Winter 2022 Living Tao Essential Tai Ji Series — Session Two
(March 2022)
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This series is designed to delve more deeply into the ongoing exploration of the Living Tao forms, metaphors, and philosophy. The areas of study for Session One include:
- More details of Tai Ji motif, Tai Ji Ritual, and “Five Moving Forces of Nature”五行 (Wu Xing);
- The “Watercourse” metaphors in the Tao Te Ching (Dao De Jing);
- The concepts of “Heaven and Human are One”, and “Body/MInd and Heart/Mind are One”.
ZHÀN ZHĒNG YǓ HÉ PÍNG / WAR AND PEACE
Hé Píng Zhàn Zhēng
THE SECOND COMING – W.B.YEATS
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats (1989)
COMPASSION
BEI (compassion) Ci (heart-full feeling)
JOYFULLY PARTICIPATING IN THE SORROWS OF THE UNIVERSE
Chanting of the Compassionate Bodhisattva
Translation by John Blofeld
CONFUCIUS – DA XUE
(Great Learning)
The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the kingdom, first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things. Things being investigated, knowledge became complete. Their knowledge being complete, their thoughts were sincere. Their thoughts being sincere, their hearts were then rectified. Their hearts being rectified, their persons were cultivated. Their persons being cultivated, their families were regulated. Their families being regulated, their states were rightly governed. Their states being rightly governed, the whole kingdom was made tranquil and happy. From the Son of Heaven down to the mass of the people, all must consider the cultivation of the person the root of everything besides. It cannot be, when the root is neglected, that what should spring from it will be well ordered. It never has been the case that what was of great importance has been slightly cared for, and, at the same time, that what was of slight importance has been greatly cared for.
~ Translated by James Legge
CENTER
ZHŌNG
HEAVEN / HUMAN; BODY / MIND HARMONIZE AS ONE
SHEN / XIN HE / YI TIAN / REN
寒 山HAN SHAN & 拾得Shi De (“COLD MOUNTAIN” & “PICK UP”)
TAI JI RITUAL PRACTICE*
*[Refer to Supplemental References]
TAI JI RITUAL – CENTERING MOTIF & TAI JI CHAKRAS*
*[Refer to Supplemental References]
DAO DE JING (TAO TE CHING) VERSES
War and Peace – Verse 31
“We need to look at all victories as a funeral”
Water, Rivers, and Flow – Verses 8, 78, 61, 68
- 32 (trans. Jonathan Star)
Rivers and streams are born of the ocean
All creation is born of Tao
Just as all water flows back to become the ocean
All creation flows back to become Tao
V.40 (trans. Jonathan Star)
The movement of Tao is to return
The way of Tao is to yield…
…Heaven, Earth, and all things
Are born of the existent world
The existent world is born of the nothingness of Tao
FIVE MOVING FORCES – WU XING*
*[Refer to Supplemental References]
COLD MOUNTAIN POETRY
Men Ask the Way to Cold Mountain
Translation by Gary Snyder
Men ask the way to Cold Mountain
Cold Mountain: there’s no through trail.
In summer, ice doesn’t melt
The rising sun blurs in swirling fog.
How did I make it?
My heart’s not the same as yours.
If your heart was like mine
You’d get it and be right here.
People ask the way to Cold Mountain
Translation by Red Pine
people ask the way to Cold Mountain
roads don’t reach Cold Mountain
summer the ice never melts
sunup the fog is thick
how did someone like me arrive
our minds aren’t the same
if they were
you could get there then
BASIC TAI JI MOVEMENTS – 1ST CIRCLE PRACTICE*
*[Refer to Supplemental References]
FINAL WORDS!
UNDER HEAVEN, EVERYTHING IS THE SAME!
SUPPLEMENTAL REFERENCES
In Honor and Celebration of David Darling: 2 Official Music Videos, all his CDs, memories and more!
For The Love of Oceans (Official Music Video)
Stones Start Spinning (Official Music Video)
The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain 寒山詩
Translated by Red Pine; Introduction by John Blofeld
Copper Canyon Press 2000
Lao Tse: Das Tor zum Tao: Die mustischen Texte des TAO TE KING*
neu übertragen und redigiert von Werner Beck
Tradition Verlag & Druck
*This book is available in German only
[Lao Tse: The Gateway to the Tao: The Musical Texts of Tao Te Ching] [Retranslated and Edited by Werner Beck] [Traditon Publishing & Printing]*The following material can be found in previous session study materials, which have been posted on the Living Tao website:
September 2020 Study Materials:
- Jing/Qi/Shen (Essence/Breath/Spirit)
- Tai Ji Ritual Guide
October 2021 Study Materials
- Wu Xing (Five Moving Forces)
February 2022 Study Materials
- Centering Motif (Dong, Nan, Xi, Bei, Dong, Chao Nan)
- Tai Ji Chakras (Zhong, Yong, An, Ding Nei, Guan, Yin)
- 1st Circle Practice – Basic Tai Ji Movements