Strolling through Courthouse Square in downtown Santa Rosa the other day, I encountered a group of people running around doing various drills in some kind of organized fitness activity.\u00a0 Their leader was a super-fit, fully engaged alpha male, shouting \u201cC\u2019mon, push it, PUSH IT!\u201d\u00a0 His leather work gloves hinted at some of the intense drills they must have been doing.\u00a0 His T-shirt read \u201cGo Hard or Go Home\u201d.<\/p>\n
I always appreciate the act of human cultivation and self-improvement.\u00a0 And if you\u2019re going to take on a view of human life, take it all the way.\u00a0 His pithy mantra so captures the philosophical basis of modern culture and perhaps reflects the entire history of Western development \u2013 from falling out of favor in Eden to our long march toward perfection.\u00a0 According to this view, our natural condition is deficient, pathetic even.\u00a0 Uncultivated, we become fat, sloppy, and weak \u2013 common, worthless chaff.\u00a0 To achieve excellence, we need to struggle and strain to overcome our wretched, imperfect nature.<\/p>\n
From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, this group was demonstrating\u00a0an aspect of liver qi.\u00a0 The liver gets things moving \u2013 stirs up stagnation and inspires growth.\u00a0 Springtime.\u00a0 Determination.\u00a0 To work the liver with such intensity is aggressively harnessing generative qi, what Daoists refer to as \u201cpost-celestial qi\u201d. \u00a0Such cultivation is responsible for so many historical achievements \u2013 magnificent cathedrals, undefeatable armies, Olympian athletes.<\/p>\n
Laozi\u2019s perspective however tells us that all such achievements ultimately fade away into a common context of weakness. \u00a0From an alchemical perspective, we can say exerting the liver to such degree presses qi away from our center \u2013 it may produce myriad excellences, but it leaves the center without a basis for internal cultivation.\u00a0 The view of pushing ourselves to overcome our natural condition is antithetical to Daoist cultivation.<\/p>\n
Adepts in Laozi\u2019s tradition bring a different qi-quality to their cultivation.\u00a0 Daoist hygiene practices involve regular movement but not necessarily the development of special skills or massive amounts of qi.\u00a0 Our demeanor outside becomes gentle and soft, unremarkable.\u00a0 As Laozi observes, remaining soft and weak allows qi to gather inward.\u00a0 This is the beginning point for cultivating regenerative qi, what Daoists refer to as \u201cpre-celestial qi\u201d.\u00a0 Such practice may or may not produce remarkable generative results.\u00a0 It does however bring about a profound appreciation of our natural condition.\u00a0 Staying soft, staying home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Strolling through Courthouse Square in downtown Santa Rosa the other day, I encountered a group of people running around doing various drills in some kind of organized fitness activity.\u00a0 Their leader was a super-fit, fully engaged alpha male, shouting \u201cC\u2019mon, push it, PUSH IT!\u201d\u00a0 His leather work gloves hinted at some of the intense drills … Continue reading ““Go Hard or Go Home””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":165,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155\/revisions\/165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}