How I Learned the Basics

This book is about Basic Principles for life and how I learned them. The interesting thing is that the process of learning about them is actually the same as the Principles themselves.

I remember when I was young reading about math geniuses who figured out geometric formulas for triangles by themselves. I wanted to be able to do the same thing for myself, I wanted to be able to figure things out without being told.

One of the keys I found is observing what is happening around me and trying to understand what is happening around me. The better I understand what I see the easier it is to then apply that understanding to other areas of life. For example, watching long necked birds at a zoo in Malaysia, I noticed how their whole neck moved to support their head. Their where no "breaks" in the curve of their necks. It was a smooth continuous whole as if every part of the neck was unified in helping the head to do what it was trying to do. As the bird tracked me with one eye each part of its neck moved to allow this action.

I thought of the way I practiced Tai Ji. Perhaps if I learned to connect each movement smoothly to the next my Tai Ji would be better. I thought of the way I do yoga. Perhaps if I connected each part of my body smoothly to the next I would be able to do yoga better better. I thought about my breath. I thought that if I smoothly connected each part of my breath....

I apply this same mindset when I am doing something. I try to understand what I am doing so that I can do it better. The better I understand what I am doing the easier it is to apply that understanding to other things that I do. Understanding one thing can then make it easier to do another. For example while I was in the army I used to fix guns. Learning how to work on pieces of metal, I found that the better I clamped the piece I was working on in place the easier it was to work on it. I apply the same idea to adjusting a student in a yoga pose. I give myself a firm foundation from which to work. I "clamp" a part of my body in place. Then I do the same thing to the person I am working on, I somehow clamp a part of their body in place so that it is then easy to change the way they do the pose. An added bonus is that I don't fall over in the process.

Practicing handstands I learned how to feel where my center is so that I could control it. I learned how to balance. I applied the same idea to riding bikes and motorbikes and I teach this understanding to my students to that they can balance well no matter what they are doing.

By seeing and then trying to understand what I see I can then apply that understanding. I can then direct my senses and I can respond to what I sense. I can get things done and I can do things well. I can even do things well in the midst of change.

Trying to understand we reach a point where there is no time lag between seeing and understanding. We then understand what we see as we see it. We understand what we are doing as we are doing it. We sense change as it happens and we respond as we sense it. We become one with what is around our selves. We dance with change and we become it.

To read more about Basic Principles and how to handle change and create it...

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