Ben Sinclair, Concorde
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
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.
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!
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.
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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