Dragonflies do it. Frogs do it. Leopards, cats, lions, snakes, dogs, wolves, bats and hawks. Do we? I think we’ve forgotten how. Sei chu to is a Japanese expression for a form of preparedness and action. It doesn’t really translate into English, but is important to mention here. Yes, you can go spontaneously into a conflict because someone is off their face on ice. But who needs that? How can a body defend and respond while in a rage?
A green tree frog takes up a position on the edge of my kitchen kettle (back in the days when I ate bread), not far above the toaster. The whole top half of frog-person is suspended in mid-air. Frog-person remains like that for countless hours. Frog-person displays no discomfort, no exhaustion, no exasperation, no impatience. They simply are. That’s the chu part of the equation. The sei is the action of climbing onto the kettle and settling into chu…(some frogs can chu for years, a meter underground, if there is no rain) until the cockroaches come out of the woodwork for the toast crumbs.
SEI CHU TO – FROG-SKILLED
And then the Froginator is gone until another night, leaving me the shiny, iridescent brown defecations as gifts to their fellow-residents. That to occurs when insight strikes.
Tarot predicting is the incomparable speed of a threatened brown snake. I don’t think about it, but I have prepared for the event. From the moment the traveler makes contact they are somewhere, somehow, with me. I don’t think about it. You won’t think about it or you’ll go loopy. It’s not describable in any other way. You’ll even dream their dreams, but will you know it? No. Oh, for hindsight being foresight! I get it, I do. We couldn’t live should we constantly be in this arena of awareness. As sure as I sit with you, though, that chu process has been active. Sei has been your life since deciding to live beyond birth.
