Spiritual Odyssey

Shambala publishes a book called Sword of No Sword by John Stevens that should be of interest to all teachers. That does not mean I agree with everything in it, but it stresses the strength [...]

Zuigan was a Zen Master who was famous for the admonitions he gave himself each day, ending with “Don’t be misled by others,” to which he answered, “Yes sir! Yes sir!” More interesting to me [...]

At teacher accreditation courses the candidates all make presentations. This not done for academic reasons, like doing a thesis for a Ph.D., but for very practical reasons: it gives the new teacher a chance to [...]

T’ai Chi Chih has begun to spread. Little pockets of enthusiasm have begun to form in isolated places, and these tend to grow rather rapidly. It is exciting to see this. No amount of planning [...]

Your task is not to find someone to believe in or some doctrine in which to take refuge (though this is very comfortable). It is to realize Who and What You are (and I don’t [...]

To teach well, it is obviously necessary to do T’ai Chi Chih; I know what the practice has done for me. One can’t get the benefits without practice. But, whether or not you want to [...]

We stress softness and continuity in T’ai Chi Chih, and the importance of the former can be seen in the following examples: The teeth are hard and the tongue is soft, but it is the [...]

When someone comes to visit me I take my cue from him or her. If he speaks in a transcendental manner We dwell in Emptiness. Should he speak from Prajna (Wisdom), The flow will be [...]

Vairagya, ahimsa, prajna. There! I’ve put the whole of spiritual practice into three Sanskrit words, meaning, respectively: non-attachment (or detachment), non-violence (in all forms, not only physical) and inherent wisdom. Living from natural, intuitive inherent [...]

Teh (inner sincerity) is the basis of T’ai Chi Chih. It is the power of Inner Sincerity, as exemplified by T’ai Chi Chih teachers, that has been responsible for the rapid growth of T’ai Chi [...]

It is hard for students, and even teachers, to understand that T’ai Chi Chih is not just a beneficial exercise. It is so obvious that it has great physical benefits, that it helps control weight, [...]

There are many forms of Yoga in India – most are not known or practiced in the West. Jnana Yoga (the Yoga of discrimination, as with Shankara and Ramana Maharshi) and Raja Yoga (the Kingly [...]