Realizing faults

Faults mean that there are blocks which we are not aware of and which impede us. What are faults? They include being mired in tradition, following the latest trends, clinging to a master’s teachings, creating foolish novelties, having the ambition to set up one’s own school, emphasizing eclecticism. Once faults become habitual, even if one is able to identify them, it is still not easy to correct. Therefore, it is easiest to eliminate faults at the beginning stages. Once faults have taken hold, they cannot be corrected without great determination.

Cheng Man Ching’s Advanced Tai Chi Form Instructions
With selected Writings on Medication, the I ching, Medicine and the Arts
Compiled and translated by Douglas Wile

Understanding change

There are three conditions under which change should not take place and three when it should. Before one has achieved a certain level of ability one cannot change. Before one’s knowledge is sufficient one cannot change. Before one’s level of skill has developed one cannot change. These are the three conditions under which change should not take place. If one has already thoroughly mastered a teacher’s method, one must change. If one follows the ancients and has thoroughly grasped their meaning, one must change. If a teacher has exhausted his creativity, one must change. These are the three conditions under which one cannot but change. Those of great talent undergo great changes, while those of small talent undergo small changes. Among those who are not able to change, either their talent or learning is not sufficient. I have never known anyone with talent who did not change. I have never known those to succeed who desire to change but are not ready. The chrysalis of the silk worm that becomes a moth also represents change. Is it possible for them to change before the proper time? Therefore, without talent and before the proper time, it is foolish to forcibly seek change.

Cheng Man Ching’s Advanced Tai Chi Form Instructions
With selected Writings on Medication, the I ching, Medicine and the Arts
Compiled and translated by Douglas Wile

Application

In the application of Tai Chi Chuan, when it comes to the point of someone wanting to hit me, or to attack me, then the real usefulness of the art makes itself known. For instance, take a piece of cloth. You can beat it but you won’t harm it. It doesn’t resist you, it’s not stiff. So if you’re as soft as the cloth, then theres no problem. Moreover, one who is a soft will not be afraid when people come to attack. Then you will be able to respond to an attacker’s speed and strength in an effective manner.
“The first and most difficult point of all is: you have to believe in what I say. If you don’t believe it, when the person comes to attack you, you will resist him and then it will already be too late.”

Professor Cheng
Translated by Tam Gibbs

The law of attraction 2

The concepts of separating, judging & resisting are attachments to dividing the Yin-Yang into Yin & Yang and not seeing them as two halves of a whole. So what we are attracting, we are dividing into good & bad.

Since what set us apart as human beings is our free will, can we then choose what to attract in life? Or do we just have to let things happen and make sure we welcome them?

What about Karma* ?

What about all our attachments, shall we just let go of them, & if so, how?

We where born at a certain time with in certain circumstances. And we have got our subconscious filled with impressions since we where in the womb. We might observe how we either act like or parents or totally opposite. How we e.g. easily say the same words to children as we where told when we where kids.
In the Bible it is described as the heritage sin. (Next time someone do something you react to, maybe ask them how their parents where doing that same thing…..and since you reacted, try to remember how your parents acted.)

Dr. Lin keeps saying: “We all posses all”.

No one is more superior, no one more lucky, no one has greater access to Dao/God, to wealth, health, love, friends than anybody else.
Where the Mind goes, the Qi follow -& move the body=our lives.

So we are left with the Mind as the source of our manifestations (attractions, attachments).

Through the free will we can choose to be conscious about our life & allow the impressions from the subconscious to emerge, we can observe ourselves & then act with a choice.

R. Aitken writes in the book “Taking the Path of Zen”:
“Attachment, as the Buddha used that term, is a blind response to some action in the past. If I’m hit, I hit back. If my parents beat me, then I beat my children. Freedom from Karma is not some miraculous wiping away of one’s past, but rather freedom from blind response to it.”

In other words, we have a choice in where to put the Mind in every situation.

Stine

* Karma is a Sanskrit word translated as “To Do” or “Action”, but it also implies the result of the action, as it is the power to influence the surroundings to determine our destiny. Some familiar translations are: “As you sow you shall reap”. “What goes around comes around”.