Essays
The Peaceful Body
Without Our Having To Ask
The peaceful body is given, inherent. It is always there. We, however, are not.
Sooner or later, the return begins. We find our way back home to ourselves.
On Poise
Under The Fullness Of The Moon
Poise occurs by itself when we stop interfering with it. The hitch is that we don’t know precisely how we are interfering with it because we can’t feel the interference.
On Innocence
Babies don’t interfere with themselves.
Babies don’t judge, correct, or evaluate themselves.
They can’t make a mistake because they don’t know what it means to make a mistake.
On Breathing
A Particular Silence
When we come into this world, we do not take our first breath. The air of the world rushes into our lungs, and we are breathed.
As a child, while sitting next to my mom in her red 1952 Chrysler, on the way to my grandparent’s house, …
Sauntering
What It Takes To Walk Besides A Good Pair Of Shoes
Do you know the origin of the word ‘saunter?’ It’s a beautiful word. Away back in the Middle Ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where they were going, …
My profession entails teaching people about their human structure, how it is naturally designed to work, and how to prevent injuring it. Over 40 years of practice, I became aware, within the Tai Chi form, of the exact movements that create strain for most people, and that, over time, often result in injury…
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On Culture
A Turn Of Heart
Shadows
Thirty-five years ago I naively, but bravely, ventured out and began introducing small groups of interested people to The Peaceful Body.
On Teaching
Beauty Longing for Itself
Many teachers teach what they know.
Teachers of the Way,
Teach what they do not know, and need to understand.
On Sentience
Entering a Japanese tea room for the first time, not only were the objects beautiful and asking to be seen and used, but the entire environment was quietly spacious, full of calmness. Suddenly, I could really see.
On Nature
The Blueprint
This article is, essentially, an edited transcription of a class I gave in 1991. Consequently, the writing style in this essay is informal, more like the spoken word.
On Tai Chi Chu’an
How I Teach Tai Chi
There is a famous Japanese Tea Ceremony adage. In the beginning, and for many years, a student should practice the form exactly as it has been taught to her or to him.
On Dancing
Clear Love
Field Notes From a Beginning Tango Dancer
Tango is not about what you think it is about. Nor is tango about what it looks like its about.
On Change
Deep
There are two kinds of people.
Foxes and Hedgehogs.
Foxes dig lots of shallow holes, spreading out all over the place.
On Byron Katie and F.M. Alexander
The Peaceful Body
The Work of F.M. Alexander Meets The Work of Byron Katie
I have been practicing the Work of F.M. for 40 years, but The Work of B.K. for only four years. The similarities are striking.
On Religion
The Unseating Of The Soul
A Relaxed and Loving Vigilance
A student of the Rabbi of Lubin, a Hasidic master fasted from one Sabbath to the next.
My Hidden Structure as A Peaceful Body Teacher
A playful, serious weaving
of story, metaphor, and life experience
with anatomical know-how and tactual wisdom,
founded upon a working understanding of peaceful body principles.
