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Lutz
Redecker : Looking at your philosophy and your daily rituals, your
appearance - one observes a great cohesion – patience seems to be at the
very center ...
Al Huang: I Think its a matter of looking at reality with a much wider
perspective. Human life is very brief, sometimes we are very anxious, very
eager to accomplish, to succeed, especially in our contemporary culture -
not only in the West, but also in China, in the Orient. We are all
accelerating, going faster, moving faster, everything faster, faster.
Our rythem becomes too fast - we don't wait for the seasons, but nature
doesn't rush. When spring comes, the flowers and grass will grow in time -
we cannot force nature. Nature teaches us slow changes. Today we
experience the opposite, especially in progress. Progress in material
things, in industry. Desperately wanting more instead of waiting for
things to ripen - there is no patience.
L.R.: How do you consider "progress” in spiritual terms in this
era?
A.H.: Well, I think we need to look at it very differently. If we look at
progress from a material point of view its like a line going up we see in
statistcs. You cannot meisure living by
business way meisuring. We need to know the difference - otherwise we
forget true
wisdom. Growth cannot be rushed. We create things unnaturallv so often -
we
superimpose our own nature on the reality we create. I think we all
realize that we have
reached a point where we must slow down and readress essential questions.
What is
important - What is really more important? Many people when they come to
certain time in life will ask the same Question: What really makes you
truly happy as a person? Is it money, power, image ? Many people are
confused. True happiness, true contentment, true harmony is within
yourself- you yourself are the only one who can create this.
L.R.: We are continiously constrained by our past and our outside
projections - how can we can get away from this?
A.H.: Yes, we are confused by the outside standards of life, happiness and
so on, everythinq becomes superimposed on us . But human nature is very
transperent - the way you feel shows in your eyes and in your movement. lf
you quietly observe men - as well as nature – you can see what is
content, what pretends to be okay and what is not .We have to try to live
from the inside out.
L.R.: As we might do with the practise of Tai Chi?
A.H.: In Tai Chi I use my own body, I come back to my myself, I use simple
movements to
explain to myself how I feel. Ultimately I cannot lie to my body . It
speaks
truthfullness.One has to find a true lanquage to oneself. Our own body is
a special gift to learn truth. We are too much involved with mental things
and do not truly honour and trust our body .
L.R.: Which corresponds to our rnental state again ...
A.H.: In holistic health we know - its very clear - why people get sick,
why they have disease. Dis- ease means not to be easy with your life . If
we are not easy with our honesty we get dis - ease . Ease for nature means
everything is very easy, every app!e knows
how to be an apple. Just follow nature. Everything in nature knows what to
do. We
Humans are so involved with analizing : Why, how, wherefore - we do not
take time to BE.
Unless we do not take the time to be with our body in meditation, in
movement, in
centering, we will not discover wisdom.
For instance Jof Capra, with whome I collaborate - suddenly understood the
DAO by watching the waves on the sea . Of course you can express laws in
in physical trems and by intellectual understanding - but only to a
certain point - then you have to let go all your knowledge. Science is
"hard fact”, but you cannot order to be good.
L.R.: Are these the "hard facts” which created the actual
disbalance in Micro- and Macrocosmos?
A.H.: Now we must harmonize our theory and our own living. Its very
difficult for all of us and its very easy to talk about . Its very
difficult to live the truth. Its possible to know the truth but to live it
takes discipline and sacrefice.
L.R.: Though human evolution has been forced by errors...
A.H.: Experience is the most direct way to understand the truth. When you
experience you have to take everything into consideration: joy, sadness,
loss. The yin yang principle is intransically present everywhere in
nature. These are the changes - everything flows in a circular direction.
If you are patient enough everything will come around in a new way and you
will be more ready. In China we describe it with the Wu Wei. It means do
not get in the Way, donot interfere. Let nature take is own course. It's
not always right to do, to step forward. If you are not certain what to
do, its better not to do anything. Actions can only happen in their right
time, as we say - do not insist on doing something unless you are invited
to participate. Otherwise you control the situation by your power.
L.R.: Or - in other terms - one should be open to the present situation...
A.H.: Yes, to be open to what could happen when space opens up for you to
participate.
Balance.We need you and you need us. Then you can truly
believe, when you begin to dance
together, that there is no more you and no more us . In Tai
Chi we practise this
interdependency . I follow you for a while - you follow me for a while.
Eventually we lead
each other. We might follow a leader greater than us. Maybe the leader is
inbetween us
in a circle . It is the empty space .We have to to step out to have less
Ego, less arrogance
- the true way is to stay out of the Ego.
L.R.: Carrying your work, your philosophy out to the world reminds me
of Parzival- a figure your friend and teacher Alan Watts liked to cite...
A.H.: This is what we call the Hero's journey - the journey we have to
make - there is something inside of us we must find. I personally had to
go out into the world, to live my life, to learn wisdom and rediscover
truth. Sometimes we have to go on a long journey. I became a global
citizen because I wished to encourage the West to be open to the East.
L.R.: Thank you for the Interview.
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