January 31, 2004, Saturday
I was struck by how similiar the warmup give in "The
American Yoga Association
Beginner's Manual" is so very much like the Eight Section
Brocade.
How much of the Yin-Yang symbolism, the interplay of opposites,
or the eternal
dualities is grounded in our experience of coming to understand and coordinate
the two sides of our human bodies? We must learn to coordinate two hands,
two legs,
two eyes, two ears, two arms. Some dual bodily functions work with no
effort or
learning on our part: two lungs, two kidneys, two nostrils, two
ovaries/testicles, or two
sides of the brain - but even some of these can be played with using specific
kinds
of exercises or drills. Our sense of space comes first from those
thousands of hours in
infancy and childhood when we played with our two arms, and two eyes, and two
legs,
front side and back side, and learned about how things worked and how we could
make them work in space.
"The key to all life experience is movement."
- Ida Rolf
January 30, 2004, Friday
I so look forward to my Friday thru Monday workouts. 1.5 hour walk, 1 to 2
hours of
Taijiquan, weightlifting, yoga. So energizing. So fun.
I'm working on the Yang long form lately. Signed up for
the 3/13 and 3/14 Spring
Workshop offered in Chico by the North Valley Tai Chi Chuan School. These
are
usually good workshops.
Kevin Weaver told us tonight that the Tehama Family Fitness
Center managment
had decided to cancel the 4:30 to 5:30 Tai Chi class on Monday, Wednesday,
and Friday. He will only be teaching on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from
8-9 and 9-10 am. Roberta was very upset about the news - she can only
come
in the evening. I will attend the Monday and Friday class at 9 am.
It was sad.
They still have hired no yoga teacher on Satuday.
January 29, 2004, Thursday
Began to update my 13 Postures of Taijiquan
webpage.
Doing some reading and research on the topic.
January 28, 2004, Wednesday
Gary A. Brewer send me some interesting comments on the T'ai
Chi Tun.
He asked if my T'ai Chi Tun on the Eight Section Brocade webpage was
correct.
Mr. Brewer favored the interpretation given by Mark Shackelford:
Which Way
Up Should the T'ai Chi Go? By Mark Shackelford.
The black is on the bottom with the tail running up the right side
(NW, W, and ending at SW). The yin (colder days) slowly grows
from South (Summer) through West (Autumn) and into North
(Winter).
I need to reflect on this a bit. I am tending towards Mr.
Brewer and
Mr. Shackelford's interpretation.
January 27, 2004, Tuesday
"We should conduct ourselves not as if we ought to live for the body,
but as if we could not live without it."
- Seneca the Younger
"A sound mind in a sound body."
- Juvenal
"There is but one temple in the universe and that is the
body of man."
- Novalis
"If anything is sacred, the human body is sacred."
- Walt Whitman
January 26, 2004, Monday
Reread Robert Cuckrow's book on Tai Chi Walking.
Added new items to bibliography and links section in Walking
and Taijiquan.
Added quotes to Walking Quotations
collection.
January 25, 2004, Sunday
Comparing two comments about the best time to practice Yoga
meditation and Qigong
breathing exercises:
"Most traditional authorities agree that the early morning
is the best time for meditation.
In India, the yogins typically meditate at sunrise, known as the
"Hour of Brahma" (brahma-
muhurta). It is thought that the quality of the life force (prana)
is then particularly pure and
strong and more easily assimilated."
- The
Shambhala Guide to Yoga, Georg Feuerstein, p. 93
"Chee-gung should be practiced between midnight and noon, when
positive Yang energy
prevails in the atmosphere. Ko Hung's (250 AD) observation accords
precisely with the
findings of Western science, which has determined that the concentration of
negative ions
(i.e., chee) in the air peaks between 3:00 and 6:00 a.m.
Disciplined adepts of breathing
rise around 4:00 a.m. to take advantage of this airborne power."
- The
Tao of Health, Sex and Longevity, Daniel P. Reid, p. 190.
January 24, 2004, Saturday
Added a few links and quotes to the webpage on Breathing Techniques used in
Taijiquan, Qigong and Yoga. Breathing practices are such an essential
part of
these three movement arts one cannot help but finding ideas, information,
exercises,
and resources in nearly every book or magazine I read on these subjects.
The
variety of specific exercises recommended are quite amazing.
When I fee blue I breathe.
January 23, 2004, Friday
"A successful life plan for diabetes is dependent on several
factors. The two most
essential are developing a lifetime eating plan and engaging in some form of
physical
activity. Exercise should be a way of life, a habit that will fill you
with pride and
self-esteem. Raising your heart rate assists the cells in taking in the
glucose from
the blood. It helps work against insulin resistance." p. 90.
"T'ai Chi is becoming a more and more popular form of gentle physical and
mental
exercise her in the West. Certainly one of the most intriguing aspects of
this exercise
is that it can be practiced well into old age and keeps your golden years as
active
and supple as possible. It improves respiration for the heart and lungs,
and calms
the mind." p. 183.
- Carol'
Guber's Type 2 Diabetes Life Plan, 2002, p. 90, 183. .
Reading:
Carol'
Guber's Type 2 Diabetes Life Plan: Take Charge, Take Care and Feel Better
than Ever. New York, Broadway Books, 2002. Index, 234
pages. Carol Guber with
Betsy Thorpe. ISBN: 0767905253.
Updated by Tai Chi for Diabetes webpage.
January 22, 2004, Thursday
"When we get caught up in the outer appearance of things,
our prana (vitality) flows out of us
as we scan the stimulating sights. Allowing the eyes to wander creates
distractions that lead us
further away from yoga. To counteract these habits, control and focus of
the attention
are fundamental principles in yoga practice. When we control and direct
the focus, first of
the eyes and then of the attention, we are using the yoga technique called drishti."
"The Eye of the Beholder." By David Life. "The
practice of Drishti is a gazing technique that
develops concentration- and teaches you to see the world as it really is."
Yoga Journal,
February 2002, pp. 73- 76.
January 21, 2004, Wednesday
"Yoga is not about learning to stand on your head; it is about learning to
stand
on your own two feet.
- Swami Satchidananda
Added a few links to the Eight Section Brocade Qigong
webpage. I need to
post instructions for another section of this brocade. Slowly finish
it!
January 20, 2004, Tuesday
"The fire of yoga must remain burning without smoke in the spiritual heart
throughout the
practice, the sadhana. The interest of the practitioner, sadhaka,
needs to be affirmative
and dynamic. However, this interest should not be a wildfire burning down
the forest;
the interest in yoga should not be disorientated and disarrayed. Often the
seeker goes
to different teachers, and different schools of yoga without having the proper
aim or
background. Instead of getting a solid footing on the path and its subject
matter, he
acquires knowledge in bits and pieces. The body, mind and intelligence
remain
muddled. Going to a new teacher before allowing oneself to practice and
digest the
methods learned from another teacher leads one toward more confusion than
clarity.
Learning first with one teacher and getting well established in practice makes
one able to
discriminate with maturity. Often pains, problems, discomforts, doubts,
misunderstandings,
and misconceptions arise because of lack of understanding. This further
leads toward
lack of inner penetration into oneself. Learning yoga cannot be like
eating junk food. One
has to stick to the method in order to absorb and assimilate the sadhana
precisely and
properly. Remember the adage, "The rolling stone gathers no
moss." It is the same with
the roving yogic sadhaka."
- Geeta Iyengar, daugher of B.K.S. Iyengar and noted Yoga teacher and
author.
"In Her Father's Light: Interview with Geeta
Iyengar." Yoga Journal, October 2001, p. 65+.
January 19, 2004, Monday
I celebrated my 58 birthday this month. How fortunate am I to have had
such good health,
such ample and nutritious food to eat, good medical attention when I needed it, clean water
to drink, and a clean house
to live within. How fortunate am I to have had such supportive
and nuturing parents, family, friends, relatives coworkers and
children. How fortunate am
I to have had such a wonderful wife as friend, fellow traveler, coworker and
lover. How fortunate to
have lived in such a prosperous and peaceful homeland. How fortunate to be able
to have been
productively employed for 43 years. How fortunate to have had books, libraries, teachers,
and so many wise
people to learn from. All of these factors, and many more, have
enabled
me to live a long, healthy. and prosperous life. I am blessed, lucky, and fortunate beyond
measure! Thanks to
everyone.
In these birthday candles, I see the entire universe supporting my existence.
January 18, 2004, Sunday
"If you work just the pancreas and not the other organs, then you do not
create a balance...
Diabetes has to do with carbohydrate metabolism, so I also advise rhythmic
movements,
like charnjap, a yogic form of walking that involves breath and mantra
and can improve
metabolism."
- Shanti Kaur Khalasa, Ph.D., Kundalinin Yoga teacher. "Dealing
with Diabetes,"
by Stacie Stukin: Yoga Journal, October 2001, p. 36.
A Zen blessing at
mealtime: "In this plate of food, I see the entire universe
supporting
my existence."
A mealtime blessing
from the Taittiriya Upanishad: "From food all creatures are
produced,
and all creatures that dwell on the earth, by food they live and into food they
finally pass.
Food is the chief among beings. Verily he obtains all good who worships
the Divine
as food."
January 17, 2004, Saturday
Tai Chi Myth #1: The Miracle Cure
Many Taijiquan books include anecdotes about persons with serious diseases who
were completely
cured after a year's worth of Taiji practice. Cheng Man-ch'ing, T. T.
Liang, and Jou Tsung Hwa told
us about overcoming serious and life threatening illnesses after the regular
practice of Taiji. Anyone
who practices and studies Taiji long enough will hear many of these stories.
"I was diagnosed with cancer three years ago. I
started practicing Qigong for two hours every day.
I have been cancer free since then."
"I was badly overweight, completely out of shape, and my blood pressure was
very high. Basically,
I was a couch potato drifting towards a stroke. Then I took up the daily
practice of Chen Taijiquan.
Now, after 10 years of Taiji practice, I am in excellent condition, active,
strong, and have normal blood
pressure."
"I smoked a pack of cigarettes and two joints of pot every
day. My health was very poor, and
I was a drug addict. Life held little meaning for me in my depressed
condition. Then, I began the
daily practice of Yang Taijiquan. It totally changed my life. I feel
great, no longer use drugs, and
my doctor says I have the body of a person 10 years younger than I am."
"I was a mean bad ass, in trouble all the time, of
low moral character, and a disappointment to my
family and friends. Then after starting the practice of Wu Taijiquan (or
going to a revival and
accepting Jesus Christ as my personal savior, or taking up Ananda Yoga, or
starting my quest with
my Great Guru. or practicing TM or Dianetics, etc.), I have completely
turned my life around. Now
I am kind, gentle, hardworking, trustworthy - a good person. It's a
miracle!"
"I cured myself of X by practicing tai chi or
qigong."
Where X = irritable bowel syndrome, tuberculosis, a bad back, weak knees, drug
addiction,
high blood pressure, headaches, depression, constipation, dizziness, bad breath,
obesity,
anxiety, weakness, fatigue, cancer ....
"I made a remarkable recovery from: Example 1.
We all like to pretend to believe in miracles and magic that help people.
It is natural to wish
people well and cheer for those who overcome illness or disease. A
positive attitude,
high hopes, and cheery beliefs are needed by most for comfortable mental
health. Nevertheless,
a realist keeps these aspects of life in a larger perspective and balances them
against more
obvious facts, averages, norms, and verifiable scientific evidence.
Most people who take up the daily practice of Taijiquan are in
reasonably good health,
positive, decent, hardworking, ordinary folks. They have no serious
diseases to overcome.
They have no serous bad habits to break. They have no great moral issues
to resolve.
They have no need for enlightenment. They don't expect miracles to happen
to them.
They are probably already active in other sports or physical activities, are
trying to
educate themselves, and live active work and family lives. Those who
continue in their
Taijiquan practice usually do so because Taiji is fun, interesting, unique,
challenging,
relaxing, and a pleasant social experience with like minded people. Most
continue to
practice even though they have various physical and mental ailments or diseases
that
they will never overcome. They have no personal miracle tales to tell, but
they show
up to train every day - we need to hear more about them.
Practicing Taijiquan has not cured my diabetes, eliminated my
need for new glasses,
reduced my bodyweight, prevented common colds, or helped me become
enlightened.
No miracles for me. But this is OK. I don't really need to magically
make people fly across
the room using my "chi" power, just a good laugh while doing push hands
is good
enough
for me. I still have not overcome one bad habit, but just establishing
the habit of a regular
Taiji practice
routine is good enough for me. I don't really
need to walk on water, just
swimming on a summer's day is good enough for me. The real miracles in
life are
not very special, just very ordinary.
January 16, 2004, Friday
I believe in the benefits of a physical conditioning program that makes use of
cross training principles.
Read Cross-Training
for Dummies, by Tony Ryan and Martica K. Heaner, to get some basic ideas
about these principles.
I enjoy a variety of physical conditioning activities: strength
training,
aerobics, Taijiquan, heavy bag work,
qigong, yoga,
relaxation techniques, weapons practice, hiking, walking, team sports, massage,
dance,
meditation, push hands, etc. These
activities provide as solid foundation for strength, endurance,
flexibility, balance, and toughness that are valuable in the practice of
Taijiquan.
Most Taijiquan
masters of old were in very good condition because of long walks and agricultural
labor.
Some of these masters had real military (Chen Wang Ting)
and/or fighting experience (Sun Lu
Tang
or Yang Lu Chan). Many modern Taijiquan
masters have done years of advanced Shaolin Kung Fu or
other hard style martial arts training and
competition: B.K. Frantzis, Herman Kauz, Wong Kiew Kit.,
Bob
Klein, Peter Ralston, Robert W. Smith, Yang Jwing-Ming, Wong Doc-Fai, and many others.
Professor Cheng was
unique in advising
us to sit down if we broke a sweat while doing Taijiquan;
the rest of us
ordinary blokes like a blend
of both soft and hard action, gentle movements and
vigorous movements, staying cool and sweating.
January 15, 2004, Thursday
Updated my webpage on My Personal Practice.
January 14, 2004, Wednesday
Grow Younger, Live Longer: Ten Steps to Reverse Aging. By Deepak
Chopra, M.D.,
and David Simon, M.D. New York, Harmony Books, 2001.
References, index,
289 pages. ISBN: 0609600796. Practical suggestions for
improving your health and
enhancing chances for longevity by changing your perceptions and beliefs,
getting deep
rest, nurturing your body with healthy food, using nutritional supplements
wisely,
using mind/body integration techniques, exercising, eliminating toxins, becoming
more
creative, living with loving-kindness, and maintaining a youthful mind.
"The mind/body
techniques of tai chi and qigong are centuries old. Their graceful slow
movements
improve balance, flexibility and strength, enhancing both physical and mental
well-being.
We encourage you to find a local tai chi or qigong class and use these beautiful
movements
to awaken mind/body integration." p. 123.
Updated webpage on Aging.
January 13, 2004, Tuesday
Power Yoga: The Total Strength and Flexibility Workout. By Beryl
Bender Birch. Photographs
by Nicholas DeSciose. New York, Fireside Book, Simon and Schuster,
1995. Index,
286 pages. ISBN: 0020583516. MGC. Her Axioms of
Power Yoga are: "1. You have to be
hot to stretch. 2. Strength, not gravity, develops
flexibility. 3. Sports do not get us in shape.
In fact, sports get us out of shape. 4. All injury in sports is
caused by structural and muscular
imbalance. 5. Muscular imbalance and structural irregularities don't
fix themselves. 6. Even
iron will bend if your heat it up. 7. Stopping training
doesn't correct an imbalance. 8. No matter
how you fit you are at what you do, when you start something new you have to
ease into it.
9. Stretching doesn't equal warm-up." p. 274.
January 12, 2004, Monday
Reading numerous Yoga books. Updated Tai Chi and
Health webpage.
January 11, 2004, Sunday
Anatomy
of Hatha Yoga: A Manual for Students, Teachers and Practitioners.
By H. David Coulter. Foreword by Timothy McCall. Honesdale,
Pennsylvania,
Body and Breath, 2001. Index, bibliography, appendices, 623
pages.
ISBN: 0970700601. 2002 winner of the Benjamin Franklin Award for
Health, Wellness and Nutrition. Outstanding textbook on the anatomy
and
physiology of yoga postures, breathing techniques, and relaxation methods
used in Yoga and often found in Qigong.
January 10, 2004, Saturday
A
Source Book in Indian Philosophy. Edited by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
and Charles
A. Moore. Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1957. Index,
bibliography,
appendices, 684 pages. ISBN:0691019584. MGC.
The word "Upanisad" means "to come and sit down
near the sage for a lesson." Some
estimate that the Upanisads were composed from 800-700 B.C. There are over
200
Upanisads, although the traditional number is 108.
To see the Self (Atman) one must become "calm, controlled,
quiet, patiently enduring,
and contented." (Brhadaranyaka Upanisads).
January 9, 2004, Friday
"To judge from the records, a kind of “dark learning”
is to be obtained by those who
scale mountains. For reasons never to be fathomed, lofty summits serve as
portals, if
not to the “other world” then perchance to another style of awareness. Maybe
it’s the
thin air, or the proximity to sky, or the mere physical exertion that relaxes
the tension
of consciousness—it’s difficult to say with any certainty. “You have but a
short time
left to live,” says Aurelius, “so live as on a mountain.” Whatever the
case, the
religious landscapes of the world appear serrated into wondrous heights.
Mount
Olympus, according to Homer, is “neither shaken by winds, nor ever wet with
rain,
nor does snow fall upon it, but the air is outspread clear and cloudless.” The
Bible
has its share of “power peaks,” including Ararat, Horeb, and Tabor, while in
China
Taoism claims its Five Sacred Mountains, and Vulture Peak in India is
revered
as one of the Buddha’s favorite resorts, where he delivered some of his
most
rarefied teachings."
- John P. O'Grady, Flowers
in the Sky
January 8, 2004, Thursday
"The work of art is born of the intelligence's refusal to reason the
concrete.
It marks the triumph of the carnal."
- Albert Camus
"We have art in order not to perish of truth."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
I often consider Taijiquan to be a physical expression of a bit of "Crazy Wisdom":
Crazy
Wisdom. By Wes "Scoop Nisker." Berkeley,
California, Ten Speed Press,
1990. 226 pages. ISBN: 0898153506.
January 7, 2004, Wednesday
"It is encouraging to see so many Westerners turning to Yoga and
experiencing its
benefits. Current estimates suggest there are up to 20 million Yoga
practitioners
in the United States alone. In at least ninety-nine percent of cases, their
Yoga
practice consists of doing Hatha-Yoga postures one or more times per week.
Clearly, even this limited approach is producing some good results.
According
to a report by Intersurvey Inc. (www.intersurvey.com)
dated May 12, 2000, 9
percent of Americans have tried “Yoga” (as opposed to 14 percent who
have
experimented with meditation of an unspecified nature and 3 percent who
have tried Tai Chi). Yoga’s effectiveness has been rated 87 percent (as
opposed to meditation, which came in at 85 percent, and Tai Chi at 73
percent)."
- Georg Feuerstein, Comments
on Contempoary Yoga, 2000
"Effectivness" in terms of what? I wonder.
Satisfaction in terms of being
an exercise system? Effectiveness as a spiritual path? Usefulness as
a meditation
technique? Hip thing to do? Ability to keep one's
interest for a longer period
of time? Availability of qualified teachers?
I practice both Taijiquan and Yoga and enjoy and benefit from both.
January 6, 2004, Tuesday
"When you realize that you don't have to separate mind and body, then you
can
eat properly, sleep properly, get your hair cut properly - do anything
properly. You
can experience tremendous sacredness in ordinary activities. What is
ordinarly
regarded as casual activity, we regard as the sacredness of Shambhala."
- Chogyam Trungpa, Great Eastern Sun, 2001, p. 196.
Great Eastern Sun: The Wisdom of Shambhala. By Chogyam Trungpa, Dorje
Dradul
of Mukpo.
Edited by Carolyn Rose Gimian. foreward by Diana Judith
Mukpo.
Boston, MA, Shambhala, 2001. Index, 267 pages. 365 pages. ASIN: 1570628181.
Just the ordinary is often quite extraordinary. Pulling Onions
January 5, 2004, Monday
"Whole Body Relaxed: Quan Shen Fang Song. The word fang
means "to release," and it
implies that relaxation is not merely the lack of tension. It is an
activity. Quan shen fang
song is alive, alert relaxation. It means eliminating unnecessary
tension, being supple
and alert to the environment. Relaxation is the first and most important
principle of
qigong. It is often considered a system of qigong in itself."
- Kenneth Cohen, The Way of Qigong, 1997, p 88.
The Way
of Qigong: The Art and Science of Chinese Energy Healing. By Kenneth
S. Cohen.
Foreword by Larry Dossey. New York Ballantine Books, 1997. Index,
notes, appendices,
427 pages. ISBN: 0345421094. Chapter 8, pp. 97-110: Mr. Cohen describes the
attributes of active
relaxation:
awareness and
tranquillity, effortlessness, sensivity,
warmth and rootedness.
January 4, 2004, Sunday
Dr. Angelee Deodhar from Chandigarh, India, was kind enough to select one of
my haiku poems
to combine with her excellent photographs. A wonderful new year's
present.
January 3, 2004, Saturday
The
Tao of Health, Sex and Longevity: A Modern Practical Guide to the Ancient
Way. By Daniel P. Reid. New York, a Fireside Book, Simon and
Schuster, 1989.
Index, 405 pages. ISBN: 067164811X. MPG.
January 2, 2004, Friday
Yoga:
The Ultimate Spiritual Path. By Swami Rajarshi Muni. Saint
Paul, Minnesota,
Llewellyn Publications, 2nd Edition, 2001. Index, 184 pages. ISBN:
1567184413.
"Kundalini/pranic awakening and its cross-tradition
similars—the spontaneous spinal rockings
known in Judaism as davvening and in Sufisim as zikr; the
“taken-over” gyrations of gospel
"holy ghost" shaking and dancing and charismatic/pentacostal
“mani-festations”; the
Dionysian “revel”; Quakerism’s and Shakerism's autonomic quaking and
shaking; Tai Chi
guided by chi itself; the shamanic trance-dance; Buddhism’s and
Raja-Yoga’s effortless
“straight back” (uju-kaya) meditation; the yogically derived
ecstatic belly-dance and
Flamenco; and even the full-bodied, spontaneous Reichian
“reflex”—literally embody the
spiritual path.
The “path” is the cerebrospinal tract (and its
neuro-endocrinal radiance outward to every
cell of the body). To “move” forward on this path in the most maturing way,
the most
“dharmic” way, is to move the body from the energetic dimension that I hope
is conveyed
by the above-listed spiritual phenomena. In such moving, the volitional will and
the mind
remain meditatively spellbound. The intelligence of kundalini/prana—or could
we say—DNA,
moves the body, or something even more subtle within DNA: the Mother
Herself."
- Stuart
Sovatsky, Kundalini
and Sahaja (Spontaneous )Yoga
January 1, 2004, Thursday
Reading the book:
Vitality
and Wellness. By Stephan Rechtschaffen and Marc Cohen. An
Omega Institute
Mind, Body, Spirit Book. New York, Dell Publishing, 1999. Index,
resources lists, 262
pages. ISBN: 0440508681. MGC. Includes chapters
dealing with techniques for
becoming aware of stress, how to meditate, ideas for changing one's
perspectives
about the passage of time, a discussion of retreats and quests, how play and laughter
are critical
to
health and well being, and a presentation on developing a sound fitness
and nutrition program.
No pain no gain.
Gain, don't strain.
No pain ... good.
Valley
Spirit Tai Chi Chuan Club
Red Bluff, Tehama County, North Sacramento Valley, Northern California, U.S.A.
Cities in the area: Oroville, Paradise, Durham, Chico, Hamilton City, Orland,
Corning,
Rancho Tehama, Los Molinos, Tehama, Proberta, Gerber, Manton, Cottonwood,
Anderson, Shasta Lake, Palo Cedro, and Redding, CA
© Michael P. Garofalo, Red Bluff, California, 2004, All Rights Reserved
Cuttings: Haiku and Short Poems
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