Teachings of Bob Klein

BECOMING ALIVE AND CONSCIOUS

Bob Klein — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 03:26:00 GMT

One of the greatest benefits of practicing Tai-chi and Zookinesis is that you experience life more intensely. Your body seems much more alive. Your senses and your mind are sharper. You can feel the living energy of your surroundings. Students often say, “I never realized I had hips before,” or they can finally feel their backs and how flexible they can be. They feel part of the world of life around them because they are more aware of the life inside of them.

There is a Zen expression, “The inside and outside are made of the same flesh.” When you change inside, the world around you seems to change as well. And so I am going to suggest an internal change of perspective that may help to change the way you look at the world around you.

Within the body are trillions of minute processes within each organ, cell and even within the parts of the cells. Most of them take place at speeds and with precision unimaginable to us. It all takes place without our great intelligence or leadership. Yet we don’t usually think of the body itself as conscious.

With all this intricate precision the body is capable of, when I ask a student to just move an arm or the hips in a simple movement, the student feels very awkward. It may take months until he can move that part of his body with even basic competence. And yet he feels more intelligent than his heart or liver, or than a single cell.

We are amazed by the complex interactions of many species and habitats. If we look out at the cosmos we see great precision and complexity in the interaction of planets, stars and galaxies. And yet, as individuals, struggling to get through life, understand its complexities and even move with a minimum of grace, we feel as though we are the only intelligent globs of matter in the universe.

Many ancient cultures, though, believed that consciousness was a natural force, part of every animal, plant, rock and habitat. We now call them “animists”. They felt that the force of intelligence was the unseen mover in all the activity of the universe. It was not a “God” based perspective but simply included the force of consciousness along with what we now would call the four forces of the universe (gravity, electro-magnetic and strong and weak nuclear forces). They searched for the forces of intelligence and creativity in their surroundings and so felt a bond with every animal, plant and rock. They searched for the forces of creativity and intelligence within their bodies to keep these forces strong so they would remain healthy. To them, consciousness was as much part of their world as was matter. Matter did not create consciousness.

Now, what does this have to do with health – the main subject of this blog? If the inside and the outside are made of the same “flesh” (as in the Zen saying) and you look at the world outside of you as if it was dead, then you tend to become dead inside as well. When the science of physics looks at the world as dead objects moving about, then the science of medicine looks at the body as unconscious organs and cells, functioning automatically. By removing the possibility of consciousness from everything in the world but our brains, the world and our bodies become dead to us.

This is not a religious perspective. What would be the point of praying to something? You are conscious and everything else is conscious. What is praying to what? It is simply a way of bringing life back to our world, including to ourselves.

As we now move into the Spring season, try to feel the energy of life intensifying. Feel not only the warmth of the sun, the sound of the birds and the smell of the flowers, but the “feeling of the intelligence of the world.” Let the warm intelligence of Spring penetrate your body, your feelings and your mind. Realize that you are not separate from the rest of life, either as a glob of matter, or as a center of consciousness

NEW DVD's FOR SENIORS AND PEOPLE IN WHEELCHAIRS

Bob Klein — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:47:00 GMT

Two new senior exercise DVD's are available in the Zookinesis series: 1. Chair Exercises for Flexibility and Strength and 2. Chair Exercises for Weight Reduction. Visit the "Online Store" and click on the "Health and Fitness" section on the left hand side. The new DVD's are at the bottom of the list.

LIVE IN YOUR BODY

Bob Klein — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:46:00 GMT

The universe takes place all by itself. Our body functions all by itself. Between the two we sit, and wonder how to interfere with these processes. We want both the world around us and the world of the body inside of us to give us what we want – more money, more power, more respect, etc. The inside and the outside are like our two parents, who we try to manipulate to give us more of everything and to let us stay up past our bedtimes. And yet the world seems so hard to manipulate. Our bodies seem, at times, even harder to control.

This is the basic “attitude of battle” we set up with our inner and outer worlds. Tai-chi and Zookinesis training reminds us that we ARE our bodies. It reminds us that we evolved as part of the world around us. The world’s weather, climate, environment, fauna and flora, geology etc. affect us on very fine levels, down to our very cells. And so it is really hard to say where “we” end and the “environment” begins. The very realization that we are our bodies and we really are our environment, helps to eliminate the “attitude of battle”.

From the realization that we ARE our bodies, we can begin to live in our bodies. Tai-chi and Zookinesis training helps you to really feel every part of yourself, restoring awareness and health to every cell. You no longer fight your body or neglect it, you live in it; you ARE it. You no longer fight the world but feel part of it and flow with its cycles.

Your consciousness extends within to the finest levels and also extends around you. Just as all the cells of your body “feel” they are part of you (because they work cooperatively together), you feel part of the biology of the world.

And sitting between those two levels of awareness is the feeling of yourself as an individual – your social identity, your thoughts and opinions. This level is like a gatekeeper who doesn’t chase away people who want to walk through the gate. He is amiable and allows the free flow of people to and fro. He is aware of each person going through his gate and greets them in a friendly way.

Similarly, you can become aware of the influence of the cycles of nature on your body. You can become aware of how your own behavior affects those around you and the world as a whole.

When your life is no longer a battle, you calm down and can more easily let go of patterns of tension, anger and resistance. These will be replaced by a more acute awareness and the ability to adapt to each situation to be more efficient. Stress will be reduced without reducing your effectiveness in life. You will be healthier and happier.

When your gatekeeper is friendly, the “towns” on both sides are more cooperative.

Yet it takes a lot of training just to become aware of the “attitude of battle” and learn how to let it go. The question is, “Do you want to be in a state of battle for the rest of your life or do you want to start doing something about it?”

THE DESTRUCTIVE FORCE OF HABITS

Bob Klein — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:43:00 GMT

The healing principles of Tai-chi identify habits as one of the most destructive forces leading to the deterioration of the body. These principles explain the underlying cause of those habits and how to resolve them. We all know that drug habits and eating disorders are destructive but there are more fundamental levels of behavior that we are only dimly aware of.

One of my students recently realized that an old behavior as a child permanently shaped how he uses his attention. He has a “lazy eye” and had to concentrate in a certain way in order to make the images in his eyes, while reading, merge into one image. This extreme focusing of attention became permanent and required a great deal of energy. As an adult he forgot about what he had done because it just became part of who he is. The behavior threw the mechanics of his body way off.

When Tai-chi students practice “Push Hands” they tighten up their bodies and raise their centers of gravity, the exact opposite of what is required. In this exercise each partner tries to push the other one over. Push Hands requires a loose body and low center of gravity so that you can’t be pushed and so that your own push emanates from the ground and shoots out like a whip.

The students soon realize that they bring their energy and attention up because their eyes are at the top of their bodies. They feel their force needs to emanate out of where they’re looking from. This habit is subconscious until the practice of Push Hands reveals it.

We have many ridiculous habits formed during childhood, which make no mechanical sense. Or, the habits make sense only for limited uses but become permanent and are used all the time.

As a teacher, I am amazed by the habits my students discover as they practice Tai-chi. By cleaning out those habits we release tremendous amounts of trapped energy and can feel much more relaxed and happy. We also can avoid the subconscious habits building into even more destructive habits such as drug abuse.

The difficulty in letting go of habits is that, to a large extent, we identify ourselves as our habits. These can be habits of movement, of thinking and of emotion. The habits become an image of us, rather than our true, free, creative selves. We tend to solidify our habits and defend them because we feel we are defending ourselves. Even the groups we belong to such as political parties may be a reflection of our ingrained habits.

This jams up our creativity, our thinking ability, tightens the body and sanctifies patterns of behavior which were created during childhood, when we really didn’t understand much. The result can be a whole society based on patterns of behavior created during childhood and institutionally maintained.

The greatest political power any individual can have is, as the Beatles said, “Free your mind instead”. Examine the fundamental habits of your life and allow your creative spirit to heal you. Tai-chi and Zookinesis practice was specifically designed for this purpose.

AUTISM AND TAI-CHI

Bob Klein — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 21:36:00 GMT

Several of my students over the years have worked with autistic children and have had great success in applying Tai-chi and Zookinesis principles. Our discussions of their experiences have led me to an understanding of autism that I believe can benefit everybody. I view autism and the so called “normal” state as two extremes of human consciousness.

To understand this it is important to understand the dynamics of our attention (our consciousness) according to Tai-chi principles. There are two types of attention – yin and yang. And there is a biological energy called “chi” that energizes all living things. You can think of chi as a glass of water. You can swirl the water with a spoon but you cannot really see the water move. Think of yang attention as a small jar of ink. The jar restricts the ink to a certain shape. If you hold the jar in the water you still cannot see the movement of the water. Yin attention is attention that is released. If you pour the little jar of ink into the swirling water you will see the ink swirled about by the swirling water. By inference you can see how the water moves. When you allow beautiful music to “move you”, your attention is yin. When you are reading a book you concentrate your attention from word to word. That is yang attention.

Most of us are in the yang attention mode almost all the time. We can move our attention around and manipulate it. We can be clever with concepts. But we don’t really feel as much as we could because our attention doesn’t seep into the world around us and make the energy (chi) in our world visible to us.

I believe the autistic child’s attention is almost all yin. His behavior is controlled by his connection to the world around him and to the experiences of his body but he has trouble focusing his attention to a specific goal. When you focus your attention you cut off its yin quality because you are containing and manipulating it rather than letting it go to flow as it pleases. This flowing yin quality is very fulfilling but doesn’t allow you to be goal oriented.

Our approach to dealing with autistic children who are at one extreme of the quality of attention is to force them into the opposite extreme which we are most comfortable with. My students take a different approach. They have spent many years learning how to blend yin and yang attention in balance so they can feel and be aware and yet can direct their activities. So they are not at the extremes of the qualities of attention anymore but are somewhere in the middle. They “meet” the child from this centered, balanced quality of attention and in a non-verbal way, ask the child to meet them there. By understanding the situation of the child’s attention, they can participate in that quality to begin with and then gradually move him towards the center.

The students tell me that sometimes parents of an autistic child have gone through three or four counselors over several years but with no success. The Tai-chi trained counselor can meet the child and have a great deal of success even the first day. When the parents ask how the counselor how he could effect such a change in such a short time, my students cannot really explain themselves because the parents don’t understand Tai-chi principles. The students themselves understand the process very well but their methodology is not the “accepted” methodology so they have to just say nothing.

By understanding the extremes of the qualities of attention it is easier to understand the middle. Both yin and yang attention are important and need to be blended in the right proportions. Tai-chi and Zookinesis training is based on that principle.

NEW CLASS BEGINNING - TAI-CHI AND ZOOKINESIS

Bob Klein — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:17:00 GMT

A new class in Tai-chi and Zookinesis exercise has begun Thursdays at 7pm. All are welcome! You can contact the Tai-chi-Chuan School at 631 744-5999. The school is in Sound Beach, Long Island (Sound Beach is located between Rocky Point and Mount Sinai). Taught by Bob Klein. Price is $75 per month.

GREAT WEALTH AND POWER

Bob Klein — Sun, 31 May 2009 16:19:00 GMT

The many ancient cultures I have studied all seem to agree on the secret to obtaining great wealth and power. They also agree as to how we have been robbed of our power as individuals. Even nature, herself blatantly reveals this power to us.

When I used to travel through the jungles of Central America to study animals, my favorite animal was the red-eyed tree frog. This crazy frog is about three inches long, bright green with white spots. Its sides are banded yellow and blue. The inside of its legs and arms are bright orange. Its eyes are bright red with a bright gold lace pattern. Normally it stays curled up on a branch, showing only the green and white, which is a camouflage.

If an animal tries to grab it, the frog jumps, opens its arms and legs fully and leaps onto a nearby branch. The predator, faced with a moving flash of color, throws its attention to where he expects the frog to land, several feet away. Red-eye’s trick is that it sends the predator’s attention far away while it actually curls up on a close-by branch. In this way it control’s the predator’s attention.

The secret to great wealth and power is the ability to control peoples’ attention. The secret to your own happiness is to understand that process and not to be controlled.

We all know that packaging sells a product. Many companies have spent most of their initial start up money on developing packaging. Celestial Seasonings tea is an example. The manufacturers fight each other to have the stores place their product at eye level which makes it easier for you to grab the product and plop it right into your shopping cart.

We are trained to pay attention to the packing. It is much easier to make pretty packaging than it is to make a good product.

The key to great power and wealth, though, is not in manipulating people to buy your product. It is really in being able to discern the packaging from the product when it comes to who you are as a person.

In any ancient system of training such as Tai-chi and Zookinesis, you find that you have many behavioral habits, in movement, posture, thinking and emotional patterns. These patterns have been picked up throughout your life until you think of them as being part of yourself. Eventually the patterns become your very identity.

We learn in the Push Hands exercise, for example, that the body is so finely designed that it takes very little effort and movement to toss your partner several feet into the air. It is only the extraneous movements, such as tensing up your shoulders as you are about to push, that subvert your own efforts. In an attempt to feel powerful (by tensing up), you are actually robbing yourself of power.

In the thinking process, we are used to thinking in words. We may have an initial “jolt of thought” but can only understand the inspiration if they are translated into words. A Zookinesis student would practice paying attention to the initial jolt of thought and refrain from translating it into thoughts.

He does this because the words are only a label of the real thought, which is much more complex and complete. By being aware of the actual experience of inspirational thinking and not merely the labels (packaging), he has access to the full power of the inspiration.

We learn in Tai-chi that the body is a conduit for the energy of nature. A student will soon feel tremendous energy flowing through him which enlivens every cell of the body and heals the body. He soon learns that we, as a society, have been taught to become disconnected from that energy and even to deaden ourselves so that we don’t experience it. Once filled with energy, we no longer regard the body as just packaging for the mind, as a vehicle to carry the head around. The vibrancy of the body, the balanced joy of the emotions and the inspirational thinking process all work together in a more powerful way.

Then you will be more effective in everything you do. You will understand that wherever your attention goes, your life follows. If it goes to its energetic connection to the vibrant energies of nature, to the experience of sharing your life with the human community, your life will be different than if your attention goes to the bright, flashy representations of value.

Yet, being in a more powerful, aware, integrated state, impervious to manipulation, you will be more successful in the material sense as well.

The development of your attention has been recognized as the key to success throughout the ages. My novel, The Doubting Snake, is an attempt to express this in an entertaining way. The specific training of the attention is hidden in the story line. Many ancient texts can be better understood as attempts to express this same idea. As the hero of The Doubting Snake asks:

“And if both the sorcerers and the people who run our modern societies have such power to affect peoples’ minds then what hope does the ordinary citizen have?”

HOW TO AVOID ATTACK

Bob Klein — Wed, 27 May 2009 18:44:00 GMT

Tai-chi-Chuan teaches you how to avoid attack on the street and to make it difficult for a sparring partner to defeat you in class. Even if you are not strong or are not used to fighting, there are ways you can thwart the attacker’s efforts.

A mugger is looking for an easy attack on someone who won’t or can’t fight back. He mugs for a living and doesn’t want to get hurt “on the job”, just like anyone else. The mugger must assess the physical abilities of his victim as well as the victim’s state of awareness.

There are three qualities you can develop to lessen the chances of becoming a victim. The first is the alignment of the body. If your body is not aligned properly you are probably not involved in any physical activity that requires coordination. The mugger can sense this. Any training, such as Tai-chi, Zookinesis, Yoga or Pilates can teach you the proper alignment of the body. Even the use of such physical therapy aids as the foam roller will improve your posture. This will also improve your overall health.

The second quality is the fluidity of the body. If your body is stiff and tight, you probably can’t move very well and certainly can’t run after the attacker. A person who walks fluidly and is well connected to the ground may offer the mugger trouble. If your body seems bouncy and alive you may have the energy to run after him. The training methods mentioned above as well as such activities as trampoline work will bring that fluidity to the body. Trampoline, Zookinesis and the animal forms of the martial arts are especially good at adding that bounciness to the body.

The third quality a mugger looks out for is awareness. If you are aware of what is going on around you, you can prepare for an attack. Strong awareness also shows that you have had some training, as the awareness of most people is very dead. All of the above training helps with awareness, especially the Push Hands exercise of Tai-chi, sparring in general and the Zookinesis exercises.

In a classroom situation there are ways to thwart the sparring partner as well. Most fighters concentrate on the opponent’s fists and feet and sometimes elbows and knees as well. But they don’t concentrate on the space between the sparring partners. Proper Tai-chi training teaches you to move into the open spaces so that the opponent is jammed. You should be more interested in the spaces between you than in the strikes of the partner. Let his strikes trigger you to move into the open spaces where you can easily deliver your own strikes.

This requires that you don’t keep moving forward and back as with most styles of fighting. You stay in and don’t allow the partner space to move or even time to relax and catch his breath.

Another way to quickly tire out the partner is to make his attention move rapidly. Most people have very weak attentions. While a properly trained martial artist has a “field of attention” so that he can deal with many things going on at a time, most have a “single-pointed attention” which can only be in one place at one time. That person’s attention has to jump from one place to another and it gets tired.

So you should strike to different parts of the body. You can punch the legs as well as the head and body. You can integrate kicking with the punching rather than using kicking for a while and then switching to kicking. Add a little bit of grappling as well, just for a second or two, here and there and then go right back to punching and kicking. If your partner cannot predict what you will do next, his attention is uncertain and wears out quickly.

Keep the body fluid. Allow your hips, lower ribs and elbows to rotate in small circles and allow the head to reflect this movement. This will allow you to respond quickly and will make it difficult for your partner to aim. It will require his attention to follow your movements and most people cannot do that for long.

These are but a few simple ways that proper Tai-chi training can teach you to be uninviting to attackers and to make it difficult for an attacker to defeat you.

TECHNIQUES TO REVERSE AGING

Bob Klein — Sun, 17 May 2009 16:10:00 GMT

Tai-chi approaches to health and healing is based on preventing and reversing the aging process. It is based on understanding the underlying causes of the deterioration of body and mind and providing simple exercises to stay young and active. The principle of Yin/Yang describes how babies have mainly “Yang” energy which is expansive and growing.

As you get older, this energy becomes more “Yin” or contractive. The connective tissue surrounding all your body cavities, bones, muscles and organs, shrinks and loses its elasticity. Your mind becomes less free flowing and creative and hangs onto fixed ideas and patterns of behavior. Even the bones condense and lose their flexibility.

Exercises such as the Zookinesis Age Reversal Exercises and Tai-chi Forms directly affect the underlying energy of body and mind, which is called “chi” or “internal energy”. They maintain the balance of yin and yang of the chi energy so that it can expand or condense when needed. The result is that you maintain a state of vibrancy and health.

The idea that an underlying energy creates or affects the physical world is common among many ancient cultures. The Tai-chi and Zookinesis exercises are designed to keep chi energy even throughout the body. As we age there is a tendency to condense this energy unevenly and that distorts the posture and shape of the body. It can also affect our emotional state and dull our senses.

A student of these exercises is taught to perceive the pattern of chi in his body, to understand how it has become distorted and to use the exercises to return the energy to an even state throughout the body. The result is fewer aches and pains, less tension and a more positive, relaxed attitude. Your body can feel more and you can appreciate every moment of life more.

The improved state of health gives you a better quality of life and can actually help you live longer.

So the next time you feel bad, ask yourself, “Is my chi too condensed or uneven?” Relax your back so that the chi flows behind you. Relax your hips so the chi flows through your center. Relax your legs, your head and shoulders so that the chi can flow up and down through the body. In this way you can become more alive.

Try this exercise the next time you feel bad or tired: Imagine chi energy flowing through your chest and neck area towards the area in front of you at an upward angle of twenty degrees. This energy comes from behind you, flows through you, upward and forward at a fast pace. After a few minutes of this imagery exercise, notice how you feel.

Both mental and physical exercises can have a profound effect on our health. Tai-chi and Zookinesis are storehouses of such powerful techniques.

WELCOME THE DRAGON OF FEAR

Bob Klein — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 16:04:00 GMT

Fear is like a dragon, chasing us and trying to grab us. It controls our behavior by making us run away from it. Zookinesis and other Taoist training provides a way to turn fear into power and joy. Fear is the closed door to the palace of beauty. We do not run away from it but open it.

The next time you experience the sensation of fear (from whatever cause it may be), focus on that feeling. Pay attention to how it feels in each part of the body. Get to know the dragon of fear.

Fear is just a sensation. It may include tensing up muscles and a change in breathing, among other things. When you are faced with a fearful situation, notice how each part of your body reacts and changes. Don’t try to interfere with these changes; just notice them. Be the scientist, studying your own feelings.

The result of this exercise is that each experience of fear will allow you to learn more about yourself. Therefore, welcome these learning opportunities.

I was taught that whenever I felt fear I should thank the fear for visiting me because it gave me an opportunity to learn. In this way you will become friends with the dragon because you are treating it in a respectful way.

The Gospel of Mary (one of the gospels not included in the Bible) describes this process very well. In this gospel, Jesus’ disciples asked her what was the basic teaching that Jesus was trying to convey. She answered that it is about recognizing your attention, your consciousness which she called the “soul”. There are many distractions in everyday life such as sights, sounds, emotions and thoughts. Each tries to capture your attention. The distractions wear your attention like clothes so that you think that your attention is just part of the emotion or thought. In fact, in modern times when we talk about paying attention to something, we really mean thinking about it. Mary said that once you can perceive the energy of attention itself and realize that it is part of you, the distractions can no longer capture your attention. At that point you are free, in a spiritual sense.

Fear can easily capture your attention. So can great thoughts, bright lights or loud sounds.

Your attention is so valuable that advertisers pay millions of dollars for advertising time just to capture your attention. Your attention is the commodity that television is selling to their customers, which are the advertisers.

And so there are the “Three Statements” in Zookinesis training. These statements encapsulate the training that allows you to be forever free of fear:

1. “Attention is not the same thing as what you are paying attention to.” This means that attention is an energy that has qualities and dynamics. Too often it is simply captured by every distraction so that we no longer are aware of attention itself.

2. “You are attention.” At our most basic essence, we are attention itself. In modern times, we feel that attention is a by-product of the chemical and electrical activity of nerves in the brain. In this way we think of the physical world as creating consciousness. In the ancient world, consciousness and physical matter were equal. One didn’t create the other. You are attention as much as you are your body. But attention was considered to be the most basic part of a human being because everything other than attention itself is what you are paying attention to. It is as if attention were a person inside a house who was looking out of a window. Everything that person sees is not him; it is what he is looking at.

3. “When you know yourself, you know God.” God is considered to be the creative force in the universe. Creativity is considered to be the dynamics of attention. It is what moves your attention from one thing to another. Your behavior can emanate from creativity or it can emanate from the distractions capturing your attention. In the case of creativity affecting your behavior, your behavior is a positive force, expanding from within. (And so it is called, “Yang” and is associated with growth and change.) In the case of the distractions controlling your behavior, the control starts from outside of yourself and condenses your attention into the distraction. (And so it is called, “Yin” and is associated with decay and a locked, frozen state.)

Living a spiritual life requires that your own creativity be at least as influential on your behavior as “outside” distractions (which can include frozen, locked thoughts and emotions.) As your creativity gains power, your emotions and thinking mind will become more creative. What you once experienced as the dragon of fear now becomes the dragon of your own creativity. It is simply your own internal power.

And surprisingly, releasing the dragon of creativity is the greatest fear of all. Once you gain control of your life you have no more excuses. You can’t blame everyone else for your problems because you now are a powerful, creative person who can make changes in your life. You can boldly go where fear did not allow you to go before.

The main reason this is fearful is that the dragon of creativity is, well… creative! You don’t know what it is going to do next. Your life may change and you don’t even know how.

But having your behavior controlled by fear and being captured by every distraction is not a human way to live. It makes us victims. It makes us robotic. And it sucks out the joy from our lives.

The next time the dragon of fear grabs you, welcome it, thank it and examine your body to see how it feels. And then laugh!

HOW SICK ARE WE?

Bob Klein — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 17:10:00 GMT

My doctor told me that it was unusual for a 60 year old man not to be on prescription drugs. That shocked me. Apparently most people my age take several drugs on a regular basis. Does this mean that we are an advanced society because we have invented so many drugs or a very sick society that we need so many drugs?

I recalled a monkey I knew in the jungles of Panama. He was the head of his tribe but was badly battered from territorial fights or perhaps from encounters with predators. Three fingers were missing from one hand, two from the other and he had only one eye. Yet he still was the alpha male of his monkey troop. What he lacked in body parts he made up in attitude.

One day a potential Tai-chi student walked into my studio with a severe affliction. He was able to walk only by leaning over and holding his knee with his hands, inching his way forward. As soon as he made it into the studio he sat down, exhausted from the fifty foot walk. I thought to tell him that he would never be able to learn Tai-chi but I would never discourage anyone who was willing to try. At first he did the Tai-chi Yang form while holding onto two chairs, which I re-adjusted for him with each movement. He could only last for two or three minutes at a time and then had to sit down. To make a long story short, he learned the entire sixty movement form without holding onto chairs, the tiger form and the staff form, which are very vigorous. He also learned the Push Hands exercise and was quite good. In this exercise you stand facing each other and try to throw each other off balance.

After a few years he told me that he was very discouraged. He practiced the forms for an hour a day, then did Yoga for fifteen minutes, worked out with weights for forty five minutes and then practiced chi-gung for another fifteen minutes. So what was the problem? He told me that after all this he was so tired he had to stop and sit down. I reminded him that he used to be tired after two or three minutes and could barely stand up without holding onto something. He had gotten so used to being healthy that I guess now he expected that he could leap over tall buildings at a single bound.

To some degree we can determine whether we slide down the slope of increasing sickness or lift ourselves up to greater health. It largely depends on whether we focus on our ailments or our potential. This is not to so say that we don’t all have some legitimate medical problems. While modern medicine makes our lives better with great advances, it can also make us lazy. We reach for the pill or the operation rather than trying exercise first.

Many doctors will encourage their patients to try exercise to alleviate their problems before trying drugs but unfortunately many people don’t want to be bothered with the exercises. It is easier to pop a pill down their throats. But remember that each drug has side effects and you may start taking drugs to alleviate the side effects and then more drugs to alleviate the side effects of that drug and so on.

I am suggesting that if your doctor suggests exercise rather than drugs then you probably have a caring and knowledgeable doctor. While the television ads push you to ask your doctor for drugs, I suggest you ask him or her for exercise alternatives.

Your body and mind are powerful when they work together cooperatively. Even if you do take drugs, exercise itself can help to alleviate the negative side effects. Drugs can only really help your body cure itself. But the body also needs good food, rest and exercise.

ANOTHER EXCERPT FROM "THE DOUBTING SNAKE" NOVEL

Bob Klein — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:49:00 GMT

Kano tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to a movement beneath some dead branches. "That is a paca. Go and get it."

I walked over to the spot and discovered a paca which seemed to be full grown - about 25 pounds. But as soon as I approached it, the little brown, creature ran away for a few yards and then froze. Again and again I approached it and just as many times, it bounded away.

Finally I gave up and walked back to Kano. "We have to set a trap first," I said.

Kano merely walked over to the paca, reached down and picked it up. He held its belly outwards with his arms under its front legs. Then Kano put the creature down and it bounded under some nearby branches.

"Kano, why did you let it go?"

"So you could catch it. I'm teaching you to catch paca."

Again, I tried and failed. I could hear Kano snickering. I guess this was good for him to see. He must feel mentally inferior to me and seeing that he does possess some skills which I do not, must make him feel better.

"What did I do wrong, Kano?"

"You didn't catch the paca."

"How were YOU able to catch it?"

"Because I know how”

"Then tell me how to catch it."

"You just walk over and pick it up."

"But when I walked over, it ran away."

"You scared it."

"How come YOU didn't scare it?"

"Because I wanted to catch it."

"So did I!"

"Then you shouldn't have scared it."

What a situation! Kano knows a skill which I would like to learn. Yet he doesn't have the intelligence to explain it to me. I tried once more.

"Kano, listen to me. When you walk over to the paca, it doesn't run away. When I walk over, it does. Obviously, we're doing something different. What?"

Kano thought for a moment and said, "You are scaring it away and I'm not scaring it away. That is what is different."

"O.K. I understand that. Now what can I do differently so it won't get scared?"

"Don't do anything differently. You can just walk over and pick it up. You can walk over any way you want, just don’t scare it."

Kano walked over to the paca once more to demonstrate. He skipped part of the way, jumped, twirled around and walked in various strange ways. When he reached the paca, he bent down and picked it up as before.

I had heard that retarded people are good with animals. The animals seem to be able to sense the retarded person's helplessness. Perhaps Kano's disability has actually helped him out in this case, although I don't know how altruistic a paca can be.

The "empty one" insisted that I keep trying. I wandered about, following the creature for almost an hour, but could never come within thirty feet of it.

Finally Kano picked the creature up and brought it to me. He suggested we keep it as a pet and told me he thought it was cute. It was a strange creature with a narrow face, a pudgy rear and slick fur. I petted the creature and talked to it.

"Why are you so frightened of me? I only want to eat you.” I laughed yet I felt a tear come to my eyes. It was certainly not because of sympathy for the paca. I feel very comfortable with the idea of eating meat. Perhaps my subconscious remembered some painful event which was evoked by this situation. Kano released the paca and once again it bounded for the bushes.

"I thought you were going to keep it as a pet?"

"Do you really want to?"

"Sure!"

"Alright, you get it and bring it home." Apparently the paca had grown used to us as I had no trouble picking it up this time.

As we walked back to the hut, Kano said that we could really stuff ourselves on that much meat.

"What do you mean? Are you going to eat it after all?"

"Of course. I only said that stuff about keeping it as a pet so you would walk over to it with a friendly feeling. I taught you how to catch it."

"Kano! How could you? That's not fair."

"Not fair? Why isn't it fair? I said I was going to teach you to catch a paca and I did. That's fair."

"But there are morals here. The only reason I was able to catch it was because I thought of it as a pet. And now, in a way, I'm lying to the paca. That's not fair."

"Lying to a paca? I don't know about such things. I neither lie to paca nor tell them the truth. I just eat them."

EXCERPT FROM "THE DOUBTING SNAKE"

Bob Klein — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:54:00 GMT

The next morning at breakfast Kano took a small portion of his meal and threw it away. He did this at every meal. I always assumed there was dirt on that portion. But his persistence in this behavior finally caught my curiosity.

"Kano, why do you do that?"

"So you have noticed me sacrificing my food. The food is what builds our bodies. One day we will have to sacrifice our bodies. So it is good to sacrifice a piece of each meal. This way, we are always ready to sacrifice things.

"Why think in such negative ways - death and sacrifice?"

"I am a happy man, am I not?" I had to agree that if Kano was nothing else, he was happy.

"And look what I have sacrificed. Do you know what I have sacrificed? I have sacrificed my understanding."

"What do you mean you've sacrificed your understanding? Did you, yourself do that?"

"Yes. I sacrificed my understanding just as last night you gave up trying to figure out how to get home. I once understood things, like you. And yet, I couldn't find my way home. Then I gave up my understanding and now come home with ease. And I am happy.

"I have a place to sleep, food to eat and friends with whom to pass my time. When the mood strikes me, I sing and at times, I cry. I don't know enough to do otherwise and I am happy.

"I am happy whether I laugh or cry, for even in sadness there is joy. I am happy to be a man, to be a living creature and when I call out to the forest, she gives me what I need.

"She sends me a butterfly to hold, but when it decides to leave, I let it go. She gives me food, but when I am finished with it, I let it go in the outhouse.

"When I see her beautiful sunset, I let it go and night arrives. When I have enjoyed the dry season for half the year, I let it go so the rains may come and the plants will grow.

"And when this life comes to a close I will look back at all the wonderful things that have happened to me. I will know that my joy in life would not have been possible without knowing how to let go of just those very things which brought me joy. And so it will be with joy that I die."

THE DOUBTING SNAKE by Bob Klein is now available on our "Online Store". Click onto the link in the upper right hand area of this page. You will then find the novel on the left side set of links on our online store home page (www.movementsofmagic.com).

THE DOUBTING SNAKE - A NEW NOVEL

Bob Klein — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 18:24:00 GMT

The new novel, The Doubting Snake, by Bob Klein has just been finished. It is based on the adventures of the author in the jungles of Central America and on his decades of training in healing by teachers of traditional healing. While this book can be read as a light-hearted adventure novel, it also contains the full depth of Mr. Klein's teachings you find here on the "Community" site. Following is a summary of The Doubting Snake. The pre-publication edition is available from the "Online Store". (Official publication date: 4/1/09). A tab for the novel is on the left side of the home page.

The ultimate battle of sorcery and science – an ecological adventure into the jungles of Central America. The allegiance and sanity of Steve, an American scientist, are tested after he is lured into a conspiracy to destroy modern civilization. Romance, martial arts and jungle survival all reveal the perspective of tribal cultures trying to survive in the modern world.
Steve’s perception of the world around him and of who he really is, turns inside out as he is initiated into the tribal world. Now, armed with the knowledge of their power to destroy the modern world, does Steve help the tribe or destroy them?
The Doubting Snake explores how we have separated ourselves from nature, from each other and from our own hearts. It teaches us how to recover our earliest hopes and dreams and bring them back into our lives to empower and heal ourselves and the planet.