Oct 14, 2007

FINDING INTUITION

Developing your intuition thru discovery of the spirit driving your practice.

Years ago I realized that as a result of my training I was doing everything in the same way. I cooked the same way that I made love. I spoke the same way I made tea. I practiced karate the same way I ran. In the past I did what I did thinking that each thing that I did was done in a unique way. Not so. As your body starts to relax and your mind starts to calm as a result of your training, you are naturally drawn inside. That urge to go inside is the first indication of the primal desire to realize spirituality. By spirituality I mean that connection between you and the universe.

You are now on the road. But where are you going? The key here is to go nowhere, just stay on the road. The ability to stay on the road requires discipline and dedication. This is the start of the development of your spirit. Just stay on the road. Meditate just to meditate, not to achieve enlightenment. Practice the Tai Chi form with emphasis on each posture, not concerning yourself with the next posture My best meditations always came when I had no thoughts about my aims. I just went to my meditation place, set my timer and was gone.

Practicing any of the internal arts such as yoga, meditation, tai chi, flower arranging, the tea ceremony or Japanese Archery will bring about the same results. The development of your spirit. That noble part of you that desires to pierce the veil of Maya (the illusion that we all live as individuals). Here is a question that I pose to my classes from time to time. You are driving to school and pull up to a red light. You stop your car and wait for the light to change. While you are waiting you are hit from the rear by another car. Whose fault is the accident? The obvious answer is the car behind you. I than ask the class to consider this alternative. Thru your practice you gradually start to develop your intuitive judgment. That part of you that operates independently of your five senses. It is your intuition that would have given you the uncomfortable feeling that you should have taken another route. So by listening to your intuition you would not have been at the intersection where the accident took place.

Your intuition is your sixth sense which is developed when your practice is guided by your spirit. Your intuition is actually located not in your brain but in a place in your lower abdomen called the tan tien. That is why a tai chi practioner keeps his mind in tan tien when doing the form. When mind body and spirit operate together they set the stage for self awareness which leads to the development of intuition. From there everything we do is all the same, and we are all just a part of the whole.