Zen To Yoga To Tai Chi Chuan To Pa Kua Chang To Shaolin...Wake Up!

It was Gurdjieff who said that man is walking around asleep, and that he only thinks he is awake. This is hinted at in the old Chinese story of the man who woke from a dream that he was a butterfly, and wondered if he was really a butterfly dreaming that he was a man. This is the essence of progression when one strives from Yoga to Martial Arts.

There is a progression from the sleeping state to the waking state in this grading of body discipline. Unfortunately, people don't really appreciate this progression, or, at best, they become mired in one of the steps of the progression, and never truly awake. One should never be satisfied with one discipline...one should explore the various steps fully that one might fully awake.

Starting with Zen meditation, one learns that they actualt exist. One merely sits in the same place, prone only to what they can observe, and to the fantasies of their mind. As time passes, however, fantasies become boring, and there is an awakening to what is obfuscated by the fantasies...reality.

Yoga is wonderful as second step, as it acclimates a person to a variety of positions and potentials. One should understand that as one analyzes their potentials, one is coming into their vision of the universe. Yes, you might clean out your kidneys, but your vision of what is real is what is at stake.

After Yoga--mind you, I am offering these steps in reverse here, I usually prefer going with a hard art like Karate or taekwondo, but the progression I am offering lends itself to this modification--Tai Chi Chuan would be a wonderful third step. Tai Chi Chuan is not the absence of motion, it is more than no motion, and the amazing visions of Zen and Yoga slowly emerge, and energies begin to move. The vast expanse of universe that is central to every human being starts to move like a giant locomotive.

After Tai Chi Chuan one could do another form of Wudan Martial Arts, like Pa Kua Chang. This would be more motion, more ways of visiting your vision upon the world, more ways of expanding your essence through the potentials of motion. One should realize, by this point, that they are a vision; that behind the Great Space that one is there is a viewpoint of it all: there is you, the I am.

Continuing our evolution, Shaolin Kung Fu rears its fascinating head. Now the motion is wilder, gyrating, but securing it all is the vision behind the Great Space of you. Now one resembles a sparkler in the night, carving arcs of geometry to illuminate the world.

We can continue our journey through a variety of martial arts, far beyond the mere desire to kill, delving into the glorious essence of ourselves: the I ams of the universe. As I said before, this progression is a bit backwards, usually people who are old will choose this route, for their bodies are sedentary. But, old or young, we can all wake up: our bodies are the Universe; we are the I ams; we are the source of life.

What is your next step? Fill in the pieces that will wake you up and lead you to a new reality! Whether it is Yoga, Tai Chi Chuan, Shaolin Kung Fu, or some other art, head over to Monster Martial Arts and arrange your journey! Pick up a free martial arts book at the top left of the home page.