Big Bear
12-29-2008, 06:03 AM
In the landscape of Creative thought,what can you call truly your own?
As has been suggested by writers,'we all are pickers from the garbage heap'.In other words when you look at a language system and the time it has been used,you can say that everything literaly has been said before.It is also true that most stories will follow but a few basic plotlines articulated over and over again.Much of this has to do with Humankind and his/her symbols.The plotlines-storylines as it were can be traced back to our mythic past,to a time when our ancestors sat around the fire in the cold Winter nights telling stories to inflame the imagination of future generations and perpetuate the symbols that help to establish and make sense of reality.
In the Physical Culture world as has been stated we stand on the shoulders of giants.We practise moves that have been carefully designed to forge the optimum for human physique and potential.So what is creative in all this?
John has created what I call an,'open system'.There are no set prescriptions(though if you talk to our dear friend he will give you so many exercises that will help a problem area,as with my shoulder which he helped me to re-build ).By open I mean that there is no gym guru standing over your shoulder telling you what to do.It is open in that you may choose each day what your program looks like.The variations are endless and the freedom is great! You also have a choice to 'dig a deep well'as they say in China pertaining to the 100 day practise(or more) of a certain Qigong routine.
So it leaves us each day in a creative space as we approach the matt,even if we do the same exercises!
Let us say you base your practise on the Tiger Moves or M7.Each day you will find something different with a shoulder roll for instance.Perhaps today is heavy tension,what does it feel like today?Where are you in relationship to the exercise on this fine day?Did you awake tired,sore,or do you feel wonderful?As you do the roll how do your shoulders feel?Are you slowly nursing them back to optimum?Are they strong ready and able to perform at your highest level to date?
Of course there are several ways we can approach the matt.We can use the late 70's commercial modality of Dunkin Doughnuts and say wearily,'Time to make the doughnuts'.Or we can awake and approach these exercises for the first time.The beginners mind is a creative mind.It allows for the full involvement of an experience like a young child,with mystery,wonder,and enjoyment.If we can approach the matt with this begginer's mind we will find something quite extraordinary.Within this Open system we can feel this 'bag'o'bones'as if for the first time.We can experience every subtle nuance and with our breathing be that movement.
To be what you are doing,weather it is exercise,smiling at your wife or children,holding avdoor open for a friend you do not know,seeing the Christ in the other,is perhaps one of the highest achievments.We are so lost in thought,so distracted,so-not whatever we are doing,that we move as if a dream passing swiftly through this sacred life.By beggining anew each day we can as the Ojibwa say,'every night I die and every morning I am re-born'.
We can experience this on the matt each time,each day.Afterwards as you step off the matt there awaits yet another moment,let us by all means live it....
peace,
jason
As has been suggested by writers,'we all are pickers from the garbage heap'.In other words when you look at a language system and the time it has been used,you can say that everything literaly has been said before.It is also true that most stories will follow but a few basic plotlines articulated over and over again.Much of this has to do with Humankind and his/her symbols.The plotlines-storylines as it were can be traced back to our mythic past,to a time when our ancestors sat around the fire in the cold Winter nights telling stories to inflame the imagination of future generations and perpetuate the symbols that help to establish and make sense of reality.
In the Physical Culture world as has been stated we stand on the shoulders of giants.We practise moves that have been carefully designed to forge the optimum for human physique and potential.So what is creative in all this?
John has created what I call an,'open system'.There are no set prescriptions(though if you talk to our dear friend he will give you so many exercises that will help a problem area,as with my shoulder which he helped me to re-build ).By open I mean that there is no gym guru standing over your shoulder telling you what to do.It is open in that you may choose each day what your program looks like.The variations are endless and the freedom is great! You also have a choice to 'dig a deep well'as they say in China pertaining to the 100 day practise(or more) of a certain Qigong routine.
So it leaves us each day in a creative space as we approach the matt,even if we do the same exercises!
Let us say you base your practise on the Tiger Moves or M7.Each day you will find something different with a shoulder roll for instance.Perhaps today is heavy tension,what does it feel like today?Where are you in relationship to the exercise on this fine day?Did you awake tired,sore,or do you feel wonderful?As you do the roll how do your shoulders feel?Are you slowly nursing them back to optimum?Are they strong ready and able to perform at your highest level to date?
Of course there are several ways we can approach the matt.We can use the late 70's commercial modality of Dunkin Doughnuts and say wearily,'Time to make the doughnuts'.Or we can awake and approach these exercises for the first time.The beginners mind is a creative mind.It allows for the full involvement of an experience like a young child,with mystery,wonder,and enjoyment.If we can approach the matt with this begginer's mind we will find something quite extraordinary.Within this Open system we can feel this 'bag'o'bones'as if for the first time.We can experience every subtle nuance and with our breathing be that movement.
To be what you are doing,weather it is exercise,smiling at your wife or children,holding avdoor open for a friend you do not know,seeing the Christ in the other,is perhaps one of the highest achievments.We are so lost in thought,so distracted,so-not whatever we are doing,that we move as if a dream passing swiftly through this sacred life.By beggining anew each day we can as the Ojibwa say,'every night I die and every morning I am re-born'.
We can experience this on the matt each time,each day.Afterwards as you step off the matt there awaits yet another moment,let us by all means live it....
peace,
jason