Warriors intent on conquering their personal dragons, mystics following an inner call and shamans empowered to mediate between human reality and the causal world have unearthed clues leading to transcendence. Artists and scientists allude to it as well as they can but the prime insight isn't articulate. The literary martial classics portray the principles of the art and guide our behavior, but choreographed form (anchored by the postural pictographs) provides wordless access to the secrets of technique. Overlook or alter these formulas and directions from the past and you're guilty of hubris or arrogance and the consequence is your abiding ignorance.

"By contemplating the forms existing in the heavens we come to understand time and its changing demands...and it becomes possible to shape the world"--I Ching translated by Richard Wilhelm.

Since ancient times, in all spiritual traditions, changing the form of any ritual, power object, tool or weapon shorts out its transformative energy, while renewal through duplication of natural forms empowers them and reconnects the human to the higher powers. The perfect forms don't need to be invented or altered--just fitted or plugged into until the light finds its way through.

"In human affairs, aesthetic form comes into being when traditions exist that, strong and abiding like mountains, are made pleasing by a lucid beauty."--I Ching.

This is primarily a re-creative art. Humble and yield yourself until you fit into the forms of those who were animated by the light, then you'll see as they saw; with vision illuminated from within, projecting outward.

"Great artisans teach apprentices the formal rules, not the art."--Mencius. Mastery of the art requires an individual's replication of the classical, archetypal insights which are further revitalized by his unique expression in the shape or form of his own life.

"The formal rules remain constant throughout history; but art comes with maturity and is individually sought after."--Cheng, Master of 5 Excellences.
Copyright 2004 by Jack Livingston