Zen To Yoga To Tai Chi Chuan To Pa Kua Chang To…Wake Up!

It was Gurdjieff who said that man is walking around asleep, and that he needs to wake up. This is intimated in the old Chinese tale of the man who woke from a dream that he was a butterfly, and wondered if he was really a butterfly dreaming that he was a man. This is the essence of action when one progresses from Yoga to Martial Arts.

There is a progression from the sleeping state to the waking state in this arrangement of discipline. Unfortunately, people don’t really sees this progression, or, at best, they get stuck in one of the steps of the progression, and never truly awake. One should never be satisfied with one discipline…one should explore this progression fully that one might fully awake.

Starting with Zen meditation, one learns that they are. One merely sits in the same place, prone only to what the world can inflict upon them (very little while sitting), and to the fantasies of their mind. As time moves forward, however, fantasies become less than entertaining, and there is an awakening to what is obfuscated by the fantasies…reality.

Yoga is wonderful as second step, as it acclimates a person to a variety of positions and potentials. One should understand that as one analyzes their potentials, one is coming into their vision of the universe. Yes, you might clean out your kidneys, but your vision of what is real is what is at stake.

After Yoga–mind you, I am offering this sequence in reverse here, I usually prefer going with a hard art like Karate, but the progression I am offering lends itself to this modification–Tai Chi Chuan would be a wonderful third step. Tai Chi Chuan is not no motion, it is more than no motion, and the wonderous visions of Zen and Yoga slowly take shape, and energies begin to move. The vast expanse of universe that is the core of every human being is beginning to move like a gargantuate locomotive.

After delving into Tai Chi Chuan one could progress into another form of Wudan Martial Arts, like Pa Kua Chang. This would be more motion, more ways of examining your vision of the world, more ways of growing your Great Space through the possibilities of motion. One should understand, by this point, that they are a vision; that behind the Great Space of the human being there is a viewpoint of it all: there is you, the I am.

Continuing our evolution, Shaolin Kung Fu raises up its astounding head. Motion becomes wilder, gyrating, but securing all is the vision behind the Great Space of you. Now one is a sparkler in the night, creating arcs of geometry to enhance the world.

And, we can continue our journey through a variety of martial arts, far beyond the mere desire to kill, far into the glorious essence of ourselves: the I ams of the universe. Mind you, as I said before, this progression is a bit backwards, usually people who are old will attempt this route, for their bodies are sedentary. But, old or young, we can all wake up: our bodies are the Universe; we are the I ams; there is a life to discover.

 

What is your next step? Fill in the pieces that will wake you up and lead you to a new reality! Whether it is Yoga, Tai Chi Chuan, Shaolin Kung Fu, or some other art, head on over over to Monster Martial Arts and arrange your journey! Pick up a free martial arts book at the top left of the home page.
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