Eagle's Quest Tai Chi Advanced study Reading

December 2009 Holiday Greetings, I hope this finds you enjoying the coming holiday season. We will meet at Rose Lodge on the Waterford Country School campus as usual at 11 a.m., this Saturday Dec. 12th.  We are reading THE ART OF LEARNING (AN INNER JOURNEY TO OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE), by Josh Waitzkin. We will be reading and discussing this book for next month as well, so if you have not gotten it yet, no worries. The I-Ching reading for this month’s gathering is #56 The Wanderer, changing to #28 Preponderance of the Great. This speaks to the vast communities around the world that are bound together by racial, familial, religious, or political ties. The Wanderer touches them all but is neither bound directly to them, nor is rooted in them directly. The Traveler is led into very real spaces, at very distinct times, but remember that Wandering is really a state of mind. When one is moving through space and time with various peoples, encountering different cultures, one, is then tasting, sensing, seeing, feeling, hearing, smelling aspects of life in a multitude of ways that can have a profound effect on the consciousness of the individual. When traveling one must be modest, helpful, cautious, and above all avoid being perceived as gruff or rude or opinionated. Hold to your principles, and maintain a sense of propriety and generosity. Be obliging to others. Avoid putting on airs. Sojourn in the places that are correct and have energy for you that is supportive of your life force. Associate yourself with good people of kind hearts and generous minds. Be clear in your mind and open in your actions. Fire does not linger in one place but travels to where the new fuel is. Penalties and lawsuits should be quit quickly with only the shortest amount of energy placed on them. “Prisons should be places of lodging for only short duration, they should not become permanent dwelling places.” This can be time for an inner voyage of discovery of the self. This can also be a time of crisis in one’s identity. Integrate your faculties. Be a beacon of light to your own safety. Preponderance of the Great is like a massing of energy that has to find a solution to its own extraordinary and potentially hazardous imperative. There are so many things going on right now that everything is coming to a head. This is why we must all practice keeping our own, (head that is). Set goals, make plans, and marshal your forces as preparation for meeting whatever crisis may raise its ugly head and try to swallow you up. Go deep inside yourself and find the inner strength to defeat whatever dragon that may present itself as an obstacle to your truest path, and your truest expression of your most superior nature. Exercise your resilience of character and hold to your truth, and you can escape unscathed amongst the battlements of the onslaught of the seeming significance of the Ten Thousand Things that tend to encrust our hearts and minds. Evaluate.  Concentrate. Penetrate. Take courage, each of you has what it takes to awaken the Superior being within. Please R.S.V.P. to Debbie as to your attendance for her food preparation. Please remember to bring a dish, utensils, mug for a hot beverage if desired and water for the day! Joyfully yours, David