“Boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. .”That’s impossible. Instead only try to realize the truth. Neo: What truth? Boy: There is no spoon. Neo: There is no spoon? Boy: Then you’ll see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.” “男孩：不要試圖想彎曲湯匙。那是不可能的。 相反地只是試著去認識真相。Neo：這是什麼道理？男孩：沒有湯匙。Neo：沒有湯匙？男孩：那麼你會發現不是湯匙彎曲，只是你自己彎曲。” “To try and realize the truth.” […]
Taiji is said to be based on the movements of the crane and snake as witnessed by a daoist monk “Zhang Sanfeng” “三丰子 “ “On one occasion, he observed a bird attacking a snake and was greatly inspired by the snake’s defensive tactics. It remained still and alert in the face of the bird’s onslaught […]
In my own journey to emptiness I have had many teachers/guides along the way. In the 70s as a young teenager growing up in San Francisco during the troubled times of the day. Looking for a refuge, Chinese Martial Arts opened its door and invited me in….little did I know I could never leave. […]
I was introduced to Master Zhang through a student of his David Kong, who had a push hand group in San Francisco many years ago. 認識張師傅是透過他的一個學生孔大衛。孔大衛多年前在舊金山組織了一個推手團體。 In meeting Master Zhang, his teaching and skill sets were so different and unique, I would spend the next ten years to this day following and studying from him, […]
Michelle Gong, Followed her dream as a young girl growing up in a small rural village in China. She learned taiji as young teenager, traveling to the “temple of heaven” in Beijing to study under the taiji masters, and would later go on to win an international competition in 2009. Her dream would lead her […]
意念 Often people ask about where they should put their mind, it should not be on ones self, the other or on the contact point…the writings of the Zen Master, talks in terms of sword practice, in principle its the same idea for the same reasons. The practice of taiji frees ones mind, and body. […]
雷與閃電 Bright light, crashing sound, deep night. 閃光、雷聲、深夜 The O.O.D.A loop 觀察-導向-決策-行動 的O.O.D.A迴圈 Describes a way of understanding body mind interactions when called to act. “The approach favors agility over raw power in dealing with human opponents in any endeavor.” O.O.D.A迴圈描述一種用於瞭解行動時身體與心靈如何互動的方式。“在對手為人時，這種方式強調的是敏捷靈活而不是原始的力量。” Not Even a Hair Can Be Entered 毫髮不能入 “Interval” is when two things come […]
Central equilibrium, the force of equilibrium. MIYOKO SHIDA RIGOLO –ZEN JAPANESE DANCER Watching her movements one should understand that she is part of the demo. She must be empty, in other words, she must remove her self from the demo in order to allow “it” to achieve its own equilibrium through her. […]
Often on the net and in person people often mention the “dan-tian” talking about moving from or driving movement from it. This is done assuming everyone agrees on, the what, how, and why something called a “dan-tian” is needed let alone something that should be developed and used. An interesting site with information not widely […]
方圓 “Circling while retreating is easy, but circling while advancing is difficult, so do not get sloppy with your waist and headtop when going forward or back. It is hard to stay in the central position,so the ease of retreat and difficulty of advance are to be carefully studied. As this is a matter of […]
An interesting demo, one that I feel illustrates wave theory and wave harmonics. When we talk of waves its important to understand what a wave is and why its a different way of transmitting energy” slowed down 4x. Many questions arise when viewing demos of this nature. Often the suggestion is that its faked or […]
To be authentic is to be the author of oneself “Mike Staples” A very deep question in part answered by ones practice provided its based on being authentic. The constant search in finding a true teacher teaching “authentic” taiji as practiced by past masters. Much time is spent in finding teachers each claiming to have […]
回復力 ” Stand like a balanced scale and rotate actively like a wheel. ” 立如平準、活似車輪 Use no more then 4oz in dealing with others, do not allow more then 4oz to be felt on ones self. Taiji is no less then one yin, one yang, combined with out separation. 不加四兩以上於對方，也不讓自我感受多於四兩。 太極不外乎一陰一陽、陰陽相濟。 ” Stand like a balanced scale […]
Sam, as he liked to be called was in many ways ahead of his time. Having come from a hard style back ground his hands were gnarled not with age but with the training he did as a much younger man toughing them on coconut trees growing on the island. I can still hear him […]
