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Warrior Work
Week 44
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The Tao Of Space
By Peter Hill
We are constantly cultivating, exploring, filling up, opening up and playing in the space around and within us. And yet, how often do we
contemplate the purpose or power of space? Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese art that is the study of energy and space – originally meaning
“Heaven,Earth”, it is now more commonly meant to mean, “Wind, Water”. Wind moves through space bringing new ideas, new life, new energy –
as my friend Dannion Brinkley, author of numerous best sellers, says so succinctly, “We come here by breath and we leave by breath.” We
breath in life, we breathe in new ideas (if the space exists within us for any), we breathe in and cultivate more space in our body, mind and spirit
when we practice taichi and or yoga if that is our intent.
The winds of change can often be felt in our spirit, heart and soul long before it impacts our relationships, jobs and even ourselves. Water
transforms to the space it is in: an ocean, a cup, a bowl, a bathtub, a body…….it’s power is it’s ability to flow through space softly or in a torrent.
It can shift from a sprinkle to a downpour, from ice to steam, bringing it’s life affirming energy throughout the space of our lives. Yet it is the lack
of space that is the death of even these two. Wind trapped in a confined space becomes fetid and smothering, water trapped in space
becomes stagnant and a breeding place for disease, The character for a tree trapped in a box where it gets no wind or water is “trouble”
because there can be no growth, much like you might feel from a relationship or job that is giving you no space to grow.
The character for space, or infinity or emptiness is the “sky under construction”. Always transforming, always changing, never boxing any
energies in. This same character is the “kara” in karate – empty hand, often wrongly thought of as having a hand that is empty but in actuality, a
metaphor for the cultivation of the emptiness inside each of us that through INTENT, discipline and will, we learn to focus and cultivate our own
energies of wind and water; to create, protect or destroy with. Lao Tzu puts in so well in the TaoTe Ching,
“Thirty spokes in a wheel but it is the emptiness that makes it useful.
Shape clay into a bowl; it is the space within that makes it useful.
Put up walls and doors and windows yet the space is where the energy of life converges.
Form has advantages but it is the spirit, the intangible that makes it all useful.”
It is a modern enigma that there is such a great awareness of space and yet so many people feel like they have so little of it within
themselves. Our society is overstressed, constipated, congested and clogged mentally, emotionally and physically. The Hubble telescope
looked at a spot in space the size of a grain of sand at the tip of your finger – within that grain of sand it found 3000 galaxies and within each
galaxy a billion to a 100 billion stars! Within us we have the space to feel angry, elated, happy, sad, frustrated – the gamut of emotions that color
the landscape of our lives and we can also trap those emotions within us letting them become fetid and stagnant, poisoning our body, mind and
spirit – we can also stretch out our arms, open wide our hearts and embrace whatever the world throws at us, keeping our center, breathing
through it, forgiving, loving.
The wonderment of arts like taichi and yoga is that their purpose is to help us cultivate the space within us that the classics say is vast,
infinite and empty – to remember to empty ourselves daily instead of holding on to pictures and energies that break us down, clog us up and
stress us out. This month, contemplate the space in your life, fill it up with your dreams, fill it up with life affirming energy, movement, thoughts,
food, wind (breath) and water. Take a deep breath and give the people around you the space to express what they feel freely, the space to tell
you their dreams. Apologize if you have been boxing anyone in, cultivating trouble and pushing them away. Let people know if you need some
space and have the courage to take it! And if you have any stagnant emotions, let them flow and let them go! If you need any tips on how to do
any of that, feel free to email me within cyberspace!
By Peter Hill, Copyright 2004
www.getittogether.net
www.worldtaichi.com
Warrior Week Home >>
Week 44
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Tao Of Space
By Peter Hill
We are constantly cultivating, exploring, filling up, opening up and playing in the space around and within us. And yet, how often do we
contemplate the purpose or power of space? Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese art that is the study of energy and space – originally meaning
“Heaven,Earth”, it is now more commonly meant to mean, “Wind, Water”. Wind moves through space bringing new ideas, new life, new energy –
as my friend Dannion Brinkley, author of numerous best sellers, says so succinctly, “We come here by breath and we leave by breath.” We
breath in life, we breathe in new ideas (if the space exists within us for any), we breathe in and cultivate more space in our body, mind and spirit
when we practice taichi and or yoga if that is our intent.
The winds of change can often be felt in our spirit, heart and soul long before it impacts our relationships, jobs and even ourselves. Water
transforms to the space it is in: an ocean, a cup, a bowl, a bathtub, a body…….it’s power is it’s ability to flow through space softly or in a torrent.
It can shift from a sprinkle to a downpour, from ice to steam, bringing it’s life affirming energy throughout the space of our lives. Yet it is the lack
of space that is the death of even these two. Wind trapped in a confined space becomes fetid and smothering, water trapped in space
becomes stagnant and a breeding place for disease, The character for a tree trapped in a box where it gets no wind or water is “trouble”
because there can be no growth, much like you might feel from a relationship or job that is giving you no space to grow.
The character for space, or infinity or emptiness is the “sky under construction”. Always transforming, always changing, never boxing any
energies in. This same character is the “kara” in karate – empty hand, often wrongly thought of as having a hand that is empty but in actuality, a
metaphor for the cultivation of the emptiness inside each of us that through INTENT, discipline and will, we learn to focus and cultivate our own
energies of wind and water; to create, protect or destroy with. Lao Tzu puts in so well in the TaoTe Ching,
“Thirty spokes in a wheel but it is the emptiness that makes it useful.
Shape clay into a bowl; it is the space within that makes it useful.
Put up walls and doors and windows yet the space is where the energy of life converges.
Form has advantages but it is the spirit, the intangible that makes it all useful.”
It is a modern enigma that there is such a great awareness of space and yet so many people feel like they have so little of it within
themselves. Our society is overstressed, constipated, congested and clogged mentally, emotionally and physically. The Hubble telescope
looked at a spot in space the size of a grain of sand at the tip of your finger – within that grain of sand it found 3000 galaxies and within each
galaxy a billion to a 100 billion stars! Within us we have the space to feel angry, elated, happy, sad, frustrated – the gamut of emotions that color
the landscape of our lives and we can also trap those emotions within us letting them become fetid and stagnant, poisoning our body, mind and
spirit – we can also stretch out our arms, open wide our hearts and embrace whatever the world throws at us, keeping our center, breathing
through it, forgiving, loving.
The wonderment of arts like taichi and yoga is that their purpose is to help us cultivate the space within us that the classics say is vast,
infinite and empty – to remember to empty ourselves daily instead of holding on to pictures and energies that break us down, clog us up and
stress us out. This month, contemplate the space in your life, fill it up with your dreams, fill it up with life affirming energy, movement, thoughts,
food, wind (breath) and water. Take a deep breath and give the people around you the space to express what they feel freely, the space to tell
you their dreams. Apologize if you have been boxing anyone in, cultivating trouble and pushing them away. Let people know if you need some
space and have the courage to take it! And if you have any stagnant emotions, let them flow and let them go! If you need any tips on how to do
any of that, feel free to email me within cyberspace!
By Peter Hill, Copyright 2004
www.getittogether.net
www.worldtaichi.com
Warrior Week Home >>