John Lash

What is tai chi? The answer is not as straightforward as it might seem. At one level,Tai Chi is a form of Chinese exercise, but it is in reality very much more. It is a complete way of life, a way of being, wherein a person's inner life and outer experience become unified as single expression of existence-of the Tao.

The exercise in tai chi combine the mind, breath, balance and parts of the body to work simultaineously and spontaneously during each movement. But it does not stop there. Tai chi, like all oriental disciplines, is a way of approaching the whole of life and thus must be practised every second of every day. This captivating book uses an examination of selected verses from the classic Tao Te Ching to reveal the traditions, philosophy and essence of tai chi as a way.

Contents

Preface
1 The tao
2 Tai chi
3 Tai chi and the tao te ching
4 The tai chi teacher
Conclusion… (mehr)

THE SEEKER'S HANDBOOK :
THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO SPIRITUAL PATHFINDING

PREAMBLE

Into the Labyrinth
Like you, I am a seeker. My quest began with dreams in early childhood,
followed in my teens by some disturbing inner experiences
that were inexplicable in the context of what I or anyone around me knew
at the time. Quite soon, I was led to worldwide travels and other, purely
spontaneous, mystical experiences, followed up by years of esoteric
studies and various disciplines of self-work. It is a quest that still continues,
a journey I have come to see as defined by no ultimate goal, but rather
by the shifting horizons-sometimes close, sometimes distant-that appear
and dissolve with every step along the way.

My analogy for the seeker's quest is the labyrinth, the maze of winding
paths that intersect at unpredictable places. At each crossing of paths there
is room for pause and contemplation, but the figure of the labyrinth is all
movement, all change and exploration. The labyrinth has no single, fixed
center-rather, a kind of magnetic center that shifts as the journey shifts
Mysteriously and often elusively, each winding path leads toward the
heart of the design, a movable center located wherever the seeker is
exploring at any moment. At each crossing within the maze there is a kind
of mandala, a point to rest the gaze and take bearings. But like the looking
glass in Alice's adventure, each mandala is merely a membrane, and in
going through it, the seeker plunges on again along the winding track of
the labyrinth.

Like so many others, I set out into the labyrinth looking for the eternal
principles, the time-tried formulations of ultimate truth. I did find them
because they do exist. They are like pictures and hieroglyphs carved at
certain turnings on the walls of the winding passageways. But I
discovered that they cannot be taken as goals, as final end points of
questioning.

They are helpful markings encountered again and again at different turn
ings along the way. Because they are age-old and eternally recurrent,..… (mehr)