This is the Fuji just sitting caught yesterday from the shinkansen, just after the Rohatsu...
Jundo kindly asked me to make a video about just stting. I foolishly accepted. Not that he is a man of poor judgement, but I am certainly a man of shallow practice. And I really mean it. Nevertheless, let's have a go.
Now let me tell you a very simple story. I was plagued with back pain since my early teens, with two knees injured after various ski adventures...Not a good place to start sitting. And since day one I was in hell on the cushion. Burning hellish pain. And the intimate knowing it was home. Received the precepts, sat and sat and sat and sat, received Tokudo, and sat, and sat and sat...Was taught a very rigid form of practice, the Deshimaru way, and was given very harmful instructions. When I moved to England, the pain was there everytime. I bumped into volume one of Shobogenzo, the Nishijima Cross tranlation and just noticed on the back that the guy was an Alexander Technique teacher. Got in touch. Became his student. And everything I thought about sitting I had to let go. It was not an easy ride, the guy is uncompromizing, fierce and tender, mighty and soft, and he made it very clear through our meetings, I was a pure mess. I am still, but i know I am to a certain extent. Thanks to this great practice, the pain in my back simply vanished and sitting became...painless. And still is. We fell apart although I am eternally grateful to him and would say his living understanding of sitting in one piece cannot be matched by anybody. Period. You may argue that he is using abusive language and things are not perfect, well, let me tell you, in his company the real dragon is never far.
I am not an Alexander teacher, I am not a physio therapist and I belong to a very strange and wild lineage which does not give me the full authority to say I am a teacher. I could not care less, really. I am a nobody. That is for me, much more than roshi this, certificate there and all the blablabla. I received transmission from a wild rebel who gave me a pearl.
I want to share a bit of this insight with you. No tricks, gimmicks, fixing involved. If you are in real pain and stuck, apart from watching the vids to come (useless form the point of view of end gaining), the basic advice is the following: find a decent Alexander technique teacher ( as hard to find as a Zen teacher) and take lessons. If the guy is arrogant and has no heart, leave. If he is humble but fierce in pointing your flaws. Stay. Whatever. Let him take you into the chair. And out. Forward and up. Inhibit. Come back to baby basics.
If you can't take lessons, no problem, although it might take a looooooooooooooooong time... then observe, look around. Use a mirror. How does water flow? How does a cat move? Look at very young children, walking free. Leaves falling. Flowers in bloom. Dip your very eyeballs in the space around. Don't get carried away, too intense. Learn from being just present to what is.
A last word of caution that might sound a bit harsh.If you want answers to fix things, these vids are useless. If you think you know, you live in blissful and hellish ignorance. Not ready to learn, don't hang around these teachings. Do things your way. I don't want to loose your time.
See you soon
gassho
Taigu
Attached files
Jundo kindly asked me to make a video about just stting. I foolishly accepted. Not that he is a man of poor judgement, but I am certainly a man of shallow practice. And I really mean it. Nevertheless, let's have a go.
Now let me tell you a very simple story. I was plagued with back pain since my early teens, with two knees injured after various ski adventures...Not a good place to start sitting. And since day one I was in hell on the cushion. Burning hellish pain. And the intimate knowing it was home. Received the precepts, sat and sat and sat and sat, received Tokudo, and sat, and sat and sat...Was taught a very rigid form of practice, the Deshimaru way, and was given very harmful instructions. When I moved to England, the pain was there everytime. I bumped into volume one of Shobogenzo, the Nishijima Cross tranlation and just noticed on the back that the guy was an Alexander Technique teacher. Got in touch. Became his student. And everything I thought about sitting I had to let go. It was not an easy ride, the guy is uncompromizing, fierce and tender, mighty and soft, and he made it very clear through our meetings, I was a pure mess. I am still, but i know I am to a certain extent. Thanks to this great practice, the pain in my back simply vanished and sitting became...painless. And still is. We fell apart although I am eternally grateful to him and would say his living understanding of sitting in one piece cannot be matched by anybody. Period. You may argue that he is using abusive language and things are not perfect, well, let me tell you, in his company the real dragon is never far.
I am not an Alexander teacher, I am not a physio therapist and I belong to a very strange and wild lineage which does not give me the full authority to say I am a teacher. I could not care less, really. I am a nobody. That is for me, much more than roshi this, certificate there and all the blablabla. I received transmission from a wild rebel who gave me a pearl.
I want to share a bit of this insight with you. No tricks, gimmicks, fixing involved. If you are in real pain and stuck, apart from watching the vids to come (useless form the point of view of end gaining), the basic advice is the following: find a decent Alexander technique teacher ( as hard to find as a Zen teacher) and take lessons. If the guy is arrogant and has no heart, leave. If he is humble but fierce in pointing your flaws. Stay. Whatever. Let him take you into the chair. And out. Forward and up. Inhibit. Come back to baby basics.
If you can't take lessons, no problem, although it might take a looooooooooooooooong time... then observe, look around. Use a mirror. How does water flow? How does a cat move? Look at very young children, walking free. Leaves falling. Flowers in bloom. Dip your very eyeballs in the space around. Don't get carried away, too intense. Learn from being just present to what is.
A last word of caution that might sound a bit harsh.If you want answers to fix things, these vids are useless. If you think you know, you live in blissful and hellish ignorance. Not ready to learn, don't hang around these teachings. Do things your way. I don't want to loose your time.
See you soon
gassho
Taigu
Attached files
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