Hello and welcome to the twenty-second issue of the Taichido Newsletter. This month Gary talks about chi kung and the benefits (some of them at least, this newsletter simply sin't long enough...) of tai chi.

With the long project of the Long Yang Form Interactive Tai Chi instruction CD-ROMS (see bottom of the newsletter) finally over; two weeks before I moved house out into the country - which was just in time, as I am still only just getting sorted out the basics of civilisation (hot water, internet access...) it is selling well to tai chi practitioners and would-be practitioners all over the world - the furthest away being Thailand so far - and we are getting great feedback, so we can chalk this one up as a success. Soon (once I've finished unpacking boxes - it took me three weeks to find my printer cable) we will start adding some of the backlog of new material to the Taichido website as promised.

In accompaniment to Gary's thoughts this month, you might find the following articles of interest on the taichido website:

What is Chi Kung
18-Form Chi Kung
Discourse on the Mindfulness of Breathing
Medical research on the Effects of Tai Chi

Have a good read, Mark

Communication - communication - communication!

Just recently I received an E-mail from someone intending to take up Tai Chi towards the end of this year. As I scrolled further down the E-mail and beyond the end of that particular communication, I noticed that our previous exchanges were also saved, and my own E-mail out had come back to me to be reread. Using this now as an example of the process of taking up and doing Tai Chi I reproduce below extracts from this chain of E-mails that began way back in May of this year. It begins:

"I started to learn Qi Gong six weeks ago and am really getting into it. I feel I want to make these movements a part of my life. Yesterday I was given your 'Yang Style Tai Chi' CD and notice that Tai Chi movements seem to be similar to those I've been learning. questions: Can Tai Chi be learned alongside Qi Gong or would this be confusing? Is there any difference?"

My reply, which I indended to be comprehensive was: Tai Chi and Qi Gong are parts of the same circle. One cannot be separated from the other, but this does not necessarily mean that one can be the other. This is all symbolized in the double helix yin yang symbol. The black dot in the white, and the white dot in the black says that 'nothing is all black, and nothing is all white'.

I, by the way prefer to spell 'Qi Gong' as 'Chi Kung'. Simplifying this way it becomes easier for me to understand that "Chi" = Breath and "Kung" (as in 'kung-fu') = Deep Study. Then, these two then for me tally with my understanding of Tai Chi Form as being the deep study of moving and breathing. So, for me, Tai Chi is Qi Gong (Chi Kung/the 'stationary' study of breathing) in motion.

In the early stages of study of Tai Chi one comes to appreciate the benefits of the coordinated 'movement' of breath and the physical body. Deep study (Kung Fu) may lead to a deep understanding and appreciation of every movement of every muscle and sinew; and the potential and preciousness of every breath.

Every breath you take and every movement you make is already of course 'a part of' your life. I therefore encourage you to continue your study of Qi Gong, for if you do so without discrimination, Tai Chi is also already a part of your life.

Tai Chi can be learned alongside Qi Gong. That is what I teach. The (tried and tested) way that I use is to begin with around about six weeks of fundamental Chi Kung exercises prior to learning tai chi. There is not set limit on this period. I consider the student to be ready move on when, discreetly, I observe that they can stand without fidgeting or becoming tense or nervous for about 20 minutes.

Focus then shifts towards the study of Tai Chi Form. At this point students realise, just as you have, that many Tai Chi 'postures in motion' could be appreciated or interpreted as Chi Kung in motion. Thereafter, as I continue to teach Tai Chi, every session with every student begins with Chi Kung exercises and this practice develops 'alongside' the Tai Chi that, for now, seems to no longer be just moving Chi Kung.

The study of Tai Chi does definitely deepen one's understanding and appreciation of Chi Kung. However, deeper study reveals that neither are that special - in the sense that they are at least no more special than every first step that you take out of bed in the morning, that first yawn in the morning or that last deep sigh in the middle of the night.

Thus my long and comprehensive reply ended and that, for the time being, was that.

Are you still there?

Five months later, here now in October 2003, I received another E-mail from this same person saying: "I have recently met you at the Rev. Ganshin Rock's Wednesday meditation in Romsey and before that, at Three Wheels, Acton." The E-mail goes on: "I have read in today's New Scientist that 'T'ai Chi helps keep shingles virus at bay'." Part of the article was attached as follows:

'Practicing the ancient Chinese art of t'ai chi may help to prevent shingles in later life. Four months of t'ai chi three times a week boosts levels of the zoster virus-specific immunity factor by 50 per cent, according to a small study at the University of California, Los Angeles, Neuropsychiatric Institute (Psychosomatic Medicine, vol 65, p1).

Michael Irwin, the doctor who led the randomised, placebo-controlled trial of 36 healthy people aged over 60, thinks there is more to it than exercise being good for you.
"Though t'ai chi has a modest aerobic exercise component, it is a series of 20 slow movements [an understatement in most respects - especially the number] and is not typical exercise such as running", he says. Irwin speculates that t'ai chi reduces levels of stress hormones and that this boosts the immune system. The benefits of t'ai chi may not be limited to shingles. "I would expect increases in immunity to other viruses too," Irwin says.

The sender of the E-mail then continues by saying: "However I am going [away] for one month, back end of November. Hopefully you will be able to teach me from beginning of December."

The chances are ...

Tai Chi (or its origins) has been around for a few thousand years or so now, so I suppose it can wait for another few months for E-mailer quoted above (who lives just a few miles away from where I am sat right now!); however I do suspect that the festivities of Xmas will cause any start date to in fact be some when in January 2004. This is not a criticism but simply an observation on 'the way it is'. This is the way things are and experience has taught me that this is the way they are likely to continue.

In the last seven years the statistics on attendees of Tai Chi here at my home dojo sessions have been, I am please to say, gradually increasing in terms of numbers; but at the same time they have been entirely consistent in percentage terms and in seasonal trends.

It was only a couple of weeks ago that sessions here at my home dojo were back to full a compliment of attendees following a very long summer break ... which began, statistically, in mid July. At the lowest point in late August attendance here at my home dojo (which is ironically and as a figure of speech only is much "smaller" than www.taichido) was at only 30%. Figures since have gradually risen to an all time high of seventeen souls that have this week stood in the dojo with me and taken breaths. However, and still going on facts revealed by past seasonal trends, I expect attendance's to begin to tail off again around mid November and hit the customary low of zero during the two weeks before Xmas. Things then don't often pick up again until around the second week of the New Year. This all boils down to this:

I tell people that it can take up to three years to learn the Yang Long Form. This figure that I give here is how long, on average, it takes the average adult westerner to absorb and process the information I am able to impart. This, my estimate of three years takes into account the fact that the average westerner is a person with many real responsibilities and real commitments to many things and many people. So, when I say "it takes about three years" I do so bearing in mind the fact that out of a potential 52 sessions in a year, I expect the 'average' person to be able to attend about 25. So I could I suppose say that it takes about 75 weeks (or 75 hours) to learn the Long Form couldn't I ... or would this be distorting the figures? My own answer to this question is yes, that would be a distortion or misrepresentation of the facts - because it takes three years ... and that's just the way it is!

So, amongst other things, the figures above reveal that I have been teaching Tai Chi and Chi Kung for seven years. Please now let me boast to you some facts behind those figures.
In seven years; based upon the same formula as above and as applied to 'students', these last seven years contained a potential of (50X7) 350 sessions; and I have 'missed' about three!
I remember once, three or four years ago, I was tired and I ask Gordon to take the session. And there was another time when I was annoyed at something and I stayed away to 'make a statement'. (I have absolutely no recollection now of what that statement was!) And there was another time ... when I just plain forgot an appointment! But it and I wasn't always like this. This is not the way I was ten, eleven years ago. The way I was then was sickly, aching and ill. And then ... then I began (operative word) Tai Chi.

Once I 'got better with Tai Chi'; that is after about three years of everyday practice, I did begin to wonder (proving at least perhaps that my brain was beginning to work again!) can I/will I keep this up forever? I then compared myself as I was then at 44/5 and as I was earlier when 40/41 and concluded quickly that continuation was clearly the prudent course. Then as I considered how on earth I might keep this up, through fate and/or preparedness, the opportunity (and great honor) to teach arose. It has since become my practice to teach Tai Ch ... and now, when the doorbell rings I think 'Tai Chi' and welcome any one of those seventeen souls as enumerated above into the dojo. This is not to say that ever time time the doorbell rings I think ... whoopee ... Tai Chi. Sometimes, frankly, I'm not so keen and I find myself thinking and, students please forgive me for ever saying it out loud: 'here we go again ... this goes here ... that goes there ... wind blows, water flows, blah blah blah, blah blah blah'. Nevertheless, as long as I continue to teach Tai Chi ... to people; I learn more ... about people, and by learning more about other people I learn about me - and I am in a win/win situation. Even if the student is not, for the time being, learning; I still am - even if this be only "less blah blah blah would be better" - and thus I continue to do what I do'.

Nevertheless, I do myself remember the days when, whilst actually registered as "disabled" as in "not fit for work", I would still ride my old bike in the dark to Tai Chi once a week for sessions with my teacher Ray. I do remember one horrendous winter month when it poured down with rain 4 or 5 weeks in a row as I rode the 5 miles or so to sessions; so believe me when I say that I do know how difficult it can be to get to sessions ... or even start in the first place. But then again and similarly based upon experience, I know that it can be done ... and I KNOW through experience that doing it (this "modest aerobic exercise") boosts the immune system and all sorts of other things. But I only know this, and feel this and see this; because I do it/this!

Postscript

I have been asked before ( particularly by the person that came some time ago to the session that I 'forgot'), do ever secretly test any students? My stock reply is that my only challenge to students is that that get here and ring the doorbell - that's all! For my part I just promise to be here when it does and continue, with gratitude, to do what I do.

I was here last year, and the year before, and notwithstanding a hundred thousand unseen ailments I do hope to be here next year still just doing what I do, and I do of course hope that I will feel as well and as happy doing it now as I did then ... with the operative words being "doing it".

Gassho

Gary

And now the news!
Do please note that upon completion of the one year CD-rom project I have undertaken a complete rebuild of my site wheelswithinwheels.net. - which includes a mini-site for my home dojo. This all still has the same content but it is now (I think) much better to look at and much easier to use. Please visit and go through the various gateways to find out more about Taichido's 'home dojo' and other projects that I am involved in such and Southampton Shin Sangha; and other people such as Ganshin and others who are often mentioned in these newsletters. You will even find pictures of Ganshin and others at the SSS Scrapbook.