THE GOLDEN SILENCE

Been doing a lot of blogging of late.  Feel almost burned out on it.  We’ll see if I can shut up.  But as others have noted, there comes a time when you you’ve made a certain amount of progress in understanding, and need to just disengage from the grindstone to let things shake down a bit.

I can feel something now.  Have little inclination to try to describe it.  Let’s just say that when you’re in the wilderness and trying to start a fire with rude materials, there comes a moment when you see a glowing ember and all you can do is blow on it very, very carefully.  It will either grow, or vanish, or smoke out.  The vanishing and the smoking out are two different ways for Fate to torment you.  But in truth, skill will almost always yield results.  Most of us have small skill when compared to our chosen role models, but perseverance is God’s gift to help level the playing field a bit.

Man, gotta watch this pontificating…

Just by chance I discovered there’s a whole bunch of Youtube videos of a Japanese MA master who made a big impression on me long before I knew 3 mung beans’ worth about taiji.  His books on “Ki” were dynamite, but I neither sought out a teacher, nor made any discernable progress with Koichi Tohei’s bafflingly simple paradigm.  But I think some kind of seed was planted.  I was never that big personally on Bruce Lee (who really did set the world on fire, no doubt!); and I knew that David Carradine was just an actor (but that “Shaolin Kung Fu” really existed somewhere).  Tohei Sensei called to something deep within me; but I personally wasn’t ready to follow a path, any path.  Even Rock ‘n’ Roll, though I dabbled heavily for a long time.

Funny… I just came back from the public library and they still have that book, Chen Style T’ai Chi Ch’uan 36 and 56 Movements, that got me started when I was in my early forties.  Hope it gives someone else the same inspiring challenge that it gave me.  Glad to see it’s affordably available through Amazon, also.

And now, some wonderful footage of Koichi Tohei in younger years, working with his students in fellowship, harmony, and Ki.  There were plenty of martial-demo clips but I like this one the best.  I turned on my speakers but the soundtrack was merely silence.  It struck me as perfect, and a fine example at times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rnl-LHY-syQ&feature=related

 

BACK TO EARTH

Hmmm… not much posting from Taijiquestion about the new taiji class… mostly just this speculative ethereal stuff, suggestive of drug abuse…

Actually I’d love to be writing more about concrete matters, but I have to learn more about this new form before I can say much more than “Huh?”.  Here’s a semi-huh moment —

Teacher gave us a preview of one of the upcoming movements.  There’s a leg-raise/step, and the hands rise and fall together with the knee.  His description alludes to a water fountain.  And methinks this form looks oddly familiar.  Aha, I’ve got it!  Not that I understand.  On the forms list we were given, this one is simply called “Pulldown”.  As in cai, I infer.

Hullo, I know a Chen form that is remarkably similar: Ti Shou, that is “Lift and Withdraw”, or what Chen Xiaowang called “Brush Knee” in his 38 Forms.  I didn’t know there was any form like this in Yang style.  (Albeit without the “withdrawal” per se.)  And I didn’t know this could be characterized specifically as pull-down jing.  (If that’s indeed what’s intended.)  But I’m having some fun thinking about all this…

 

YANG STYLE TAIJIQUAN

With almost a month to go until my first class, I’m doing a little thinking about how to spend the time usefully.  Taiji-wise, that is.  Family, work, religion, home, take up most of my time, as they should.  But my goal is to have taiji support all of these.  A better me, body and spirit, to fulfill my duties.  Duty is very important to me.

As a younger person I did sample the attitude of “Wow, man, just, like, enjoy life”.  In other words: be lazy and self-satisfied (if you can mange both at the same time).  Nowadays I would say, yes, you should enjoy life while taking care of others, performing your obligations, and trying to improve yourself.  Save in life-or-death level crises (which some people have to face more than others) it’s good to enjoy life.  None of us except the most fanatical, can be sure that we’re going to enjoy death.  That’s one thing that is really, beyond our control.

What was I writing about - the meaning of life?  Oh yeah - what I ought to do today.  Same thing, really.

I’m not going to give up on my Chen set just yet because right now it’s all I have.  Honestly, I started working on the Chen movements because I liked the look - rather martial, rather comprehensible - and thought I could maybe do it.  My original lesson plan was to learn the moves of Buddha’s Warrior, Lazy About Tying Coat, and White Crane Spreads Wings.  That’s from the Chen 36 Forms by Prof. Kan Gui Xiang (of the Chen Fake lineage through Tian Xiuchen) as demonstrated by Shing Yen-Ling.  You can still get the latter’s book on Amazon.com; and Prof. Kan’s book in english is available through Taichiproductions.com

All right, what about Yang taiji?  I’m excited about the prospect of a having a real live teacher right here in my town.  I did a little more looking at the Yang 108 Forms.  I went online to Gilman Studio, a really terrific website that I’ve known about for years.  Mostly in the past I just looked at his applications (Michael Gilman’s, that is) and some of the practice detail notes.  Well I just went back over there for the first time in a year or two, and the site looks really great.  I’m not going to try studying the movements in advance of my new class.  But it’s inspiring to see a taiji website like this!  One thing I might like to read and consider is this quite detailed article on the Hand in taiji: http://www.gilmanstudio.com/articles/index.php?id=103