Monday, March 24, 2014

Tai Chi and the Tale of the Mirror

In my quest for greater focus in my life and studies I decided to take the advice of leading neurologists. They suggest that the brain can be made to grow by learning something new (see Charlie Rose on the brain/mind, and "The Brain in Love", PBS). The science points to, amongst other things, exercise that requires eye-body coordination, think ping-pong. I, however, decided to study Tai Chi. So I started attending a class with Master Lin of Park Slope.

The first thing he said was "stare into the hand like it is a mirror". This admonition was followed by "breath through the nose". Finally another intermission explaining why he was teaching me "this" form. It, he explained, hearkened back to Mao Zedong, who gathered all the Tai Chi masters of China and told them to choose a form that was most suitable for international promotion of Chinese culture. This was the form he began to teach me.

But back to the "stare into the hand like a mirror", what does that mean?
What is the purpose of a mirror? Is it to see ones flaws, as a first step towards improvement or does the mirror serve to affirm ones vanity precluding correction?
Also, why the hand? Is this some form of unconscious palm-reading, or is the hand just a convenient place to stare?
Finally, why should I "stare" why not glance peripheral-like?

I'm sure if I ask Master Lin, he will have a profound explanation, perhaps drawing on arcane Confucius or Taoist philosophies. On the other hand...

On the other hand, if the hand is like a mirror then by staring at the hand you should be able to see your self.

The above proposition can be understood metaphorically or literally.

Metaphorically, through the hand (Tai Chi means Supreme Ultimate Fist), you can achieve health for the whole body.

Or literally, the hand is not separate from the self, it is only a label we use to explain its geography and function. We can stare at the hand and see ourselves because the hand IS our self (If we cut the hand then pain may shoot throughout the body, blood from all parts of the body flow towards the cut etc.).

Indeed to love your fellow like yourself, because they ARE you. (see november 2009 post,"to not love your neighbor like yourself")

But, when I stare at my hand I don't see myself, yet with a carless glance the mirror in my room offers me a clear visual. Which is the true reflection of the self, the superficial glance or the contemplative stare?

To see your individuality, your perceived flaws and virtues, glance at the mirror on the wall.
To recognize the unifying factor stare at the hand.

Monday, March 17, 2014

To Not Love Your Neighbor is to Not Love Your Self

There is an old Judeo-Christian dictum. It is often offered in “ethical” conversation, as a principle in evaluating our actions. However is it possible? Really, is it humanly possible to love one at the same level as yourself?

Moreover, as it it so obviously impossible, why is it so often thrown around?
Interestingly what makes this principle so outrageous is that the one unifying factor of humanity is that we are separate and different. In other words what makes us human is the same thing that makes us distinct. And because we are distinct we cannot love the other like the self!
That is one perspective.

Another perspective sees our differences as a reflection of our different objectives in life, as manifest by our physical and psychological makeup. The athlete is powerful, the banker savvy, and the teacher patient. Our innate talents cause us to have different objectives. These objectives are so disparate and consuming (think of your career or lack thereof) that they define us; what makes me different is what I do.

(One can go so far and label these departments as social, ethnic, religious, geographic etc. groups,career etc.) Thus each one of these groups is made a group by their larger but most importantly discernible objective, i.e. I am American because I ascribe to certain values, or I am an employee and you are an employer.
Likewise each group defines itself as different or not part of another group because that other group has a completely different and even contradictory objective.

Now let us imagine that each group is actually working on the same objective as the next group but the objective is so large that is almost impossible to imagine. For example GM has multiple subsidiaries that all work on the same objective but never see the final product or even understand how their objective is integral to the next group's objective.

It is almost as if the hand, which uniquely can  grasp, understands that it is actually part of the same entity that my foot, with its unique mobility, is. Imagine if it didn't?

Is the only difference between humanity and the body physical proximity?

I wonder, if to love your neighbor like yourself is like loving your hand as you love your foot, understanding the uniqueness of the individual objective and talents but also the larger overarching objective. If, like the body, humanity is one organism working on the same project (do we as individuals ever really know where "WE" are going), then to not love the neighbor is to not love the self!

Does One Equal Infinite?

What do the big bang theory, conventional religion, and the human body have in common? They all started with the notion of one. One large piece of exploding matter, one infallible entity, and one drop of semen. The question you many have is so what? So what if they all have a common singular beginning? Is it that the painting reflects the artist? So that we come from one drop of semen, because nature began in one moment with one source, and is that source the one infinite being? Then again if the painting does reflect the painter and the painter is ultimately infinite, should his or her work not also be infinite? In other words, is the fact that we are finite evidence that our source is also finite, or that our source can’t be infinite? Another question: how do we know whether we are finite or not? True our body needs to eat but do we as an existing atomic structure need to eat? Once we die our body is still there, albeit decomposing, but our body needs neither sleep nor food, shelter nor family, sex nor air! Maybe we, in our entirety, reflect in some ways the infinite. Or when we die we return to the one that we began as, one matter, dirt. Is it that the same experiences that makes us feel finite, life and consciousness, also prevent us from truly experiencing the one infinite that is at the heart of everything? Is the unifying factor that we all come from the same source and it is our consciousness, our physical existence, that precludes the obvious? What if we are aware that this oneness is the infinite source and if so is it interchangeable with the term infinite?

The Unifying Factor: Trance, the “Magic Eye” and Recognizing the One

Some of the people I know just don’t understand what I see in trance. To them it is a jumble of sounds created for the consumer of drugs. I myself used to feel this way. Then one night some friends from my building invited me to a Paul Van Dyke festival in Central Park. I went, and since then I have understood the method of trance. Now when I try to convey my transformative experience I employ the magic eye analogy. You know those annoying “pictures” which seem to be a jumble of colors and shapes. Look closer! Don’t you see it? Do you see it? Do you see the statue, its right in front of you! Then exasperated you attempt to refocus your strained eyes uncrossing them, going back to a visual reality that comes naturally. Of course for some, after a while, they “get it”. From that point on it becomes obvious, a natural trance. Every religion and culture, Confucius, Moses, and the Sufi, ramble on about this one all encompassing consciousness, an idea that if meditated on either by spinning oneself around, not thinking about thinking , or really thinking, reveals an obvious truth. The truth being that we are really 1. The real question, then, is how do we access this awareness? (I tried crossing my eyes while dancing in a state ecstasy.) On the other hand if one is not aware of trance or the magic eye picture then they can never know the answer, because they don’t know that there’s a question. What do these “one” people see? Where is the evidence? I wonder if the Unifying Factor can be found by being aware that there is a common denominator in everything. After all if one must experience trance in order to appreciate it and stare at the magic eye to see, then to find something that is everything is a matter of just being awake.