Wu Wei All The Way

Contemplating the Yuba

A hippie discovers the Tao and applies it to her experience of going with the flow, rivers, traffic and well...life. Enjoy this article of discovery by Sunita Pillay in the Elephant Journal.

PS You might also like the Elephant Journal, a pretty darn contemporary compendium "dedicated to bringing together those working (and playing) to create enlightened society."

Tai Chi for Heart Health

The Archives of Internal Medicine published a study in April 2011 using two groups of patients with heart failure. You already know the punchline: Tai Chi can help heart patients feel better.  Here are the details: 

Researchers split 100 patients with heart failure into two groups: Half participated in a 12-week tai chi program, while the others spent 12 weeks in an educational program learning about heart-related issues, like low-sodium diets and heart-rhythm problems. At the end of the study, the tai chi group reported improvements in mood, less depression, less fatigue, and more energy than the others.

Read more in US News.

The stillness in stillness

The stillness
In stillness
Is not
The real stillness

Only when
There is stillness
In movement
Can the spiritual rhythm appear
Which pervades
Heaven and earth

TS'Al-KEN T'AN

TS'AI-KEN T'AN was written by Hong Zicheng in about 1590. According to Wikipedia: "Caigentan 菜根譚 "Vegetable Roots Discourse" is an eclectic compilation of philosophical aphorisms that combine elements from Confucianism, Daoism, and Chan Buddhism."

(thanks to Bill Douglass for the contribution)

The Practice of Contemplative Photography

We may express Tao in many ways. The book, The Practice of Contemplative Photography opens with a quote from Frederick Franck, author of The Zen of Seeing: "The inexpressible is the only thing that is worthwhile expressing."

Michael Wood

Andy Karr and Michael Wood are photographers, Buddhists and authors of this new book on how to see the world. They offer some ideas about the difference between perception and conception--two ways of interacting with the world that may have some relevance for practitioners of Tai Chi and students of the Tao.

BuddhistGeeks.com offers an audio interview with Karr and a full transcript. Here's a sample that explains perception and conception.

"One very simple metaphor for these two different modes is the relationship of a map to a landscape. A map is a like a concept of that landscape. It simplifies and abstract qualities of that landscape.
So if you want to know how to get from one town to another, where to turn left, where to turn right, a map will be really useful. At the same time, the map doesn’t show you the actual quality of what that journey is going to be like. It will not give you any of the color or texture of actually making that journey. So our thoughts about things are abstractions and they map certain qualities of the world but they don’t capture those qualities. They don’t convey those qualities in a way that perception does.
So we certainly need both. We need to be able to navigate our world but we also need to be able to experience it fully, so that’s really where that distinction comes in. The biggest challenge for us is not to give up thinking or give up conceiving of things because often we blend the two together and think I’m seeing someone who is this kind of person or that kind of person. And we think that we can see that but of course you can only see visual things. You can’t see psychological things.
So, we mixed the two together and then we’re really confused about how to relate to that person because we think that our thoughts about them are the actual person."

Here is a gallery of Andy Karr's work.