Talking AZA 1 by Eugene Halliday - HTML preview

PART THREE

The world of Chi and the world of Tao

This section is the key to deeper understanding as well as liberation from out-dated mind-sets, without this key the doors of the third attention will not open!

The word Tao basically means the flow of things. Everything in life has its own Tao, or way, and then there is “THE TAO” . Never ask me what “THE TAO” is, because it is not in my power to answer that.

Understanding transpires when we take something, put a boundary around it, and compare it to its own opposite. “THE TAO” itself, this-incomprehensible-thing that-has-no-boundaries, can never be understood (it is that which dwells beyond the "horizon", and as we all know, the horizon always precedes us!) The person claiming understanding of I.T. will be the one that does not know the Tao, and the one that says that he does not know the Tao, is the one that actually knows I.T.

Buddhist history relays this “non-understanding” beautifully.

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In around 500ad a man with the name Ta-Mo, better known as Bodhiharma entered China. Emperor Wu had waited for Bodhiharma for many years. He heard that Bodhiharma was coming from India and that he was bringing the teaching of Buddhism to China. The Emperor treated each stranger he encountered with great courtesy because he did not know which one was the Buddha. One day Bodhiharma arrived, and the Emperor said to him:

“Are you the Buddha?”

Bodhiharma replied:

“I do not know!”

What I think Bodhiharma meant (my opinion) was that he did not know whether his personal way of living would correlate to the Emperor’s idea of a Buddha.

Therefore, the Emperor dismissed Bodhiharma assuming that the man in front of him denied being the Buddha. And as Bodhiharma walked off, one of the government officials said to the Emperor:

“Do you know who that was?”

The Emperor said:

“I do not know!”

The ‘I do not know’ of the Emperor is totally different from the ‘I do not know’ of Bodhiharma.

This shows us that ‘knowing’ and ‘not knowing’ may be understood in a dual manner.

Let us move over to the description of the Chi and the Tao with the comprehension that the Tao cannot be comprehended. (How do you like that for a contradiction?)

I will leave it at that.

"Chi", as in Tai-Chi, literally means a ridge pole if it is interpreted directly, but to me the word ‘Chi’ correlates with the concept of ‘vitality’, the very mysterious force that keeps everything going. Most people think that “Chi” can be developed, yet you cannot add anything to Infinity nor take anything away from it, and we are microcosms of the macrocosm.

Nevertheless, we can learn to preserve our energy. In the mornings we wake up all energetic, and then we waste all our energy on concerns and worries that are not even real. If you can teach yourself to surrender to the moment and trust the Page 20

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process, trust life, you can learn to conserve energy. Ten years ago all of you were worried about all kinds of things, and if you had known ten years ago, that you would be sitting here today, listening to a madman speak, and if you knew then that everything actually would have worked out, would you have worried?

No, I do not think so either! Therefore, you may stop worrying now, because you will be fine for the next ten years as well.

Unless you die, obviously, but then you will still be all right because you will not have to worry about anything ever again. And funny enough, the fact that we are pre-destined to die is one of few real absolute facts in life.

Your vitality, or Chi, can be preserved by living a disciplined life, and living discipline is the gateway into the realm of mastery.

There is no quick fix in this system; the way of mastery is a lifelong discipline. It is better to destroy your lust for result and to start concentrating on enjoying the current moment. There will always be some hidden desires for result, that is natural, but it is worthwhile to 'fake it until we make it'.

I am not really a Master, I am faking it and I will keep on faking it until the day I die. And this is an oath that I keep on renewing, every moment of my life.

Furthermore this persistence is synonymous to Mastery, call it perfect control or call it faking, it does not matter what description we choose.

That which really matters is how we act, how we battle to the “end”. If you convince yourself of something long enough, you will come to believe it, believe it long enough and you will become it!

(This auto-conviction can be liberating or enslaving, very much like the metaphor of the baboon with a knife in the first chapter.) Chi is a force.

Let us pretend that this table here in front of us is the world of Chi, (yet in a certain sense it is the world of Tao as well.)

The Tao is the rest of the room and further out into Infinity. The world of Chi, represented by this table, is the world of people and the boundaries of the table represent the boundaries of human potential.

Now the question arises:

“What is the Tao?”

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If your answer is ‘Infinity’, I will tell you that you are wrong, because the word

‘Infinity’ is a description of people and belongs on the table, in the world of Chi!

The word ‘God’ is also a description of people and therefore it belongs on the table, the word strategic mind is a description of people, any answer you give to describe the Tao will be incorrect, because an answer is a description and therefore belongs on the table, in the world of Chi.

Understand the next statement well!

Right now I am borrowing something from the table; I am borrowing a word called Tao to describe something to you. But if you cling to this word, if you cling to this description, you will naturally remain on the table. (Because “the table” is where descriptions belong!)

My intention with these words, with these descriptions, is to show you a direction beyond your current state of mind, but the moment you cling to my words you will, once again, stay in the world of Chi, in the world opposing change!

This is exactly the problem we have with some people's interpretation of organized religion; some individuals will insist that you must cling to the Word, to the descriptions they present. I am not referring to 'religion' as such, but to individual interpretations (very much like the parable of the baboon with the knife). Use the word Jesus if you like, until you cross the boundary, then leave the description where it belongs (on the “table”) and you will transcend ordinary reality!

Everything people say, including these words I am speaking, only serve as a vehicle, do not confuse the vehicle with the destination. It will serve to remember that there cannot be any absolute destination if your journey is geared for infinite discovery!

This journey I am relaying to you is a voyage of awakening to your own mind, awakening to Change; un-influenced by dogmatic hocus-pocus; it is a voyage into infinity, an endless discovery!

But beware; these words that I am voicing are the soul property of the world of

"Chi".

Thus, Tao cannot be spoken about; one can yearn for it and discover aspect after aspect for the rest of your life, and moreover, one may become whole!

When I point at the food, a cat will watch my finger, do not watch my finger and do not confuse the menu with the food. I point at the plant and you look at my Page 22

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finger, I bring people knowledge and they listen to my words and memorize it so that they can use the words to sound wise!

‘Knowledge is not how you say it; knowledge is how you do it!’

I see so many “Gurus” teaching other people, and then the very teachers' sole plan is to become substitutes for the "God's" they have killed with their interpretations!

I am not a Guru, therefore you must be aware that I am merely entertaining you, sharing my (sometimes insane) opinions with people who are fed-up with Neanderthal-like credos.

Bodhiharma left the edge of the table; he flew off into infinite-mind because he recognized progressive-thinking. But if you cling to the word “free-mind”, you are not in Nirvana. Because these are just words and they belong on the table, in the world of Samsara.

‘Words may point at reality, but “absolute reality” exists free of any ideas or conceptions.’

You can have all the religious leaders around the table and they can argue until the end of time. When they are finished arguing, the world still goes on as it did before they started talking. When I am finished with my lecture here today, everything will still be the same, independent of all my words and my talk.

Therefore, what I am saying is that the way of "strategy" is a way of living, a way of striving; but each one must decide that for themselves. You can do it your own way, or you can follow the way that someone prescribes, in final analysis it does not really matter.

Thus, here at the AZA school of Mastering Arts, I point in a direction, I am the waiter bringing the menu, when I say that you must not confuse the menu with the food, I definitely don’t want you to confuse the waiter with the food either.

Knowledge is on the table and knowing is floating free, everywhere!

The Strategic Warrior that had the real awakening knows the futility of words.

‘The average person thinks he knows, while the Strategic Warrior knows he thinks!'

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Words make the world interesting, as long as you allow them to be your servants and not your master.

Furthermore I don’t want to be a leader, and I don’t want people to follow me because I don’t know where I am going either (consequently I do not care), if the journey is geared for Infinity one cannot “know” the “direction” . So please do not follow me, just understand what I am talking about.

But the veil has being lifted, the time of the Apocalypse has come, more and more people are claiming their freedom, their birth right, and if all these ancient religions don’t adapt, they are going to die. Because the only thing that never changes is change it-self. If we do not adapt ourselves in harmony with change, we will remain stuck in an out-dated primitive state for the duration of our lives.

I work with people daily, and most of them do not live their lives. They are dissatisfied with everything, and a life not lived is worse than death!

Two loaves of white bread under each arm, two bags of money under each arm and they are dissatisfied.

Money can pave the way to happiness, but it cannot bring happiness. Because if you are not satisfied with whatever life brings you, you will remain miserable!

In one Corinthians thirteen (Bible) there is the most wonderful description of love. It says that you can have all the knowledge of people, you can know all the secrets, you can speak the languages of "angels" as well as of people, but if you don’t have love, you will be like a clinging piece of metal and nothing you do will be of any good.

You can study Martial Arts, you can know everything, you can know numerology, you can have rituals, you can understand the formulas of the hidden sciences, but if you do not have the love of it, if you do not love living the way (my interpretation of 1Cor:13), your “knowledge” will not serve you. You will be miserable until the day you die, and it will not make a difference to the universe, yet it may make a difference to other creatures that have to tolerate you!

Remember that life needs kinetic energy; it needs friction, so I.T. (Integer Terrae) loves it if you are miserable. (This whatever-the-hell-governs-all) messes itself up and nurtures itself at the same time. Our tranquillity is something else’s misery.

Nice piece of biltong this, but I do not think the kudu will agree. We sit by the water and meditate, so peaceful and tranquil, but those water molecules are in eternal conflict, the epitome of Kinetic energy.

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Liberation is a way of living, it is an experience, not a doctrine, just let go of all the words, and simply surrender into the Power that rules our fate (Change).

How much control do we have? A guy thinks he is in control and the next moment he is dead and we say that he was a good man. The operational objects in a motor vehicle are called ‘the controls’, but there are many more ‘controls’ to your car. There are rules of gravity and infinite other things controlling that car.

I really do not think we have any control over life; the only thing that we can control is our attitude. Because we are reactive creatures and when we react to external stimuli, our reactions come from our subconscious mind, which tells us how to react. Something as simple as a choosing between tea and coffee could have a deep-rooted origin. We never consider that we may have spilt coffee and got a slap on our head from our parents, so now we “choose” tea. My teachers called me by the name ‘imbecile’ so often that I thought it was my surname.

Do not get me wrong! My parents were wonderful people, but they had their problems, their daily challenges that they had to battle with. The sins of the father become the sins of the sons?

I came home one day, back from the war in Angola. I had just witnessed four of my colleagues being killed, including the man that had trained me. He died with his head on my lap. We were all very close, we were specialised people and our training was very intense, so we loved each other. I came home; bought my wife a heart shaped chocolate, and gave it to her. Charlie, my oldest son was still small, about 6 years old; he found the chocolate and ate it without my permission. Needless to say I gave him a hiding and after I had calmed down I had so much regret that I never hit my children again after that incident, but the damage was done. I did not give him a hiding that day because of that bloody chocolate, but I did it because I was traumatized and ignorant. I did not mean to harm him. Today he is a big man, 28 years old, and much stronger than me.

Some time ago Charlie told me a joke, and in a fit of laughter I hit the table with a loud thump, and I saw the fear in him – Daddy is going to hit him.

Long ago I caused damage in him and I did not mean to. Our parents did not mean to damage or harm us! This is life and very few of us really mean to do harm. If you do not make peace with that little child within you, it will stay in the subconscious and rule you forever. Search for that child within, find the tracks in the forest of your memory and just follow them, feel them and recognize them.

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But I must warn you, when you cross the boundary between the conscious and subconscious mind, you must assume total responsibility.

What I mean by responsibility is that you must have an ability to respond to it.

Responsibility does not mean it was your fault, this is not what that word means; it means ‘an ability to respond’. Follow the tracks and see that Mommy and Daddy were wonderful people that tried their best in their own potential, do not be afraid to go within and feel it.

I would like to give you a certain teaching pertaining the deeper aspects of Martial Arts.

But before I can give that teaching, you must put your inner child at ease. You must understand the nature of duality; you must realize that this thing called life is necessary, and that there is nothing we can do about the past. Nevertheless, if we change our attitude, the future changes, life changes and the emphasis of the past changes. If you shift your way of looking at something and stop disagreeing with the world, you start a ripple of peace and everyone around you feels more at ease. Stop competing and start co-operating, go look from a different point of view. If you feel bad or depressed, make someone else feel better, and you, as a result, will feel better.

What is right for one person and works in his life may not be right for the next and may not work in their life. We sit with a lot of ‘rights’ and unless you can live in tranquillity the whole day long, it may mean that you have ‘rights’ which are not working for you.

Once upon a time Darkness went to the Gods in Valhalla and wanted to file a complaint against light. Because wherever Light went, it chased Darkness away.

To solve this problem the Gods called on the wind to testify, the wind said that it was true what Darkness have said about light. Therefore, the Gods summoned Light, but the moment Light arrived Darkness disappeared. The Gods searched for a long time after which they found Darkness, but every time the Gods summoned Light, Darkness could not be found. It is said that the case file is still open there in Valhalla and that the Gods have never solved the case to this day.

This is what duality is..., darkness is neither strong nor weak, and neither is light, strength and weakness is held in the way we perceive.

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Before this talk, today, someone asked me about my personal believe system…

well, I believe in everything in the world, I believe in Bugs Bunny, Peter Pan, Santa Claus, Fairies, Angels, Jesus Christ and all the Gods of people, but when I experience any of it, I stop believing, because I then know.

Therefore, my belief is to leave everything open as a possibility, no matter how absurd it may sound, but if the Easter Bunny comes to me personally, and if I can perceive him/her with three (or more) of my senses, I will stop believing that very moment; since then, I will know it is real!

Furthermore, I believe in life, I believe in goodness and I believe in you!

This concludes the first three levels of AZA.

Thank you!

With all my love,

Eugene

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