Best regards, Mark
webmaster taichido.com, taichidoshop.com, editor Taichido Newsletter

Although or Because?

May I begin by appolgising for the rather 'conceptual IT' and not 'tai chi' ramblings of last months NL, being as it was primarily about the 5 blogs | taichiDO | doJO | BOddha | and | threetimes/// | @wheels.net | and | MyMonkeyMind @http://monkeythree.blogspot.com/ | - all put online the previous month. In so doing I also confess that although (or perhaps because?) that last issue was in fact a rare example of one that contained nothing but real 'news' about significant new additions to the taichido website it was, I guess, not particularly entertaining for you to read.

Therefore I am very pleased to use this issue to assure you that all of that 'conceptual' work and the subsequent almost Zen like questions like "who am I ?" that got my head in a such a spin last month is now all spun and done ... and now proper blogging can begin!

How and Why?

Prior to the 5 blogs being put where they are - in easy to find subject linked places (half of last months NL in 9 syllables!) - the only facility we had @ taichido.com that actively invited feedback or comment was our Guestbook.
Aside from this Mark and I do also receive a few 'out of the blue' emails every month. Sometimes these are as short and as non specific as a Guestbook entry; but some contain quite complex questions that deserve or at least stimulate some kind of response. Likewise, some entries in the Guestbook are more than simple one liners and some of these also raise interesting points or invite comment.

Thus, by evolution rather than design; these exchanges that are often far more interesting and informative than the average edition of this NL have all literally evaded the net and remained unnecessarily and unproductively undisclosed.

Taichido (and all associated with it) came into being in the first place in the interests of cooperation and the free and open sharing of information; and if the existence of taichido.com and my partnership with Mark has taught me anything it is that the Internet is the best way of doing this. This Newsletter with now over 1,100 subscribers worldwide is just one example of that!

Give a Thousand Monkey Minds a Thousand Internet Connections

Since the start, taichido.com has been a little more than just a website. It has always been a good quality website that is by nature comfortable to exist in cyber space and be committed to being universally and freely available; and since being there from almost the very start of this recent era of the Internet we have ridden on the cutting edge of development - as westerners doing tai chi to the best of our abilities in the here and now - respecting the wisdom of the ancients yet unafraid of innovation.

Thus with this months NL - so snappy it's brittle - I make my last apology for its obese predecessor if only on the grounds that a short break in normal service was was necessary anyway so that I could reconfigure and rebuild the wheels.net end of taichido.com (and that's the other half of last months NL said in half a sentence!) so as to divert this steady flow of "of interest" emails through at least one of the blogs and into the public domain, actively inviting comment and the instigation of discussion threads that may then be harvested (editorialised) and become the content and inspiration of future Newsletters - and thus be about whatever you want it to be about.

For instance and without further ado I reproduce below my most recent posting to JOblog - not just to make you aware of its presence online but more to invite your comment on any subject raised within the question and reply, notwithstanding the fact that the whole thing began with an error in identity:

"Did I Ask You?" JOblog 26.07.04
Out of the blue, someone called Steve emailed Mark asking:

Would you please give me some more information on the 18 step [chi kung excercises]. In particular, why do you do these moves in this particular sequence and what does each move do energy wise? It is only at the end of the form that you give any indication when for number 18 (Shau Gong) you say "this is to balance your chi" What do the other moves do? Also do you have information on the other Five 18 Forms or know where I can find out more about them i.e. website book etc? Many Thanks Steve

Mark had forwarded this inquiry on to me on the assumption that (as is usually the case) I was the author of the piece referred to. However, this time it was one of Mark's, and as he (Mark) had just begun a months holiday and I knew that it would be some time before he could respond himself ; I took the liberty of writing a reply myself in the form of a blog - and rather contritely I begin it by saying that I'm not the best person to be answering a question like this - not least because ... I continue:
"I don't know what 'Shau Gong' is - and I am myself anyway rather cautious to personally endorse any 'set in stone' orders (apart from the Yang Long Form); especially those that imply that the order is more important than the content. In a way in agree with the Nike corporation who once sloganeered "Just Do It".

Steve also asks what each move does "energy wise". I don't claim to know the answer to this one either! Both questions though are synonymous of the difficulty that us target oriented and "what's in it for me" westerners have with this eastern art - and the doubts that remain in our minds until the magic is explained. The answer is ... it's not magic ... its only Traditional (Internal) Chinese Medicine. May I put it this way: If I have a headache and I take a aspirin - my headache goes away. If then somebody asks "how did you get rid of your headache?" I would say "I took an aspirin". I could find out how the little pill does what it does and in what order that it does it - but even if I could understand all of this, my headache would not go away any quicker would it?

In practical terms perhaps the best thing to do is to delete the words "Shua Gong" and the proposition "to balance your chi" from the text detailing number 18 ... or we could go the other way and add similar 'exotic' titles and explanations to numbers 1 -17; for without, the average 'western' reader (like Steve) is inclined to feel that rather than getting more than enough information on one thing, they are missing out on something else. Speaking for myself, I find it hard enough to remember what to call these postures in English - and I really don't care what they are called in Chinese! Another solution - one that you and I would not do - would be to make some stuff up! This does this, this does that, they do this and that ... and so on. We wouldn't do that would we? No, we wouldn't, but that doesn't mean that somebody else wouldn't ... or already has ... made stuff up. It's tempting, because it's what people want to hear.

As you know (and now Steve does) I am all for finding out by "personal or direct experience" as opposed to reading about it in a book or a website ... ... ... and that's where I'm getting out of here, remembering that no one actually asked for my opinion anyway! But, a little more seriously or if you wish, philosophically; even Bruce Lee said: "True enlightenment is simply not naming things" - and there are words in the Tao Teh Ching that transliterates to the effect of "Richness is knowing what is enough" - not to mention the classic "He who says, does not know. He who knows, does not say".

[ Shau Gong can be described as ‘balancing chi’ and is essentially a closing down or settling excersise at the end of a sequence – Mark]

Too Much!
Us westerners are inclined to expect rather more than we need. As a teacher of tai chi I have found that some folk also seem to expect to get this plenitude quicker than can be done. The thing that us westerners have most trouble coming to terms with as far as tai chi and chi kung is concerned is that it takes longer than popping a pill does to appreciate what good it had done. This may be so because it is not so much a remedy or panacea for all ills - but more a daily maintenance.

And having gone this far, I may as well I suppose now answer Steve's last question which was: "can I find out more about them - i.e. website book etc?" My answer? Yes you can - and you have a choice (and there is plenty about it on www.taichido.com @http://www.soton.ac.uk/~maa1/chi/menuchi.htm and you can read about it and keep finding stuff out about it until there is no more to find out, or; as this time will never come - you could just do it ... or at least do what you can!" Gary.

"Monkey Me or Monkey Mark?" DOblog 26.07.04

If you went there now to that piece above @JOblog you will see then that the topic of mistaken identity is a follow on from one posted 4 days earlier called "Monkey Me or Monkey Mark?". This piece ("that's me ... in the Netguide @taichido.com" ... "for all intents and purposes Mark and I united ... in the spirit of tai chi, and neither of us really care who it is you think you see ... ") is one of my replies to another one of those 'out of the blue' emails; and as it is now also online as the current DOblog I'll not bother with full reproduction here now. I do however beg you to go there as soon as you have finished this NL and have a good look around all of the blogs using the easy and obvious links - and then - MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL - send on your comments and answers to any questions raised in any of the blogs to me, or Mark, or any of the blogs.

I do find it so reassuring that I am able to end this NL by reporting that, even before I had got around to making a personal reply to Nick Waller regarding his 'out of the blue' email that I had thus far responded to only by way of the publication of "Monkey Me or Monkey Mark" blog; he had already seen and read the blog online and has since (4th Aug.) contacted me to say:
Hi Gary, Thank you for the positive commentary regarding my site. I was quite surprised to find your update... My site was created in order to give some background for prospective students and was intended as a way of demonstrating that Tai Chi is more than a Chinese dance routine. ... Take care ...

Please visit: Nick Waller @ Dynamic Balancing Tai Chi www.dynamicbalancingtaichi.co.uk
In the blog "Monkey Me or Monkey Mark?" DOblog 26.07.04 I say:
"Nick's site has more on it than may be first apparent, and it certainly has more free and sensible information on it than most. Having now spent several hours surfing through it I must say that it is very good and I was particularly taken with the alphabetical lndex of pieces on a wide range of subjects that are highly relevant to the proper understanding of tai chi.
And finaly ... just a bit fun - this is not me, but it is what the inside of my head was like when "reconfiguring" last month! [Andy Martello Spins Plates! requires RealOne Player]

Gary

All blogs are posted chronologically with the most recent on top. Thus, future updates will be posted above those mentioned in this NL. Accordingly, to allow time for the circulation of this issue, no significant updates will be made for at least a week or two. This however is not the case with BOblog which I have neglected a little just recently - and a significant update that looks at animal liberation and vegetarianism from a Buddhist scholars point of view is in preparation right now and due for publication soon.