes you in some direction. Often momentum pushes in a direction you do not want to go or it simply pushes in a direction opposite to where you would like to go. Sometimes we have the energy to struggle against the forces of momentum and at other times we are just too tired and end up giving over and allow ourselves to be taken along with the flow of momentum. When our will and the momentum of our lives are going in the same direction it is a smooth ride and we generally feel happy. Moving against momentum often is felt in terms of tirednes, stress and/or anxiety. Continuing to struggle against momentum can dilute you own personal energy. The question is how do we regenerate ourself. Often it is not about pushing against momentum but about understading all the forces at play that give the momentum its present power. A tweet from Neal Donald Welsh reads: "Dont dismiss the synchronicity of what is happening right now finding its way to your life at just this moment."

When things are not moving in the direction we prefer it is often time just to take stock and see what are the drivers behind the momentum we are facing. Sometimes it is ourselves having accepted assumptions that are false or believes we have, that once were true but which we have never been tested and now is no longer valid. We assume limitations that no longer exist. Taking stock allows us to get a fresh perspective by scanning through all the possibilities and opportunities at our disposal to change momentum. Sometimes changing momentum does not require force but rather a gentle nudge at the appropriate point of leverage. Just allowing ourselves to take that break in itself remove the anxiety of a need to control everything.

The elevated perspective is a perspective that comes from moving inwards into oneself. A perspective that comes through an inner connection through contemplation. Often we recon we do not have time to sit still and wonder about life, but it might just be the best thing to do to gain the insight we need to transform the momentum from an opposing force into a complementary force. The direction of a sale boat is changed by slightly changing te angle between sale and wind...it will not help to jump overboard and start to push the boat while swimming.

The magician and the fool

Tarot contemplations

The principle of duality comes to the front in so many spiritual traditions. The Tao begins with the heavens and the earth, Genesis begins with the heavens and the earth and so one can start to see in many traditions how the idea of the above and below formulated in the minds of people.  This concept again struck me as I  continued to study the Quabalistic Tarot. 

 My renewed interest sparked by the Spanish Tarot deck that was recently given to me as a gift. Many books can be written about the heavens and the earth but it manifest in an interesting manner in the Tarot. When the Taro practitioners joined dots between the Tarot and the Kabbalah they linked the major arcana cards with the paths between the sephira. Right at the top of the tree of life is the Sefirot Keter or the crown - the point from where all existence and essence flows from. The two paths from Keter is associated with the fool going to the right of the tree and the magician going to the left of the tree.

I hypothesize that the magician reflects earth and the mastery of physical life while the fool represents spirit and the mastery of spiritual life. The fool is the spirit descending into the material world while the magician is manifesting the spiritual by mastering the material world. The one is the  equal and opposite of the other.  This is universal archetypes that represents man's situation with both his spiritual and material natures clearly highlighted. Through both the magician and the fool there is a simultaneous process of man manifesting the divine in this life while material is refined to be of greater spiritual value.  This is for me a deep understanding of how the world works for me. In my own terms the magician represents conscious skill and discipline needed for mastery of life while the fool represents the movement and flow of conscience to allow the spiritual to become manifest in life.  When we follow the path of the fool there is no action just being without expectation while the path of the magician is the path of action and realization.

Significant to this insight is that we do not take the one or the other but that we need both to manifest. The hidden secret to be grounded while simultaneously growing our wings to fly. 

Source:
 http://www.rodurago.net/en/index.php?site=tree-of-life#treetop

The fool liberates materiality into the spiritual and connects to the path of wisdom. Heaven flowing towards earth.

The magician manifests spirituality into reality and connects with the path of understanding. Earth pushing upwards to heaven.

Another day with its curiosities

Diary entry

I am fully occupied again with work activities. I have much to do and with much still outstanding. We have a national holiday on Thursday called Woman's day during which we honor women and it is generally a time to stand up against woman and child abuse. A holiday far more worth celebrating than many of the other holiday's.

There is so many different spiritual paths we can travel upon, in so many different ways. i am always amazed how people want to standardize a particular religious path. For me is it like trying to convert everybody to one type of music and claiming that all other music is false. It just does not make sense to me.

I am very happy today because a friend of mine met with me this morning to give me a "mystery" gift. The gift turned out to be a deck of Tarot cards of the Spanish Tarot developed in 1793. The deck was my friend's, friend's mother in law's Tarot deck who died at the age of 92. They did not know what to do with the Tarot deck so it found its way to me. Beautifully still in the correct order, complete and in its original box. A lovely gift for me because i have collected a few decks of Tarot cards and it is always a pleasure to add another. They are smaller than most modern day cards and so easy to hold in ones hand. i love them already. The layout is traditional but the characters of the major arcana have lovely expressive faces.

Another source of joy was that an old friend of mine phoned me to set up a meeting with me on Friday late afternoon, after work. We had not spoke to each other for the last two years about so it is good to touch base with him. He is a very inspirational character and i have seen him doing the most amazing motivational talks. He consults as a life coach or assist companies to develop their human capital. I am looking forward to speak to him because he is also a very positive person who not just preach motivation but displays it through the way in which he lives. He travels a lot, which is the main reason for not connecting for such a long time. But he phoned me; which for me is again a sign of true friendship that even after a long time, he warrant the effort to pick up a phone and make a call.

It is snowing in parts of the country where there had never been snow. Luckily it did not snow in my own area but bad weather always result in traffic jams delaying my trip home. As a result I arrived late at my Tai Chi training because the training is earlier while it is Ramadan. (The Shifu is a Muslim). He informed me that he think I am ready to go and compete in a national Tai Chi competition in September. I think it would be fun to see how the Tai Chi I have been learning compares. Competition is always a way of improving your own skill.

Trees

Photo blog.

I recently attended a workshop at a nearby farm. I loved the trees they had on the farm and took a few photo's I like to share.

1) Contrast

2) Symbiosis 

3) Pointing to the water

4) Perspective

5) Panorama

6) Big old tree

7) Next to the road

 MJ Li

Tai Chi

Our new Shifu has started with classes at Parliament where I am working. I am taking the bold step of having two teachers Shifu Suliman Sampson with whom I am training near my home and now Shifu MJ Li. It is difficult because everyone have a slightly different interpretation of Tai Chi. Both studies for a considerable time in China and both started at a very young age. MJ Li has a series of world championship wins to proof his mastery of the art of Kung Fu and is currently representing Sough Africa for the third time at the Legends of Kung Fu martial arts world championship in Houston, USA. 

Working for an employer that is willing to pay for such a caliber person as a coach in Tai Chi is indeed an honor. Below is a picture of the first time when MJ Li came to our Tai Chi club. He is the one in Green and if you do not know me yet, I am the guy in the blue shirt.

Although it is traditional for Tai Chi to be practiced in nature we have the luxury of a beautiful hall where we can do Tai Chi. The walls of the hall is covered by life large pictures of Monarchs and Rulers from the colonial times. We do Tai Chi on a beautiful carpet in a hall with large windows where the sun can shine in. Really a special venue. Below is a picture of the class following instructions from MJ li. I am on the far right of the picture. Most of the people just started out with Tai Chi so there is still much confusion in the class.

A side effect of the interest in Tai Chi is that I have a renewed interest in the I-ching (Book of changes) and the Tao. So there is much reading again for me and seeking to apply the theory of yin and yang in my life.

Has Tai Chi influenced my life. More than I would like to acknowledge. Physically definitely. My wife started to compliment me on how I look and now even some of her friends are beginning to compliment her. So yes, I lost weight, became more subtle and focused with a better posture within less than 9 months of practice. I might have been able to do something similar with other programmes but Tai Chi definitely delivered on its promise. What is more is that I enjoyed every moment of Tai Chi and always feel good after having finished a class or practice session.

The life of a plant

Short contemplation

Settle yourself in your body. Realise that the physical is part of the one continuum. The body becomes the foundation for the spirit to grow. Like a plant that needs a earth to grow. If the ground has no nutrition the plant can not grow to its full potential. If the ground is not watered there can be no growth. Does a plant ever dream to be free from the ground or escape the ground? The earth is its foundation.  Become aware of your roots as it draws from beneath vitality upwards. The physical body is nurtured in the same way to offer maximum potential for the spiritual to blossom.

With the best soil a plant will wither away if it is placed in the dark. In the same no soul can remain if kept in the dark for too long. All receive the light from the divine. The mere fact that one is alive is testimony that the divine is present. As the ground is needed to feed the plant vitality so the sun's light is needed for the plant to continue its growth. Do you take the time to reflect on the light of the divine? Take the time to contemplate the spiritual irrespective your religion or spirituality.

The bridge between the earth and the sun is the moisture, water or fluid that carries energy from the earth up to the leaves while energy of the sun flows down from the leaves.  Water is the most sacred of all the elements for it is the birthplace of life in the material world. In man water is reflected by the emotion...the energy that runs through our nerves, criss cross through the body. Negative emotions becomes a blockage to the flow of energy. Where there is blockage there is no growth. When the conditions are right the plant grows without effort...all that is needed is within reach. Dont express negative emotions, do not allow them to take hold and retard your growth.

Lastly the plant needs air. Breath is life itself. Through air the vital component of the sun's energy is transformed into energy useful to the plant. The air is our thoughts. We observe ourselves of how we think, feel and act and then the divine's flow of energy begins to fill the body. Thoughts are that which program the conscious, creates the habits within and provides purpose of being. Allow thoughts to rise from the observer rather than from the body for only the observer is truly conscious of both the physical and the divine.

The earth and the sun is united within the plant. When earth and sun unites there is life. Water is the bridge between the earth and sun. Air is the catalyst that allow earth to penetrate sun and sun to penetrate earth, so that they are connected.

The body and spirit is united within man. When body and spirit unites there is life. Emotions is the bridge between body and spirit. Thought is the catalyst that allows the body to become a spiritual experience and for the spirit to penetrate into the body so that body and spirit can be connected. 

This is the secret to transformation of man as the body returns to earth...so the spirit will rise to the divine.

Internet Legacy

We leave a legacy on the internet...me and you and anybody blogging. I was looking at my internet presence today. Xanga does not count as my Internet presence because it is not open to search engines and Zeal4Living is more the handle hear. I have a Yasni search engine that sends me on a monthly basis a lost of where my name is mentioned. Fortunately I have an uncommon name so it is easy to distinguish myself using the search. I discovered again this time a few places where my old IT blog is being quoted. I do enjoy it when I see it because then at least I know I wrote something of value to somebody else. I also discovered a video that was taken when I competed in a PPTK powerpoint challenge. I wrote a blog about it at the time. We were given a set of slides and had to create a presentation from the slides 5 minutes before speaking.

Looking at my entries, and presence on the web, I must say that I am happy with everything I wrote here on Xanga as well as elsewhere. We share on Xanga our disappointments as well as achievements. Often my hopes are exposed and at other times just a rambling as if we were sitting in front of a fireplace in winter talking. We can expound our philosophies and test our reasoning for all and everything. We venture through various phases of our life...and all of it reflects something of how we evolved over time.

Every entry I wrote on Xanga was honest and from the heart...you know me through Xanga and you know much of whom I am as a person. I do not regret anything I have ever written. I might at times have been wrong about something...but in the end it is also part of the human process of evolution. We do, we make mistakes, we learn, we do and finally we succeed.

Every entry on Xanga is not a winner. Every entry does not make a difference. But in all the writing there is a few entries that are remarkable, a few entries we should read again and again. Maybe if we are lucky 10% of what we have written was worth the while writing down. However it is that 10% that makes the difference and that motivates us to keep on writing, keep on sharing. Maybe somewhere, someone might stumble upon a writing and find benefit from that writing. Maybe that in itself is a reward for writing things down.

I am not writing this only to blow my own horn but actually to encourage all who read this to write on Xanga...and contribute to the community. The ancient Egyptians carved with effort their messages on stone walls. Lets carve our messages on the walls of the internet. Maybe a lot of it will be lost but we alos know that maybe something of what we are might be preserved...Lets again encourage each other to write to add value...to make a difference and to be part of a community rather than just individuals that write their blog's. Xanga can not create a sense of community ...we create a community. Lets again blog, read and comment so that we create in #Xanga a true caring community that support each other to grow and improve our writing.

When the winter leaf falls.

Contemplation

Yesterday the wheather was morbid. The cold begged from me to stay in bed rather than get up and do something productive. I thought a lot about death and dying. These were not morbid thoughts but an acknowledement of the cycles of life. Maybe it was a telephone call from my father that triggered me into the space of contemplating death. My father at the age of 73 sold his house an moved into a smaller unit with my mother. He has made a transition to old age smooth and is still part time running his own business. He phoned from me to get advice on how to invest the money he got for his house.

It is a difficult situation to give advice. If the advice does not work then I will be the culprit who must take the blame. So my strategy is rather to give my dad options and make the consequences of each as clear as possible so that he can make his own decision. He is mentally still totally capable to make up his own mind. My father's question was more than a question. His question is the start of a new phase and it reminded me that we are all just travelers through this world. I am reaching a new phase of maturity as well. In  certain degree it is a harsh reality that life will not continue the way it does. I had a good life. I rarely had to face death head on in this life. When I look back at my life I was richly blessed, but we all will die. When I look back I still wonder whether my life was a worthy life. My concern was not about dying but about living. Life is a gift and my question is whether I am using this gift properly.

Seeing the earthworm

Mindfulness

Yesterday I want to China town again to meet up with Shifu Suliman Sampson. We do Tai Chi meditation at 9:00. It is holiday time so I was the only student present but it does not really bother the Shifu. He is a man of integrity and continues with the same commitment to his art, irrespective the number of students. I like to get his personal attention because it means that I accellerate my progress.

We went outside into the fresh morning air for the meditation. Heavy rain fell the previous night and everything was wet. Standing in one posture for several minutes are a strange site for passersby...even the modern Chinese and Taiwanese people who has lost the connection with their own culture. Once we finished the meditation we did an exercise which is called "pushing hands". This is a process of moving with the hands touching slightly while feeling your opponents energy. The aim is to learn how to allow the energy to flow from an opponent. As simple as it sounds you soon learn how to move from this position into a sudden movement that can have rib chrushing consequence.

However all the above is not the point of this entry. As we stood there to do the pushing hands the Shifu kept gesturing me to walk to one side. He was looking at the ground trying to get me to step away from a spot. I could not figure out what was bothering... Finally I asked him what was wrong and why he did not want to stand at a certain spot. He then showed me an earthworm craling accross the tar road. He was afraid that I might step onto the earthworm. He then gently picked it up and placed it back on the grass. He explained that the earthworm is also just doing there work as we are doing our work.

His awareness to see the earthworm and his compassion to care about it touched me deeply. This simple gesture showed a connecedness to the world arround him. This gesture showed a mindfulness that is not just aware but also connected to nature. I wondered how many earthworms I am missing every day. Gurdjief's theory made me mindful of myself, my actions, feelings and thoughts. However we should also be aware of our environment and more even of nature. As humans living in the cities we are loosing more and more our connection with nature. I hope to be more aware of nature and be more responsible take care of nature.

This might have been an earthworm and its survival or death will not make much of a difference. But how we treat the small will reflect in how we relate to nature as a whole. The earthworm matters. The earthworm is a symbol of our awareness of our world.

Do you see the earthworm in your life?

Toward #wholeness

#Taiji

The last day or two I have had such an inner sense of peace and tranquility. The change was visible since I did my meditation on Saturday. I went to Shifu Suliman's shop in China town. We do the meditation inside his shop...usually it is quiet at the shop early in the morning. People sometimes come in and I just keep on meditating while he serves his customers. The Tai Chi meditation includes standing meditation where you hold a position while meditating. Although I did not feel tired, my body began to shake at one point in time. He told me that curling my toes is one way to help with it or else just to relax momentarily or else I must just  inhale deeply and exhale while relaxing the body while commencing.

Off course I combine my Tai Chi meditation with rune meditation...so while the body relaxes within a stance my mind breaths the circle of Armanen Rune while I visualise the runes as a circle around my head. Connecting with the rune realm in this way also strengthen my body.

This part of the inner realm is of course not something invisible to the Shifu. He focus on correcting my posture and breathing. I have mastered to some degree the correct slow breathing using my stomach. It is strange while you standing with your mind at rest and feel him moving in to gently push your hands in the correct position. He senses with that also how much tension is still in your body and feel the energy that accumulates with the meditation. I am fortunate to get some one-on-one personal attention from him. All the Tai Chi students dwindled away over the holidays so he is stuck with me as the only persistent student that keep coming back. It is much better on the Kung Fu side.

However at the end of the meditation he showed me a very specific movement which requires the whole body to move. He said it is a way to work with the energy that accumulates during meditation. I struggled at first to get the motion correct. The difficulty lies in moving all the body elements in harmony together. Once the movement was correct it is truly a beautiful movement which result in a sense of wholeness as all the body parts work together. Linking that to a meditative mindset of mindfulness and it is as if unity just clicks in place. I believe that this is trigger that gave me a new actual experience of wholeness and harmony.