Awakenings: The Vernal Equinox

Post Date:March 19, 2010

The birds were singing brightly this morning at 6:30, and as the dawn crept over the tree tops, the darkness was broken by a bustling of energy.  Everything was awakening.  Spring arrives tomorrow, the 20th of March, at 1:32 P.M., and the vernal equinox marks the shift from the yin of winter to the yang of spring.
    My own energy has had a noticeable lift as the week has gone on, and I have begun my annual transition from concentrating upon mostly meditative Chi Kung (qigong) internal practices to more vibrant ones such as 5 Animals Sport Chi Kung (Wu Qin Xi) in order to vitalize Chi.  More, it is also a time to turn toward other “external” internal arts such as T’ai Chi weapons forms in order to refine the Chi and revitalize the meridians and channels of the body.
    As mentioned in my previous post (“To Be a Tiger: Breathe Deep and Find the Root of the Earth”), the end of winter is a period of regeneration and the storage of Chi for the upcoming year.  The results of such regeneration are all around us now:  the crocuses, which were buried under two feet of snow two weeks ago, are in bloom.  The lesson is that we need to constantly prepare ourselves to respond at the appropriate time in the appropriate ways too.
    Our Chi is our lifeline to the Tao—the natural order of the universe.  The vibrancy of our Chi is the window upon our own inner design.  Too often we expend our energy upon worthless endeavors and inappropriate emotions such as anger and desire.  To complicate matters even more, when attention (which is itself Chi) is given to anger and desire, further fuel is given to those emotions, thereby exacerbating suffering, which, in turn perpetuates a vicious circle of more anger, more greed, and more and more suffering.  As Lao Tzu writes in the 13th chapter of the Tao Te Ching,

    The reason we have a lot of trouble
    Is that we have selves.
    If we had no selves,
    What troubles would we have? 

It is the idea of an autonomous self—as if we are separate from the Tao—that creates suffering.
    The return of Spring is a reminder of the eternal return of life, of which we are a part.  It should be a reminder that we too must return to what is “natural”—to be like the birds that sign and the flowers that bloom.  True to their nature and not striving to be more than their own being.  If we too would simply be, we would bring ourselves into balance, harmony, and equanimity.  We too would discover our own inner design and would cease pushing against the natural harmony of the world.  We too would awaken.

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