"It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it."

     -Lena Horn (June 30, 1917-Sept 5, 2010),

      as quoted to me by Jim McCarty

"Rabbit's clever," said Pooh thoughtfully.

"Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit's clever."

"And he has Brain."

"Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit has Brain."

There was a long silence.

"I suppose," said Pooh, "that that's why he never understnds anything."

     -The House at Pooh Corner, by A. A. Milne

      Chapter VIII: In Which Piglet Does a Very Grand Thing

We all live in a capital I
In the middle of the desert in the center of the sky.
And all day long we polish on the I
To keep it clean and shiny so it brightens up the sky:
     Rubbing it here, and scrubbing it there,
     Polishing the I so high in the air.

As we work, we sing a lively tune,
“It is great to be so happy on a busy afternoon.”
And when we’re through with the day’s only chore,
We go into the I and we close the door.

This song is from the early years of Sesame street.  It sings about the letter "I."  I have had this song going through my head since I played it for my daughter on Youtube days ago.  It started to seep into my larger consciousness and I found that it could represent our incarnation of spiritual seeking on this planet.  It reminded me of the holographic nature of the Universe:  Something ostensibly having nothing to do with my ultimate association of it.

Taken from http://www.taiji-qigong.co.uk/Articles/changend.htm

In my final term with Chang, I became adept at phrasing questions so that I would not end up in great pain.  And I would ask questions that I needed to know the answers to, as I guess I sensed that he would not be around for much longer.

I told him that the way that he did his Taiji form was still greatly different to what I was doing, even though I thought that I was doing it at the highest level.

His answer was like a hammer to my head and something that I still remember with vivid detail.

"You are doing Taiji, I am not".

I was a little worried about this statement.

Before I could question him further he answered me. "Go around to all of the Taiji classes. And then come back to me. If you still wish to do Taiji, then go and learn from them."

By this stage, I was more than a little confused but Chang would not be budged on this, no more questions.

I did what he wanted me to do, even though I knew what the others were teaching.  Then something fell on me. Even though they were doing different styles, Chen, Yang, Wu etc. They were all still "doing" Taiji. It seemed like an effort, like it was something different that they had to do each day. Whereas when Chang did it, it was as if he was not doing anything, he would talk to me while he was doing his form, he would look around, take in the local scenery, but he was always so still and at peace with everything. He would never actually finish the form, but rather just move into another area of form, like walking to his place of residence, or having a cup of tea.

My next visit to Chang, was different. I told him that he was not doing Taiji but rather living Taiji. He answered again in the negative. "No, you are still wrong, I am not living anything, I am Taiji". He went on, "You are trying to do Taiji, so you will never realise the fighting of Taiji nor the healing of Taiji. You are much stronger than me, and faster, but I seem faster and stronger than you. I am not. I am Taiji."

From then onward, I tried to be Taiji with every waking and sleeping moment being as if I were still doing the form. That was his greatest gift to me. To show me not to do Taiji.

     -Earl Montaigue, student of Chang Yiu-chun

      Author of The Dim-Mak Encyclopedia

"The object of life is life."

     -Jean Liedloff, anthropoligist

      The Continuum Concept: In Search of Happiness Lost

Here's a day that couldn't get much better

It is the greatest that's ever been

It's so cool I ought'a wear a sweater,

Just to hold on to that warm feelin'

A miracle is something that you don't believe,

You will receive, and then it happens.

This is what I have to call a miracle:

My heart is full and toes are tappin'

Here's a day that couldn't get much better

     -Spongebob Squarepants, "A Day Like This"

      Theme song from the movie Truth or Square

     Three nuns are standing around a vat of vinegar.  The first one puts in her finger to taste the vinegar. "Oohh," she says with a look of shock, "that's awfully bitter."

     The second nun tastes the vinegar.  "Yuck," she says scrunching up her face, "how fowl and sour-tasting."

     The third, a young nun, tries the vinegar and nods.  "Ahhh, this is what vinegar tastes like," she says, grateful for acquiring the experience.

     "Walking the spiritual path properly is a very subtle process; it is not something to jump into naively. There are numerous sidetracks which lead to a distorted, ego-centered version of spirituality; we can delude ourselves into thinking we are developing spiritually when instead we are strengthening our egocentricity through spiritual techniques. This fundamental distortion may be referred to as 'spiritual materialism.'"

     -Chogyam Trungpa

      Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism

"Religion divides some people from their families or condemns their lifestyle.  No wonder many people want nothing to do with religion.  But actually, in the traditional Buddhist view, worldliness and religion are said to be like fire and water….This idea of separating worldliness and religion can be found in other spiritual traditions as well….However, the Teachings of all religions are subject to misinterpretation, and religion can be exploited just like everything else….When combined with worldly life, religion can become a means to gain power and control over others or, as in the current climate, destabilize the global political situation….We have taken religion and worldliness to be one and the same enterprise, and begun to fall into the same old cynicism that pervades much of the modern era.  It is to our advantage to recontextualized the word 'religion' and place it in the sphere of authentic spirituality."

     -Anyen Rinpoche as translated by Allison Graboski

      The Union of Dzogchen and Bodhichita, Chapter 1: Riligion and the Modern World

'A woman came up to me and said
"I'd like to poison your mind
With wrong ideas that appeal to you
Though I am not unkind"'

     -They Might Be Giants

      "Whistling In The Dark", Flood 1990