Blog entries dealing with Consciousness:
Stress. Gongfu. Shen.
We each have opportunities to extend beyond our comfort zone and explore what else is possible for us. It doesn’t have to be on the big stage. Without stress there is no growth. We get to choose how much Shen we welcome into our lives.
Stillness in Taijiquan
Except for the point, the still point, There would be no dance, and there is only the dance. I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where. And I cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in time. T. H. Eliot, Burnt Norton The ultimate of movement is stillness, the ultimate of stillness is movement. To move is to generate stillness, and to be still is to generate movement. Therefore, (if you) use stillness as movement, (your) movement will be stronger every day....
Conscious Movement and Qi-awareness
Check out “A Wee Bit of Alchemy with Rick Barrett” on my YouTube channel, or better yet, attend the live Zoom session Tuesdays at 8pm EST. It’s an interactive call, so you get to engage in the discussion and clarify things as we go along. I appreciate the feedback and different perspectives. It keeps the conversation real. We explore the energies and principles with exercises and meditations to bring a felt-sense to the things being discussed. Contact me for the link. It also appears in our...
Rick Interview on UK Health Radio, “The Natural Healing Show”
I was interviewed last week by the amazing Catherine Carrigan for her show on the UK Health Network: The Natural Healing Show" Catherine is a medical intuitive, an Amazon #1 Best Selling Author, and teaches yoga and qigong. Her website is www.catherinecarrigan.com She is a powerhouse! In this interview, we talked about "Meditation in Stillness. Meditation in Action." It is a topic I have written about a lot lately, and I gave a weeklong meditation retreat at Kripalu in March with that title....
Psilocybin Research and Whole-brain Coherence
Whole-brain coherence. Superconsciousness. Opening the Three Eyes. Body-Mind-Spirit Integration. Transrational/Transpersonal Awareness. Non-objective awareness. These are all terms that I have used to describe the shift in awareness that occurs when we awaken from the Trance of Objectification. (See Finding You in a World of It.) It is a topic that has fascinated me for decades, and I am not alone. Never before has there been so much research, exploration, and discussion about the process of...
Wei Wu Wei, Interrupting the Trance
Wikipedia: Wu wei (Chinese: 無爲; pinyin: wú wéi) is a concept literally meaning "inexertion", "inaction", or "effortless action".[1][2] Wu wei emerged in the Spring and Autumn period, and from Confucianism, to become an important concept in Chinese statecraft and Taoism, and was most commonly used to refer to an ideal form of government,[3] including the behavior of the emperor. Describing a state of unconflicting personal harmony, free-flowing spontaneity and savoir-faire, it generally also...
Updated Glossary of Terms I Often Use
This is my latest attempt to provide a reference for words I often use in my writing/teaching.
Whole-Brain Coherence in Chinese Internal Martial Arts
Next weekend I will be giving a presentation at the Society for Consciousness Studies Conference at Yale Divinity School. This will be the third time I have been asked to present at the Conference, and I always look forward to sharing my empirical martial arts perspective with the intellectual powerhouses that attend. This year is particularly exciting, as the schedule includes a personal favorite Ken Wilber (via satellite), as well as Erwin Laszlo (also via satellite), Deepak Chopra, Allan...
"Pointing With Everything"
Marilyn from Albuquerque is reading Taijiquan: Through the Western Gate and sent me an email. “I am, of course, going around madly pointing things! If I really point my tailbone down and my crown up, I actually FEEL my centre of gravity kind of float into my lower tan tien, which until now I’d never really been sure was there. It’s amazing!” Marilyn hits on something here that many people miss: you POINT (or reach) with your niwan (martial crown, located at the posterior fontanelle) and with...