Great Extreme Holiday Gift
Revolutions
The best Holidays revolve around nature. Christmas is one of them. The great gift nature brings us, this time of year:
Darkness.
Do you practice Taiji in the dark? Surely, you must.
It’s a time to gravitate into stillness and quiet.
The focus, for many, this time of year is on light. Cabin fever and school vacations create a yearning for brightness. We dress up trees with lights and ornaments, as if denying darkness.
It’s easy to miss dark gifts.
Dark (or Yin) gifts include:
- Stillness
- Quiet
- Light
See the Darkness
That’s right…in the darkest of dark, you might see.
Try to look right at it: the darkness. People have different experiences. (In comments, please tell me about what you see in the dark.) When they look long and soft, most people see something. Stare deep into it.
It’s here that many might experience…the magnetic edges of bodies…the luminous cocoons of electric beings. These lights are subtle.
Subtle lights go unseen in the day, never noticed in the flurrious, furious midst of Holiday shopping.
Take some time at night, in the dark.
- Breathe Thoroughly.
- Do Qigong.
- Practice Taiji.
Until you can see…
The Dark.
posted: 22 December 2009 by author: S.Smith
twitter: Great Extreme Holiday Gift
love the notion of embracing and exploring darkness…thanks again, and happy holidays
I move around in the dark a lot because I’m an early riser (mostly) and I creep around slow as not to wake my family. I practice my morning breathing/movement in the dark too-it’s lovely. I feel like a different animal in the darkness of the morning.
On Christmas Eve every year, our tai chi group gathers in the evening in the park we use for daily practice six mornings a week all year round. After a delicious pot luck meal we do tai chi in the dark. It feels very different in the dark – no visual distractions, but no visual help either, so balance has to be achieved by focusing internally. This article has given me the idea to try it more often and to “see the dark”. Thank you for your gift.
Bev, it sounds like you have a fun group to gather with. Have a good time seeing-the-dark…and let me know what you see (then I’ll tell you what I see)!