Ben’s Brooding

Ben Sinclair

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5 Comments

  1. Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2007 12:06 PM
    Subject: Direct Transference

    For a brief moment this morning I felt as I were moving just as you do. Not so much in imitation, but something immediate. It was fleeting but quite noticeable. The point where it happened was in Section 3 where the hands rise to the left and the left foot to the right prior to turning around on the spot.
    The feeling made me joyful, as a happy surprise. Thanks,
    Ben

  2. Sent: Saturday, December 02, 2006 4:42 PM
    Subject: Sleep?

    Attending so regularly has evened out my excesses in sleeping patterns which has improved my general wakefulness and alertness through the day; the stronger social bond with the developing community is very positive for me; my rate of learning is obviously accelerated over what it would be if I attended less and I’m often thinking about Tai Chi in my mundane life, it’s more pervasive the more I do. Nothing new really, but there you are.

  3. Sent: Friday, October 06, 2006 11:23 PM
    Subject: Zarathustra

    If you want to rise high, use your own legs! Do not let yourselves
    be carried up, do not sit on the backs and heads of strangers!

    But did you mount horse? Do you now ride pell-mell up to your
    goal? Very well, my friend! But your lame foot also sits with you on
    your horse!

    When you reach your goal, when you jump from your horse: precisely
    upon your /height/, you Higher Man, will you stumble!

  4. Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 10:35 AM
    Subject: wind

    I’m not sure if this is useful but an elaboration on the analogy of the Tao to the wind occurred to me after coffee yesterday. If the Tao can be compared to the wind as it constantly moves and changes but remains essentially the same, perhaps Tai Chi Chuan can be seen as a method to make us better wind vanes, the better we might follow and make visible the movements of the wind.

  5. Sent: Sunday, July 02, 2006 9:18 PM
    Subject: prior Chi?

    Hey Ric,
    I was recollecting after leaving you today the times when I felt I had some feeling of this flow that I understand we try to attain. Funnily enough, they’ve all been found in practising sports. I’m not sure any of this is of any real interest but I’ll note it down anyway.

    The earliest was while surfing on a bodyboard, one of those funny little foam thingies that kids float about on. I recall the feeling occasionally of knowing just when and how to adjust my position on the face of a wave. It’s quite odd to know where the lip of the wave is without seeing it – to know by it being an extension of the part that I could feel. It was a funny feeling but a right one at the time. It’s just a pity that I seemed to get into that less often than other people I knew. Hi Ho. Since then I’ve had some similar and stronger feelings on longboards but here I’m going chronologically 🙂

    The second such period was with racing motorcycles. I remember times of not needing to think about what I was doing but lapping seconds faster than otherwise. This seemed to happen most often in wet weather when other people seem to have the most difficulty. No fear! But anyway, it can be just marvellous when I’m comfortable enough to effectively go to sleep as far as manual control is concerned.

    The other group of such moments was while practising outdoor rock climbing. Much of the time it involved a lot of sweating, cursing, and bleeding, but sometimes a really nice equilibrium in motion could be found where my weight would swing me to where I needed to be to select the next hand or foot hold without effort. Or sometimes all my weight could be settled above a foot on any sort of hold such that advancing would be as easy as standing up on the ground. It makes it all look so easy at those times. With indoor climbing it didn’t happen so much, probably because that had a much more competitive atmosphere.

    No doubt there’s others, and of a less physical nature, but these were the clearest that came to mind this afternoon. Sorry this letter’s so long but I wanted to expand a little on each.

    Cheers,
    Ben

    { “Ben is an enthusiastic beginner.” Ric Lum }

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