Naar Ruusbroeck

Un petit mouvement
dans les flux des sensations
montre la déviation
de l’équi-libre de l’instant.
Dans le long
cela va se fondre dans le néant
en continuant l’initiation
saison après saison.
Et si cela nous arrive après un temps
ce n’est pas une prestation.

Rien qu’une  pensée

(pas une idée)
comme une pétale
tombée dans la boue

Un petit geste

Peut faire la différence

Piqué par la mouche

Een miniem gebaar

Kan een groot verschil maken

Want de mug staat klaar

Manon a oublié ce qu’elle a dit

pour une touche sûr sur le piano, elle a fait du taiji
noir et blanc uni, doux et fortement

De opening

een vermoeden van ... die een hoge noot verlicht,

de plooien vallen, de welvingen maken het gedicht

Clingendaal

De wilgen waaien
als fluisteren in ‘t struweel
tijd vermaledijd. 

Taiji, economics, science and  ignorance                                                 

Le DAO commence avec : ceux qui savent ne parlent pas, ceux qui parlent ne savent pas.
Nan dit toujours : Le Chinois dit … et puis une phrase plein d’images ouvert à l’interprétation. Dès lors quelques poèmes :

Taiji and economics
The quadrant of effort and profit and “When faith moves a mountain”. More effort, more gain? Relax within effort. Health (and not only) is a gift. Enjoy!

The expo on the work of Francis Alys in Wiels was very impressive: The artist running to enter the eye of the hurricane, the artist painting a green line in Jerusalem, Israel/Palestine, and the project to move a mountain “When faith moves a mountain”, as shown also in the 15 min documentary : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eNuqLnFaYA

Francis Alys persuaded the students and staff of a school to spend together a whole day. They went to a dune and started at the bottom of that “mountain”. Each pulled a bit of sand in front of him and stepped forward. At the end of the day, they were all at the other side of the dune that had shifted 10 cm. A great effort, with a result which is not visible in the landscape and which will be annihilated by the wind. Nevertheless the whole team was proud of the work, their work! Something never to forget, something to remember and to tell about.
The move of the mountain was their (e-)motion.

The quadrant of effort/benefit

Shifting the mountain is an activity of maximal effort for minimal effect. We do not often do this, or promote the idea of it. The other quadrants are more popular:

·        Maximum gain for minimum effort: the homo economibus way of life (1)

·        Maximum gain for maximum effort: top athletes live this way (1)

·        Minimal gain with minimal effort: this could be lazy persons or smart people?

(1) May come together with the production of waste and pollution and anomalies such as dope

Minimal gain with maximal effort as with the mountain could be a kind of artistic way of living.

Does Taiji fit (at least) with a kind of quantitative approach such as: The more effort/ we practice, the better?

Taiji is not about effort only, it is effort AND relaxing.

·        Go with the flow, Let it be, effortless relaxing is neither the subject of Taiji

·        Although you have always to relax, to release … it is relaxing within a form

·        Taiji gives an opportunity to let work everything: the body (not only muscles but also articulations) and the mind.

·        Taiji gives the opportunity to relax all.

·        So it is about

o   effort with relaxing without effort

o   relaxing within effort without losing the flow of the force

o   you may continue a while this iterative recursive way …

Taiji is also about balance. Similar as the equilibrist that uses a long stick to keep his balance Taiji offers the opportunity to do ample movements of all parts of the body moving differently but united, while the mind is empty, open, calm and alert. All those movements and efforts are done in a relaxed way with relaxed shoulders, elbows, fingers, waist, knees, ankles, also the mind …

Taiji is also about following the Force … go for the feeling … not the doing

If you only increase the effort, no gain, no better balance. Some people get even benefit of Taiji without doing Taiji. At my work everybody knows that on Wednesday at 17h30 Wim has to go to the Taiji training. They know: he goes or he has a bad temper during the next week. (Although this has not been tested the last two years). So everybody has benefit of my Taiji session, but they did not do Taiji themselves. Transcendental Meditation claims something similar. If 1% of the world population does TM (perhaps at the highest level where you can “hop” (lift in the air while sitting in meditation)) the world would be in peace, no war anymore.

So Taiji does not fit a quantitative “more effort the better” principle. Practicing is “already the benefit”. Especially when you relax within effort to come to balance. There does not exist a measure to measure the degree of balance, not for Taiji, not for something else. Enjoy your practice, if you relax within the effort, the mountain may come to you.

So Taiji is not quantitative, can we at least enhance the quality of life? The benefit of Taiji which is most often proclaimed: “health”

·        It is clear that there was a period wherein Taiji became “open to all people to get weak people more strong and vital”. The practice of Taiji by all Chinese intended to enforce the Chinese nation against all invasion like influences of European colonies and Japan. The Yang family style that was the first style to be opened to the public was adapted just for this aim. Today all family styles and standard styles are widely open to the public (and those that are not, we do not know of). And all are aiming longevity and health. I have read from the founder of Sun style that he aimed a healthy live (so not longevity), he himself announced that his forces were finished at a certain time and he died two weeks later

·        Taiji is not about “cure” it may be that you get exercises Taiji or qi gong as a treatment from a doctor but for a Taiji practitioner it seems an exception to improve health in case of illness

·        One of my lessons of life came from running, not Taiji. What you can do as a runner (the marathon, the 20 km of Brussels and now in my case only slowly running in a beautiful forest) is a gift not a performance. In case your body is able to “just do it”, you may consider this as a gift. You may choose to take care of the gift by training to be able to run x km in y time. But first of all it is a gift, afterwards it is a performance of what you do with it.

Taiji does not fit either the optimization of the quality of life. You get your body and mind as it is, just like a gift. Taiji is a mean to take care of it. When care has been given, good shape and balance with nature remain as long as possible. You do not speak in terms of gain and optimization related to a gift.

Every practitioner will have his own practice, his own sensations and experience. They will talk about other benefits of Taiji besides enjoying the practice.

·        In some cases what is said as a benefit (I become calm, good for health) says more about the person saying it than on their practice of Taiji.

·        The more one speaks about one benefit, the less the diversity of possible benefits.

·        Some practitioners do not talk about benefits, maybe because they consider it as strictly personal.

·        Just alike the trees in the Park of Tervuren. They are all different although they respect all nature: they are rooted, they grow towards heaven and they exchange with the environment. But no tree is the same as another tree.

There is agreement that Taiji practice has the opportunity when “well done” to contribute to health, “martial” (in the sense aggression will be transformed in the void) at least a confident attitude, balance with nature, balance with others, balance within yourself including body and mind. We may compare with the seven elements that were identified as “good life” in the book “How much is enough” of the Robert and Edward Skidelsky and argue that practice of Taiji creates an opportunity to contribute to

1.       Health

2.      Security

3.      Personality

4.      Leisure

5.      Harmony with nature

6.      Respect

7.      And indirectly to Friends

So we enjoy practicing Taiji, we practice regularly, daily …, a lot or a few, depending on our condition, our body, our mind, our activities and free time… we do it for the sake of doing it, to care about the gift of ourselves and the world … with an empty mind … to come and maintain balance … and having a “good life”, which is not the same as a fantastic life or the best life.

Nan dit: Taiji pour le plaisir. Taiji demande du travail. Taiji est pour soigner son corps (et esprit bien entendu). Vous avez bien travaillé. Pierre-Eli dit : « On a bien bossé ».

Taiji et la science : mes plaques d’immatriculation et un carré magique, l’entropie et la diversité, pout réunir il faut diviser comme la bande de Möbius et d’Escher

1-CHI-901 et 1-FXQ-307 sont mes deux dernières plaques d’immatriculation données par deux firmes de leasing différents. C’est pur hasard dès lors. Le premier est aussi clair que les gens me demandaient combien j’aurais payé pour. : »One chi (force vitale) entre ciel (9) et terre (1) avec moi entre les deux (le zéro). Le deuxième est moins évident, mais il peut se lire comme feu (F) croise (X) eau (aQua, Q) comme feu (3) neutralise (0) eau (7).

Les chiffres viennent d’un carré magique attribué à un ou l’autre Empereur qui a vu sur la coquille d’une tortue le suivant

Les chiffres impair sont « yang » et tourne dans le sens de l’aiguille 1, 1*3=3, 3*3=9, 9*3=27 retenez le 7, 7*3=21 retenez le 1 et recommencez). Les chiffres pair sont « yin » et tournent dans l’autre sens (2*2=4, 4*2=8, 8*2=16 retenez 6, 6*2=12 retenez 2 et recommencez). Ce modèle du monde est relativement simple. J’aime bien les modèles simples, en mathématiques ils ont souvent le plus d’applications et ils sont le plus « riche ». Le carré magique est aussi intéressant.

D’abord il est relativement conforme avec l’entropie. La loi de l’entropie dit : Un système évolue vers la plus grande « égalité/indifférence ». Dit avec le contraire : Pour qu’une structure se maintienne, il faut ajouter de l’énergie. Les exemples, si tu ouvres une bouteille avec un gaz dans une chambre, le gaz va se diffuser partout dans la chambre et il n’y a nulle part un surplus où un manque de gaz. Tu dois faire un effort pour faire un château de sable à la plage, après un certain temps la plage va revenir aussi plate que par avant.

Le carré magique a mis les chiffres ainsi que la somme des lignes et les colonnes, mêmes les diagonales est 15. On a minimisé les « concentrations », on a optimisé la diversité. Ce carré avec 1 en bas et 9 en haut (terre et ciel) réfère la condition primordiale du monde. Il y a un autre avec 7 en bas et 3 en haut (eau et feu) qui reflète le monde à posteriori. Le nom Taiji réfère aussi à cette condition primordiale. Au début il y avait Wuji, le tout comme potentialité dans un point et puis Taiji le tout partout mais encore indiffèrent. Après, quand la différence est créé (Yin et Yang) la transformation continue et les choses changent en harmonie …

Le carré magique peut illustrer plusieurs principes de Taiji :

·        La plus grande diversité mène à l’harmonie. Un ghetto (tous les yin ensemble p.ex.) ne harmonise pas. Une forme de Taiji comprends des opportunités de : ouvrir et fermer, inspirer et expirer, gauche et droit, haut et bas, droite et cercle …

·        Réunir. En Français le « ré » de réunir mets l’emphase sur le fait qu’il faut d’abord « séparer » pour  réunir. C’est un principe fondamental de chaque forme de Taiji. Pour réunir il faut diviser. Machiavel a probablement voulu dire quelque chose d’autre, mais les principes sont communs entre les multiples style et écoles de Taiji.

o   Dans le cadre d’Europalia Chine, (http://www.lifecarecentre.be/europalia.html) Un professeur de l’université de Montpellier, Eric Marié, http://www.reseau-asie.com/edito/la-medecine-chinoise-une-medecine-traditionnelle-a-l-epreuve-de-la-modernite-par-eric-marie-faculte/la-medecine-chinoise-une-medecine-traditionnelle-a-l-epreuve-de-la-modernite-par-eric-marie-faculte/la-medecine-chinoise-une-medecine-traditionnelle-a-l-epreuve-de-la-modernite-par-eric-marie-faculte/  faisait le point que même la Médicine Chinoise Traditionnelle est basé sur une théorie et n’est pas empirique (ce qu’on entend souvent).