Also, based upon an conversation that I had recently, I have added some information about the Indian monk Bodhidaharma and his relationship to tai chi. This information and the text that it came from can be found on the Taichido article Direct Experience: Tai Chi

The DVD versions of the Long Yang Form interactive instruction CD-ROMS (see bottom of the newsletter) have hit a technical problem, which will mean their delay. Because of this, we have decided that instead of making each part available as we put it together, we will wait until all three parts and the omnibus are ready to launch together. Meanwhile the CD-ROMS are proving very sucessful - check them out at www.taichidoshop.com.

All the best, Mark

Spinning on the Spot - wheels.net finished at last

Right now as I begin writing this it is ten minutes past ten a.m on Monday the 12th July, and I have promised Mark that this final draft of Newsletter 31 will be with him today for publication to our subscribers by Wednesday 14th. So, it's Monday morning and I have just given myself a couple of hours off - and for the first time in about three months I did not switch the computer on at 7a.m. to sit at it once more for another few hours to do tidy up work on the Taichido sister site wheels.net (www.wheelswithinwheels.net) - because finally all of the work is now done - don't worry, you are not reading last month's newsletter all over again...

I am telling you a second time that wheels.net is finished because due to a technical nightmare where huge amounts of unneccessary html got added to all the pages, I have had to do it again! I believe that this final rebuild has considerably improved its functioning as well as its speed of download.

Keeping taichido moving involves more than just doing tai chi, and after all, and as I say later in this newsletter, " ... taichido is a website so, by extension, this newsletter is just as much about the website as it is about tai chi - notwithstanding the fact that the site is all about tai chi anyway". I might add to that now ... "and new articles are constantly being added". This is not so apparent to visitors, as the whole site arena is not just made up of the Taichido.com website, but also wheels.net and the newly added blogs and updated "dojo notes"@ home dojo.

What happened last time...?

As Mark wrote most of the two Newsletters (28 & 29), I effectively had three months to prepare for no.30 (the last one), published in June. So, what did I do? I ended up writing it the night before its release and didn't get it through to Mark for publishing until the eleventh hour of that day! This brinkmanship is passed off in that newsletter as 'the news' - that being that I spent almost every minute of my spare time up until that point reformatting wheeelswithinwheels.net to accommodate several new blog journals. In short, the previous newsletter was about the new blogs and all of these things were completed, sent and uploaded almost simultaneously, and then the newsletter published immediately afterwards.

You will know that what happened next was that you received two 'versions' of that issue, the second one being identified as 'the proper one'! In my haste to meet my own self imposed deadline I had sent to Mark a very rough and early version of the Newsletter. But I didn't find this out myself until as part of the normal process, I received a copy of what I had sent at the same time as did you all.

So, whilst some of you were trying to make sense of what I shall in hindsight call the "garbled vanguard issue 30", Mark and I were involved in the frantic rewriting and republishing of an instant sequel that made some literal sense.

Blogs cannot be written in advance

[Very recently, Gary launched a series of interlocked weblogs (blogs), as part of a project to get a new level of spontaneous interaction between Taichido and Wheels and those of you who email us. These blogs move freely between the various aspects of tai chi, buddhism and wider dojo issues, so you can pick and choose, depending upon your interest - Mark]

I am aware again that this newsletter is again not about tai chi itself. Please forgive me one more time and allow me this justification:

In reality, all that taichido is - is a website. So, by extension, this newsletter is just as much about the website as it is about tai chi - notwithstanding the fact that the site is all about tai chi anyway. And this exactly where blogging can help.

The new (taichi)DO blog is like this newsletter gone live and it is a medium in which communication may be two-way and as fast and easy as email. It has been put there for US ALL to use, for questions and answers and for feedback or debate. This newsletter can be about what WE do - if you give me something to write about or better still contribute yourself!

Up until now now the point of closest contact between us has been the taichido guestbook and individual emails. Even this limited Guestbook feature has prompted more than 400 comments - we do read them, but we (Mark and I) confess that we do not answer them all. Up until now I have answered a few, where I though appropriate, personally. Some have become subject or sub-subject of a newsletter. Henceforth I shall answer more of the entries made into the taichido guestbook or other emails through the appropriate blog - and therefore beg you also to henceforth use the 'post a comment' facility @MyMonkeyMind or via any of the abundant email links to me through all of these sites and blogs.

So, this is not by any definition "tai chi" but it is what I and taichido.com seek to do - that is to use Information Technology to the full to promote tai chi as a "can do" for westerners. Now with these blogs you can tell me what you do - and next month that may be the topic of that newsletter. Email me NOW.

Need I remind you that it is still not yet half way through the year of the monkey!

In one of the first blogs [weblogs] that I published I say that "blogs cannot be written in advance" and revealed that accordingly it was my intention to 'hit the ground running' and go live with all five new blogs on the day of publication of the last newsletter. The blog that I 'revealed' this on was MyMonkeyMind @http://monkeythree.blogspot.com/.

MyMonkeyMind - is conceptually 'the first' of the blogs; as in it is more or less everything that goes on in "my monkey mind". Then come three more: DO, JO or BO - a blog each for taichi(do) the do(jo) and one for pure land notes on line called bo(ddha).

And the fifth? All of this means that what might be seen as the leftovers are all @ threetimes///. This last blog is in fact a links farm; made all the more interesting by the apparent randomness of the selection and type of links. Apparent randomness? Yes - what else would you expect from a snapshot of MyMonkeyMind - after it has been put through a process ... three times???

Since the deluge that heralded my rather ambitiously conceived 'hit the ground running' plan, I have tidied up MyMonkeyMind (three times - really!) and it is now headed by "Cautious Receipt of Compliments" - this being the other subject (aside from blogging) of last month's newsletter. In connection with this I referred to guestbook entry #399 made on 13th May 04 and left by an anonymous 'Taoist' in Canada that says: "It strikes me as odd that I'd have to pay for Tai Chi lessons, which is what I would have to do if it wasn't for you guys. Wanting to charge money defeats the basic tenets of Buddhism, which is to have no need or desire for financial gain. You are truly upholding the way."

Afterthought A: Why does one Western Taoist congratulate another Western Taoist for upholding the tenants of the BUDDHA way? This thread may soon be taken up at BOblog.
Afterthought B: It has taken me about ten years to get used to NOT having meals at a regular times. How 'big' is tai chi in your daily lives? Please reply by email - now!

The first entry in the (taichi)DO blog was (appropriately, but that's the point really): "The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men" and it spoke of delays in the taichido DVD project. That short piece is now one down on that blog and above it now is a copy of "Cautious with Compliments" ... for now. Doblog will be updated very soon - so watch that space! Some bits of this newsletter may end up on it, some other bits may be raised on other blogs, who knows? That is the beauty of blogs - they are spontaneous - so watch those spaces ... and read on!

It is up to you to now influence or even be the subject of next months newsletter.

Gassho, Gary Robinson

On Bodhidaharma

The person generally agreed to responsible most for a major flowering in the development of early Tai Chi and Buddhism in China was Bodhidharma. The seed had sown itself long before. Artefacts made as early as BC.500 have been found in China that display evidence of both Taoist and Buddhist influences. By about 500AD there was apparently more than ten thousand Buddhist Temples throughout China and several emperors are identified by their given name to being sincere Buddhists. Buddhism declined in later years. Taoism continues, as does Confucianism.

Bodidharma was born about 483 AD. He came to China 527 and died in the Shaolin Temple 536. Bodhidaharma, this immigrant Prince of a small Southern Indian tribe was once summoned by the Emperor (526/7) and was asked: "Whom do you represent and what do you teach?" He, at the risk of his own life replied "Nothing" and "No One". He then returned to the Shaolin Temple to enter a legendary nine-year meditation.

The Shaolin Temple was built in 495 by the Emperor Wei Xiao Wen and done so for the first chief monk Batou to expound his Buddhist teachings. Batuo came to China 464AD. Nothing is known about this person’s death or demise.

Following his nine-year meditation Bodhidharma wrote two Qigong (Chi Kung) classics: Yin Jin Jing, the Muscle/Tendon Changing Classic and Xi Sui Jing, the Bone Marrow/Brain nourishing Classic. The exercises therein were designed to not only firm up the flabby bodies of the monks but also to energise their brains, assisting them in their endeavours towards enlightenment. Witness the "No Thing and No One" statement as related above, the methods of Bodhidharma were characterised by their ‘directness’. Concepts and to a great degree even words were avoided. His nine-year meditation also bears witness to the greater importance that he placed on silent and still meditation. Bodhidharma is also therefore known today as "The First Patriarch of Zen". Thus teachings of a person of Indian origin made its way across China and elsewhere East, North, South and West as also did Tai Chi.

This information and the text that it came from can be found on the Taichido article Direct Experience: Tai Chi