Nowadays anyone can claim himself to be a meditator. Mindfulness to our internal processes is an essential technique in meditation, so much so many modern meditators call their practice Mindfulness meditation. In a way this gives meditation a more modern and secular or non-sectarian look. Besides Mindfulness meditation, Zen meditation is another common name for meditation, often, but not always, affiliated with Buddhism. There are many different approaches inside both Mindfulness meditation and Zen meditation. Traditionally compassion is an essence training concept in Zen meditation, though no ..read more

Everyone loves receiving awards. Recently I was very pleased to learn that I have received the "Top 10 Tao Blog Awards". It certainly gives me more motivation to write articles here. It is nice that my ideas and thoughts can be of some use to folks living in far away places, though the English-speaking world still dominates as far as viewership is concerned. Looking back a few years ago, I received another award: "Top Site for Religious Studies". Needless to say, despite being top in religious studies, my blog is practical and experiential in natur ..read more

The definitive practice of Zen is meditation and koan analysis. Both aim at dissociating a practitioner from his ingrained pattern of rational thinking. Zen however does not aim at cultivating irrational thought. The theory is that our ingrained patterns of rational thinking will distort our perception. We cannot see our “true self”. To be enlightened we need to break away from such constraints so that we can see our “true self”. Such constraints broadly speaking come from two areas: firstly it is constrained by the concepts we use to understand the world around us, these concepts we ..read more

Mindfulness is an important operational concept in the practice of meditation. Yet, it bears different meanings in different schools of meditation. I am not going to discuss that in this post. Here, I shall discuss the meaning of mindfulness as applied in doing tai chi square form and tai chi round form. As with meditation, different schools of tai chi tackle or treat mindfulness differently. No explanation, of course including mine, is definitive. With this preamble, the following is my view on the subject. For beginning students, they should not overly concern with the concept (and exe ..read more

Traditional Japanese art disciplines like Noh (能 theatre), kado (花道 Japanese flower arrangement), shodo (書道 Japanese calligraphy) and Sado (茶道 Japanese tea ceremony) are Zen like, as in some traditional martial arts, like kyudo (弓道) and kanto (劍道). Their graceful movements are activated by chi. Those of us who have learned practising tai chi as moving meditation may wonder: How can quick movements be conducive to chi generation rather than chi dissipation? How can Japanese geidō (The way of arts 藝道) be called Zen-like or meditative-like? Isn’t Zen as a mind-body discipline should be ..read more

I have a keen interest in Jungian psychology. In his biography Memories, Dreams, Reflections Jung talked about venturing into his own Unconscious mind with a conscious cognitive thinking mind. This is most unexpected from a once disciple of Freud whose psychoanalysis is scientifically oriented. How can one have conscious cognitive thinking in dream? How can one venture into his owe Unconscious mind with (almost) total consciousness? His little book of “Divine revelation” Seven Sermons to the Dead raised eyebrows in the academic community. Jung later said to have regretted publishing this littl ..read more

A woman with love a woman in need. With whom old mom share her forgotten dreams? The life she lived were the things she has seen. How many high mounts climbed and wild grass trimmed? Understand mom a tough lesson to teach, She knows you more than your reflection brood'd, Time to listen is the time to reach, Caring her a challenge in trust you bragg'd. Images of your young follies make her sheen, Stories of your now success let her rest, Time shall come when the hour stops unforeseen, Precious moments not too soon, too late lest:       If these carved in mind and we sta ..read more

If you pick up a book on meditation, chances are that you will be told that meditation is easy, and the benefit is huge. Modern man (and of course modern woman too, probably there are more female meditators than male meditators) is busy and commonly scared of anything that sounds unscientific. They love anything that is simple, easy to do and above all scientific. Is meditation really easy and the benefits huge? I shall discuss the theory behind sound practice of meditation. In popular meditation books, probably you will be told to sit in a quiet place, simply seated or with seated with legs ..read more

Knee pain is a major inconvenience to many middle-aged people. Can tai chi or chi kung solve the problem? But isn’t it something called tai chi knees, with some doctors advising their knee-pain patients not to practise tai chi? Should we take a rest as some doctors advise? But there are some doctors who advise that one should strengthen one’s leg muscles with more exercises to lessen knee pain? In severe cases our surgeon may advise us to do an operation to take out those damaged tissue to lessen (or even take away totally) the pain. Do you want an operation? And do you do another operation (i ..read more

In the practice of chi kung, the same side effect can be either positive or negative! A side effect that some literature talked about is "trapping of chi" in certain parts of a practitioner's body. The general advice is that it is bad for the body and should be avoided; and if it happens to a student, a qualified coach is to be consulted. Dropping out of the practice may end up to be the unavoidable final solution in severe cases. And, if the trapped chi is inside one's head, it might lead to severe headache or can even trigger an onset of psychosis! Doesn't it sound scary?! Chi is powerful e ..read more