Dear all,
In last months newsletter we were pleased to inform you
that we had plans to change its style just a little and
use it henceforth to preview articles for later publication
online. 'Mainstream' or totally unbiased and 'as it it'
tai chi and chi kung will go to taichido.com and the more
personal (what 'I' do) or idiosyncratic (how/why 'I' do
it) will go, if it ever goes anywhere, to wheels.net.
Thus taichido will continue to expand as the "free
intellectual resource ... " that we declared it to
be - way back in 1998.
In just two more issues this newsletter enters it fifth
year of publication and so that fact alone reaffirms me
that this front-line publication sent direct to your intray
monthly fulfills a role and serves a purpose of its own.
Therefore it is likewise a certainty that it will come
to you 'as it is' and we do hope that whatever we publish
here will continue to encourage your emailed comments
and personal views.
These changes have been made hoping for all round benefit.
The websites will benefit from frequent updates and the
word-count for this newsletter will be reduced enough
to permit the occasional meander. "Meander"
(Collins Pocket Reference Dic.): "Flow windingly".
More on that word later!
Mark
webmaster taichido.com, taichidoshop.com, editor Taichido
Newsletter
This project took its first step last month with a fascinating
article by Mark in which he went about "Deconstructing
the Yin Yang Symbol". Upon reading it myself I was
reminded that Mark and I had the same Tai Chi Teacher, Mr.
Ray Wood. This in turn prompted me to look back on a quite
comprehensive and very fat folder of notes that I kept from
1992-98 whilst under Rays tutelage.
I
found therein an interesting doodle that, with the aid
of Photoshop, I was able to resurrect to offer now as
accompaniment to Marks learned and well researched piece
of text. He 'deconstructed' the yin yang - and now, with
a few more words, I've coloured it in a bit! We both agree
that no words can adequately describe the depth and inter-connected-ness
implied in that simple symbol.
'Deeper' into Martial Art (particularly Tai Chi).
A person entering martial arts instruction is automatically
regarded as a "white belt". In the terms of
this art they are quite expected to be (very) excitable,
impulsive and hard. i.e. maximum white, e.g. maximum yang;
or, and as I am inclined to say: "Up and Out".
Yin/black is "down and in".This why I put white
at the top and black at the bottom of my word doodle pic.
The Taoist theory is; that when heaven and earth began
to separate (following primordial chaos), the bright and
(in both senses of the word) the light energies/stuff
- went up - and the dark and the heavy went down. Ultimately
in Tai Chi - there is no top or bottom or even start or
finish anyway and as my/our former tai chi teacher used
to say: "A straight line is a circle on its side".
The straight line progress in learning some forms of
martial art is direct but consequently perhaps, relatively,
shallow or blunt. The 'buzz' comes fast, but it fades
and goes at the same speed, or faster. Its a Yang thing!
A 'fad'. A fad is a yang thing. Fads come and go. Tai
chi on the other hand, carries on as it is; slow and,
in another sense of the word, dull. If you were to stand
the straight line that is tai chi back up to be a circle,
the circumference would be about as visible as the end
of the universe.
Later on in this newsletter I have reproduced some other
notes from that fat folder of notes made when under the
instruction of Ray Wood and present them as "Meandering
through Tai Chi - A Spiritual Journey". Meandering
1 - 8 are previewed below. A completed and enlarged (perhaps
10 more Meandering!) version will to be published at taichido
soon after you have received this newsletter.
From now on this 'news' letter might more accurately
called a 'views' letter.
In more recent times this newsletter has itself begun
to achieve the one aim I had for it; this being to stimulate
some kind of sense of community or fellowship and facilitate
a forum where views can be shared. My assessment and declaration
of this mission being in part accomplished is based upon
the number of emails that Mark and I receive in response
to issues raised within. Thank you all very much! I would
like to keep this going and so I will see to it that parts
of this publication continue as is; like a blog, spontaneous
and personal.
Not everything discussed in this viewsletter will be
suitable for development into pages at taichido.com because
it is most important that this site for world viewing
maintains the highest standards of integrity and unambiguous
presentation. Nevertheless, that is exactly why it just
as important that this viewsletter celebrate the diversity
of its subscribers and say that the big news is that there
is nothing new! Every subject under the sun has the potential
to be a possible start point in a new journey of personal
discovery and one never knows what was worthy of further
study until one has studied it! It would be nice to know
where to start, wouldn't it? A Great Teacher; that what
we all need isn't it? One each, that would be nice! This
brings me (meandering) on to the subject of my former
tai chi teacher, Ray Wood.
I would like to think that I had a 'special' relationship
with my tai chi teacher, but how could I ever make such
a claim in the past tense? If the relationship was so
special it would have endured and he would still be my
teacher now, wouldn't he? But that is not that way it
is and in has in fact been a around about five years since
I last saw him and even then, this was not in the best
of circumstances.
When we set up the taichido website we relied considerably
on text provided by Ray. He had written 200+ A4 page book
that he called simply "Tai Chi Chuan" which
hitherto had been published only as home DTP and mainly
given away to friends ... and special people like me!
The majority of the first pieces published at taichido
were taken from that DTP book. "The Meanderings"
were not included in that document. They were, I suppose,
too 'personal' . Likewise, their tone is in general rather
direct and 'just as it is'; and the implication is that
what is said is not open to negotiation. E.g. "Classical
Budo: [an extract] ... a life long study. Shallow people
will only find shallow water. Always be prepared to put
more into your practice than you will ever take out."
R. Wood 26/1/96.
(N.B. Brian Clough - a legendary but now sadly deceased
English Football team (Nottingham Forest and Derby County)
Manager was once asked by a player, "can we discuss
it". Brian said "yes; we can sit down and talk
about for half an hour before you agree with me if you
want"!)
The "Meanderings" are I think an example of
the sort of insight that great teachers are good at! The
originals were no more than paragraphs of text reproduced
as two per page photocopied and then torn in half and
stacked near the door of the training room in a 'take
it or leave it' fashion. It is only now, more than a decade
later that I begin to appreciate the depth and helpfulness
of the words that Ray did not put in his book.
Preamble to "Meanderings":
The lessons learnt from the time when my tai chi teacher
became a man of smoke has since become that which has
inspired and motivated me to continue participating in
the expansion of taichido as a resource freely available
to anyone who is interested in tai chi but, just like
me, are unable to benefit from the direct input and personal
instruction of a great teacher. I am now obliged to repeat
my former teachers words as encouragement to those who
like me, need to rely upon self discipline as the great
teacher for longer than we might prefer: "Shallow
people will only find shallow water. Always be prepared
to put more into your practice than you will ever take
out."
Meanderings 1: As an answer to the separation and conflict
the Country had got itself into; the Chinese developed
a series of physical exercises as aid to coming to an
intuitive (as opposed to rational) understanding of, and
oneness with, the Tao. Collectively known now known as
Tai Chi.
The continuous movement of the Tao follows certain principles.
Tai Chi imitates or manifests these principles.
Meanderings 2: This Oriental discipline must not be considered
as just a neither a hobby or a sport. In either case the
essence of the art would be lost and make such a study
more harmful than beneficial.
Meanderings 3: Tai Chi must be practiced totally and
with no distinction between mind, body and soul. Each
must flow into the other and merge in harmony. When hands,
feet, breathing, balance and concentration etc. blend
into each other the individual will disappear into the
Void - that is - the Tao. In the Void the ego is no more.
There is only unceasing, spontaneous, harmonious movement.
Meanderings 4: "Tai Chi cannot be practiced using
the rational mind. Beginners try to make the movements
with their minds, and they cannot. The movements are too
complicated. Indescribable.
Hands and feet, timing, balance, speed etc. - these cannot
all be controlled by the mind. Just leave the body alone!
When you do not interfere with it, the body moves with
the Tao spontaneously.
Meanderings 5: Tai Chi is an unending journey towards
oneself and towards Oneness with all things. It is a way
of life demanding the most exquisite self-examination
and total awareness of what is happening around you. In
order to have a clear vision of the way things are, the
task is to pierce the veil of prejudices and mindsets
of of the society in which you have been nurtured.
Meanderings 6: Why are you practicing Tai Chi? Trying
to loose weight, keep fit, relaxation or perhaps there
is nothing else for you to do on a particular evening?
If there is a reason of any kind then what you are doing
is not Tai Chi. You must study until the reason disappears
and the Tai Chi flows from you're nature. You should not
be interested in when or where you might eventually arrive.
You should 'do it just for the doing'.
When your studies are without goal you become one with
the movements and you are no longer 'doing' Tai Chi; you
'are' Tai Chi. Thus the art is not something you can do;
it is something you must be.
Meanderings 7: Silence: Words cannot carry true knowledge.
Only experience can give you knowledge. The Tai Chi person
does not waste time talking unnecessarily because the
best help and assistance is given by example.
Tai Chi is taught with movement rather than with books
and lectures. Words [used to describe tai chi] are useless.
Meanderings 8:The Tao is the Void to which all things
come. The nature of the Void is silence and emptiness.
Tai Chi is the imitation of the Tao and for this reason
it must be performed in silence. In silence the mind naturally
turns within to observe its own nature. This is one of
the reasons that [us] Westerners have some fear or aversion
to 'pure' silence.
Feature articles online @taichido/wheels to accompany
issue 46:
*Deconstructing the Yin Yang
[http://www.taichido.com\philos\yinyangsymbol.htm]
Kyushindo Budo
[http://www.taichido.com\menukyu.htm]
"Author's Preface from Master Cheng's New Method
of Self-Study for T'ai-chi ch'uan"
[http://www.wheelswithinwheels.net/tcsnotes/chengspreface.htm[
Feature articles online @taichido/wheels to accompany
issue 47:
Up and Out
[http://www.wheelswithinwheels.net/tcsnotes/upout.HTM]
*Meandering through Tai Chi - A Spiritual Journey
A full version (20+) of "Meandering" (1-8 above)
will be published @ taichido.com 1st December '05
Issue 48 - 5th anniversary issue of the taichido newsletter
relaunched as taichido viewsletter
- with good old fashioned news of plans for the 12th annual
taichido/wheels.net 'social gathering' to be held on the
day of The Lantern Festival [http://www.wheelswithinwheels.net/lantern.htm]
- Sunday 12th Feb. 06
- will be sent to your inbox no later than 20th December
05 -
THE YEAR OF THE DOG BEGINS 29th JAN 06
Regular references:
Newsletter Back Issues
[http://www.soton.ac.uk/%7Emaa1/chi/others/backissues.htm]
NetGuide
[http://www.soton.ac.uk/~maa1/chi/menunetguide.ht]
interactive learning media packages
[http://www.wheelswithinwheels.net/taichidoshop/taichidoshop.htm]
