We come to light arriving from what for ancient Chinese medical-philosophical culture is the Anterior Heaven, carrying within us a life project that clashes, inevitably with family, social, and cultural rules. We often forget ourselves by filling our voids with tranquilizers and antidepressants. But all this is not enough and Life keeps pushing us to demand “changes.”
There are, for Chinese medicine, “Eight Curious Vessels” or Extraordinary Channels Activation of these Channels on the one hand makes it possible to reduce the rate at which individual vitality is consumed, enhancing the potential for life and health and, on the other hand, promoting the opening of the psychic and spiritual centers, which are closely related to these structures.
It is thought, that the Eight Curious Vessels develop in the prenatal period, even before the formation of the meridians. They are, according to Mark Seem, “…fundamental energy channels, closely related to the genetic code, determining in the manifestation of our constitutional terrain.
Franco Bottalo states that these Channels “…are the foundation of the creation and continuous recreation that is life, to remind the individual that he must constantly and continually be reborn.”
These are the channels, the terrain, that Tai Chi and Chi Kung go to affect.
We are in a complex historical moment: personal “crisis,” of values, ethics, morals, which becomes a social, economic, and customary crisis. Individually we feel lost, helpless in the face of things bigger than ourselves, we wonder what can be done individually.
Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple in this 2005 film tells Stanford undergraduates about his life and work experience.
But what does a genius computer scientist have to do with Tai Chi?
I do not know whether Jobs ever practiced or knew this discipline, but that is not what I want to state here.
It is his intense story of a man “in love” with his ideals, his “creative madness” that I want to share with you. Creative madness that changed his life and our technological world, therefore, society.
“…you have to find what you love, you have to believe in something, your intuition, fate, life, karma….” he says, “…everything I stumbled upon simply by following my curiosity and intuition, turned out later to be invaluable. …”, “… none of these things had any hope of finding practical application in my life, but ten years later, when we found ourselves designing the first Macintosh, it all came in handy…” and, again,
“…If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?
And every time the answer is “no” for too many days in a row I realize that something must have changed…”
Good viewing.