The Summer of Katya, by Trevanian. Hm, I still can't get over the whole one-name-thing for the author. Anyway, I liked this novel many, many times more than the other novel I've read by him (her?), Shibumi, which admittedly just plain upset me to read. Katya is a whole different ballgame of writing, however, with plenty of witty and snappy repartee. Beyond that, as a thriller (which I'd normally not be very interested in) it quite held my interest and had me guessing right up till the last few pages.

So the illustrious Sensei Tony was giving an introductory talk to the idea of ki last night - both in the somewhat-metaphorical sense, that of extending one's 'intent,' and in the more scientific/practical sense, that of learning to consciously engage muscles and body structure that wouldn't normally be accessed. For example, in the case of the "unbendable arm" trick, if one focuses on keeping their arm straight, it's easily bent, but if one 'extends their intent' to, say, an opposite wall, a little mental trick occurs where the shoulder aligns into a solid frame and one's much larger back muscles are engaged, making it very, very difficult for someone to bend the arm in question.

Anyhoo, my thought in the middle of all of that was to flip not so much the concept of ki, but that certain aspect of it around to meditation and/or general mindset. That is, the idea that there's more that we realize that can be accessed with just a little mental trick of intent within us - whether in our unconscious or 'heart' or otherwise - in the same way that a trick of intent can reshape our bodies and how we use them almost without us realizing. Just something to ponderball, as it were.