Sketch

Gravity, a light tap on the shoulder to show you where you are holding tension.

It lays an excellent foundation for a Zhan Zhuang practice.

I worked one on one with an instrutor at their location, generally bi weekly. Mostly standing adjustment, gentle taps and pushes from the instructor to suggest where I might redistrubute my stuff. Some table work, some chair work. Some walking. After a while, I started to bring my musical instrument, as well as simulating postural situations such as reaching over a mixing board, reaching for objects, practical stuff. You quickly start working with "internal forces" and "nameless techniques". Years later, I was able to work with a voice coach who had also worked with an Alexander Technique Instructor, which made those voice sessions quick and full of that wordless communication of technique. Almost like a shared language of touch.

Four years working with an Alexander Technique teacher here, and it was an excellent experience that set up a lot of the foundation and understanding for my current practice. The more short term goals of improving my alignments and body usage mechanics were almost a side effect of the perspective changes I went through as a result of the sessions. An idea in Alexander Technique is that correct head alignment and the hip angle will follow this correction.

Verse Five The sky and the ground are not sentimental. All those scorpions pouring out of that hole Might as well be straw dogs, like Xmas trees On boxing day. The person you should emulate is not sentimental. All the families, all their names, Might as well be straw dogs, like Xmas trees On boxing day. Heaven and Earth are Not the only thing that can operate like A bag blowing a flute! Empty when not in motion. Move and a lot comes out. A lot of words leads to a poor outcome. You’re using up your resources standing there yakking, which does nothing to strengthen your core. Wasting too much time on definitions Gets in the way of learning technique And doing the things that have to be done. Don’t put yourself in a situation where What other people think affects your decision making. Make your own decisions, and let other people make theirs. Too much time talking about bigger picture politics Can leave your own household in disarray. These seem like Simple directions to avoid having things in general Turn into a “real shit show” I’d prefer not to have family meals Turn into political battlegrounds So - let’s not get into it.

For about a year I've been putting together a personal translation of DDJ, while using that text and various translations of Zhuangzi to inform a practice that has borne results I'll be processing and consolidating for a long time. My sketches and notes, while not intended as any sort of instruction, do detail my own experiences, feelings and observations. My practice is mainly built around half hour seated and standing sessions, and I'm still mainly involved in "sinew changing" activies, with swirling and spinning keeping things interesting. If it's welcome, I'd like to put a few of my drawings on here to garner responses to my approach. Thanks, Dan

A little diatomaceous earth in the right place goes a long way. Make sure it's not caked - the ultra fine powdery particles get in their little spiracles, they don't like it and leave the area alone.

Verse Four The Trail is flushed clean I’ve seen this, by seasonal rains and flooding, You can see the marks left by this scouring. You can’t horde or stockpile The pathway that natural events follow; You can’t really patent a technique That is there in the world to be learned. 道 This Dao, this pathway, is A skillful abyss, Resembling the scorpion dance As it was done in the ancient temple. It’s edges are blurry. It’s not fastened to anything. It looks just like everything else; camouflage And harmonized light, it’s difficult to see. It’s dust is mingled with all the dust. And yet, it very emphatically seems to exist! I don’t know whose child it is, Where its seed comes from. Before there were symbols, or things symbolized, or God as a concept or as a reality, This is what was there. All of this makes me picture a well-worn, maintained footpath That was once a deer trail which follows the contours of the land in such a way As to follow the watershed. This is simply the natural way For all kinds of living creatures to go, even without the obvious path, or markers of any kind. A peaceful woodland trail Created by all the varieties of movement along its length. Dust motes in a sunbeam Harmonize light filtered through trees It very emphatically seems to exist! It was all there Before there were any blazes marking it. The bit about the scorpion dance Is something I’m getting from the Origins of the Chinese character 萬, wan, meaning lots, another way of saying ten thousand. Remember, if you see a cockroach in your dwelling, you don’t have cockroach. You have cockroaches. You only saw the one. I’ve never seen myriads of scorpions, just ones or twos, but I did once see a hole with an uncountable number of baby rattlesnakes in it. I saw this while hiking along the Appalachian Trail.

Verse Three Not holding good things in high esteem Is how to keep people from arguing. Not to go to the trouble of acquiring expensive goods Is how to keep people from turning to thievery. Don’t have a plan for how to control events And people won’t get the idea of chaos and disorder. It won’t occur to them to throw a monkey wrench into your works Or commit sabotage. When the right person is in charge of anything people don’t feel the need to worry. Put the truth in their bellies And people won’t need anything. Strengthen their bones And people won’t want anything. So called grown-ups representing someone else’s authority And with their own wisdom Won’t have any changes to make. Do by not doing Do nothing, don’t use authority. Lead without leading. If I brag at the bar, someone’s going to take it up and argue with me. If I just have to have expensive things, My house is more of a target for burglars And I have more reason to watch out for pickpockets And con men. My big complicated get rich scheme Might get copycats, competitors, even unwanted attention from the authorities Don’t build the works, nobody can throw a monkey wrench into them. If I’m in charge of something, You don’t have to give it another thought Don’t worry about it. If I’m cooking a meal, Don’t even think about it. it’ll be delicious and healthy, You’ll be satisfied. You won’t go hungry I might ask you to clear the table afterwards. I like to handle things in such a way that Nobody shows up and drags me away Or otherwise interferes. In Hamlet, it’s the authorities “next kingdom over” Who intervene at the end of the play. I try to keep my relationship with the authorities At this kind of distance. Nothing going on here, officer. I’m not bothering anybody, so nobody bothers me. If more people followed my example The world would be a better place But it would be unhelpful For me to go around saying so. I just try to keep out of everyone else's Way, to make a space for them. In years gone by I had noted that language Left to churn along by its own logic alone Always seems to have the tendency to wind downward, To become more uselessly pessimistic As it goes along. You have to keep putting the inspiration, The music back in. “Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.” — Benjamin Franklin 1706 – 1790 CE

Scott Meredith's books and videos have impacted my practice. He's a great explainer. His chapter on "The Secret Of Sink" in his book "5g Tai Chi" really got the ball rolling for me. So to speak.

The butterfly is one of several bits from Zhuangzi I keep finding new interpretations for.

Verse Two Everybody in the whole wide world understands the beauty of the beautiful, But that cuts things up badly; Everyone knows the goodness of the good But that is not good. It is not evaluating for oneself. Difficult and easy One evaluates for oneself And you get the task accomplished Long and short One evaluates for oneself And that’s the shape of it. Over and under One evaluates for oneself And tips them over. Musical tones and noises One evaluates for oneself And makes harmonies, Front and back One evaluates for oneself And they follow one another. So… The person you should emulate Doesn’t do anything. Doesn’t say anything, not even to teach. Ten thousand things arise Jump up and surprise like A big yellow bird And they keep steady, they don’t give up. Live without holding on, Be able to be in charge without being An overprotective “Mother”, Be able to be left in charge without micromanaging. Work until the job is complete, But don’t live for the job. A “so called grown-up” doesn’t live for the job, but they get it done. If you go along with what “everyone knows”, you’ll be wrong a lot of the time. Look at the world with your own eyes, have your own experiences. Perform your own experiments and start from first principles you discovered for yourself. Learn how to get things done without struggle. Teach by example, not by talking. When things go wrong, keep steady. Throw your whole heart into your work, but take your heart home afterward And leave work at work. 相 Xiang : to see for oneself; to evaluate by seeing for oneself “Every American wants MORE MORE of the world… But the mistake made in America is persons accumulate more more dead matter… at the expense of what really counts… You own twice as much rug if you're twice as aware of the rug.” Allen Ginsberg

Exactly the sort of concerns I was having before I started my current project. I was picking through a couple of translations of the Inner Chapters when I wondered how hard it would be to use internet translation apps, availability of research materials and other resources to "do it myself" and immediately realised that Lao Tzu's book was much shorter, and not as daunting a place to start with a new to myself language. I am this far as far as dealing with the language of Zhuangzi :

I started seriously thinking about the words of Lao Tzu with the tiny Shambhala edition in my backpack - so of course I thought it was about backpacking. I thought that the title referred to the force that creates a trail, and later markers showing that same trail, like a deer path that becomes the Appalachian Trail. “Walker, your footsteps are the road, and nothing more. Walker, there is no road, the road is made by walking. Walking you make the road, and turning to look behind you see the path you never again will step upon. Walker, there is no road, only foam trails on the sea.” Antonio Machado, translated from Spanish Many of my assumptions through the years flow from this beginning. So I tend to interpret the beginning along these lines: Verse One The portion of the trail that you can follow is not the entire trail, Words or pictures could never describe An individual route Along the trail, let alone map the whole thing. Everything in the sky, even out in outer space And in any hypothetical Alternate universes, Everything in the world you have ever known about Are born of woman. Your Mother was the first one to start teaching you words for everything. Who were you before that? You can think about what’s real, If you let go of the words for things. Put your attention on the process Of things flowing away As a result of their flowing towards, Then your attention is in the place where It’s all happening. You have an inner model of what’s going on Outside yourself. Figuring out the difference between these two things Is the mystery. I could draw you a map, I could give you accurate directions, And it would never prepare you for the journey you would go on. If it’s marked “Treasure Map”, you’ll have certain expectations. If areas are marked “Dangerous”, will you go? Will you go alone? Either way, you face mystery. Of course, my understanding keeps moving around.

I've been going through the standard Chinese text for about a year, working out my own understanding. This character , Da, winds up in my notes as "So Called Grown Up", as an example of my own linguistic point of view. Looking at many other translations and interpretations, evaluating for myself. It's been an engrossing study.