freeform

Well I joined the online Taoist community too late to be a spectator in his demise - but I'm pretty sure he's stopped his practice (at least his website and public presence). I'm not a fan of rumors, so no idea what actually happened - but I remember something about his wife dying unexpectedly... I loved his books and the straight-forward explanations he gave, I'd recomend the books to anyone - I think it's important to separate his contribution to the Taoist community from whatever happened to him, and I still leaf through his books every now and then for inspiration. oh and btw - Cloud - admitedly I do prefer a conversation with a healthy dose of swearing, but apparently some of the Bums get in trouble with their office firewalls... Whoever he is...

Yumm! I love marrow... I could eat it all day. Having Jamaican friends I've eaten my share of oxtail soup (which when it gets cold turns into the jelly you're talking about) It's also a traditional Armenian breakfast (for special occasions only) to have boiled cow hooves (or at least that part of the leg - the actual hooves are cut off)... it's a really thick and heavy soup that's basically dissolved cartilage - one has to eat it with a lot of garlic (which I love!) to counteract the effect of having so many dense fats and things. regarding the reparing of cartilage, it's probably a good idea to do joint rotations - Intu Flow being the current Tao Bums favourite - really great drills - many more benefits than just healthier joints...

There's a few things to consider... There is being honest when asked or required then there's giving your honest oppinion whether asked or not (also known as pushing your 'truth' onto someone)... then there is the 'the little white lie' where you lie when asked for your oppinion, and finally telling a white lie when not asked. I was listening to David Deida last night and he talked about the 3 stages of relationship - 1: selfish/dependant - this is where you're dependent on the other person but how you go through life is a function of what you want. 2: co-operative/independent - this is where both individuals are independent and make compromises that allow for the greatest balance between the needs of the two. 3: true love - this is where you orient your life in a way that neither serves 'what you want' or 'what we want' but what would bring the greatest amount of Love to this moment. Something greater than you/your needs is leading you. Obviously he suggests that the 3rd stage is the one to aim for. So honesty or lies can either serve 1) you, 2) both you and your partner (or other person) and 3) True Love.

Well the most recent outburst involved a stripper and a katana (if I remember correctly)... satisfied? no?

I often do Winn's 'Taichi for Enlightenment' - it's a seremonial form and has absolutely no martial application... I've done Taichi Chuan, so I do know the difference. You might argue that Winn's form 'is not really taichi' - I dont want to get into semantics. 'Mindless' movement is moving from your LTT (or meridian or element, but the centre of the actual movement comes from the LTT) with your mind (UTT) being silent. It's not 'dancing around aimlessly'. I sometimes have spontaneous movement from doing organ/element meditation... each of the different elements have different characteristics to the movements they produce in me - and I cant really distinguish the differences (although I can feel them). I think that this kind of movement is very much usefull, because you learn to be in the present while moving... once this is callibrated, you'll know when your doing it (and when not) during 'day-to-day' life. A lot of planning, thinking, calculating is not needed (and actually impedes development), learning to move without these distractions can teach you to do it in every part of your life. And yes - I'm sure this is what you learn doing martial arts for dozens of years, but I'm pretty sure it can be done much quicker and easier without the martial application.

Welcome, Tea!

So I've got a choice - Irish, Scottish or Welsh... I wish I lived next to Germany - a German robot would be efficient, timely, with stringent quality controls (plus it would probably sing Kraftwork songs in the shower!!)

Hey Buddy - not all Tai Ji is martial. Spontaneous, mindless movement is important imo - whether it's dancing or martial aplication... so I dont want to have to spend 20 years perfecting my form before I get into this mindless movement (this is what you call 'shenfa'?). Do you have any (non-martial) recomendations on how to do this?

so ture... I think the same goes for adults too!

How about puting on some music and doing shaking and crazy dancing?! followed by intuflow... or the other way round... but I reccon that would be really fun - I've got a picture in my mind of little green kiddies giggling at daddy Yoda flailing about crazily. re the ejaculation - I remember my older friends told me all about it when I was maybe 8 or 9... seemed kind of strange to me... I then remember as a 15 year old finding my dad's copy of Chia's healing love book - I tried the finger lock and was astonished that it worked (the main insentive was the lack of mess afterwards ) Whether that's a good thing or not, I dont know... but it did teach me ejaculation control - I decide when to spunk, rather than it 'just happening'... So although having healing love in the bookshelf might not be a good idea if you dont want your kids developing bad habits (the finger lock)... maybe there is another book or something that could be as usefull (David Deida?) I think just learning to slow down and then build up before the final climax rather just spunking as quick as possible is a most valuable lesson. Mothers should not be telling kids this!! does your son have older (male!) friends? or late-teen/20-something cousins/relatives that you could get to talk to him?

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I'm liking the sound of this freeform Tai Ji.. (for more reasons than one - obviously ) I sometimes try doing spontaneous movements after a practice session, I tend to dance around - I bet it's a funny sight. However I feel my movements are un-refined... at some points I feel like my ego kicks in and it's no longer the chi moving me, but me forcing some move. This is beneficial as I can notice and callibrate the difference between effortless movement and ego-based movement, but I'd like to learn how to refine the movements. I know that these guys teach their own version which they call "Wuji Style Free-Form Qigong" - with 9 basic categories of movement... I'd like to find something along these lines. Stuart where did you learn your free-form Tai Ji? How does it work? (as in do you have set movement 'styles' and move between them with effortlessness or how?)

That's what Winn said... the first time he learnt the form he thought 'oh hell, not another taichi interpretation' - he did it just to be polite to the master and left without thinking much about it... He says that later that day he felt a huge, powerfull opening in his heart and realised that the tai chi form was responsible... So he tracked him back down and learnt the form properly... This is an example of being aware and attentive on what effect something has on you - essential for us chop suey enthusiasts You've mentioned the decrease thing before and I agree whole heartedly (without a 'but' this time ). Simplifying one's life is a worthy path and is required for any decent achievement. I just don't think that Taoism has the correct methodology to achieve this. What I get from Taoist practices is an ability to get in touch with my body deeply... I believe that to simplify our existence we need to firstly notice the patterns of behaviour that we 'do'. Then we have to start to loosen the patterns out, qi gong helps with this, but is not the full answer. Some people do emptiness practice as the answer - and it's fine... but like qi gong, imo, it's not the quickest, most elegant way of doing it... I've found two inter-compatible systems that achieve this quickly - one is through Zivorad Slavinski's work and the other through Jerry Stocking's work... Slavinski provides good techniques (I know it feels like 'adding' - but they're techniques that achieve emptying, and very easily and quickly) and Jerry goes in a different direction teaching how one can become more aware of their ego and how to silence it - like a pro-active Adyashanti. If any of you get a chance to play with Jerry Stocking I couldn't recomend it more highly! And Slavinski's techniques are incredible - his Deep Peat technique is probably the quickest, most profound thing you can do (takes maximum 3 hours, can be done by phone)...

ofcourse you can!

I do agree to a certain extent... but... I dont know if you play golf or not... when I look at a golfer swing his club and hit the ball, I'm pretty impressed - it looks so smooth and he never misses the ball!... But lets say that a golf trainer who's been golfing and training for over 20 years looks at the same swing, he'd be seeing so much more than me, his awareness of the same thing would be worlds away, he'd notice all the tiny micromovements, the structure, the breathing etc... Or imagine the same scenario with martial arts instead... The martial arts instructor is aware of much much more than the layperson - and if another martial artist shows him a new move he will pick it up in a different way to say me who has no martial experience... Winn's primordial tai chi is very simple... it is not a martial form... there is no specific alignment, posture, structure, tendon/facia lines etc. To me it resembles far more a Magick ritual than a traditional tai chi form... it's seremonial in nature and the movements and gestures and directions etc. are a kinesthetic representation of Taoist cosmology, it's all in there... Doing the form you're communicating with the universal chi using simple gestures and movements, the power comes from repeat practice, not from body alignment. Regarding the 'chop suey' approach - I actually like it! This may be a flaw in me, but I believe it to be very pragmatic (and quite Taoist) to do what works and discard what doesn't... even if it means mixing different movements from different schools or completely different approaches... It is, ofcourse, very important that if one takes this 'chop suey' approach to be very attentive (both to yourself and the people/places/schools you learn from)... noticing how a single excersise and eventually a combination of excersises affects you internally is far more substantial and usefull then listening to masters laugh at you because you're not following their school and lineage...

Hey Stuart - dont get me wrong, I did enjoy your article, in fact it would be a great place for a newb to start! When I explain 'chi' to people I usually suggest that it's a metaphor for what's going on in the body - the only reason for this is to get them out of their head thinking about 'what the hell is chi' and back into their bodies to actually feel it. The easiest chi to feel is various emotional chi... so I tell people to remember (or even play) as a song/ piece of music that moves them - then when they're listening to it (whether in the mind or with their ears) I tell em to direct their attention inwards and notice what's happening 'inside'... When they 'get it', it's like a whole new world opens up for them - "wow it's moving up my spine into my heart" etc... "so what happens if you move it to the belly?" etc. So not only do they get a sensory experience of it, but also experience of moving it with intention and the effects of having the chi in different places in the body. I also sometimes frame chi as 'attention' or 'awareness' - it's especially usefull when explaining the effects of chi in relationships between people. And I was, in fact, pretty impressed with the list of alternative cultural names for chi... Michael - I think you'd enjoy the ancient Hawaiian language... It's as you describe the vowels, rhythm and consonants make a very definite energetic effects... even 'mana' feels like a very nurturing sound... maybe a bit like 'mama' (is it a coincidence that most cultures have 'mama' as the word for mother?) Stuart - publicise away!! I'd be interested in what you do... you've already made it clear that you're not trying to sell us stuff. all the best f

lol Thanks for that, Peregrino... you just played a big part in a synchronisity! I've been coming up with Joycean style poetry with "eggcorn" type puns. I've been throwing them all away... because when I write down what came up in my head, I find more and more and more interconnections and puns and stuff... so I have to destroy the poem before it has a chance to damage my mind! I'll check that guy's blog out sounds cool! anyway, thanks, you brightened up my day!

Well I'm glad I'm coming accross as scientifically educated, but I'm not... ('interaction design' is my field) I am however interested in science in a layman sort of way, so I end up reading quite a few scientific publications (I used to much more than I do now)... From what I can remember the mice study was either in Scientific American or New Scientist magazine - I usually keep the interesting copies, so I'll sift through and see if I can find it. One of my best friends is an evolitionary biologist and it was he who mentioned the galapagos study, so I'll enquire about the specific study. Ramachandran's an interesting dude, his research on neurology has many applications (including psychology and interaction design). I went to a public lecture course organised by the BBC - he was one of the major speakers.

yeah that bodyball looks like it would work well on the belly at least.. let us know Yoda... I've been actually using the spongey ball Plato describes on my front for a little while (I think Sean suggested it) - not so much on the rib cage though... maybe I'll try it. I also massage the bottom of my feet with a tennis ball after the ankle rotations in intuflow - it's great! highly recomended - I feel much more grounded when doing the 4 corner balancing drill right after. I've found the intuflow spine movements (breathe in - puff up chest and tilt forwards on the pelvis... then breathe out, compress chest, curl sacrum in towards chest) really opens up the front (I sometimes hear a loud crackwith my chest plates shifting)... you can sort of accentuate which part of the chest puffs out and I find it helps make that area softer. And one of the most important things, that none of the HT/qigong people seem to notice is massaging the neuro-lymphatic points!!! It moves stagnant jing and any disslodged toxic sludge through the lymph system and the effects are noticeable (the ma/spine roller things actually massage all the neurolymphatic points along the back which is a great help since you dont need someone else to do it for you) - but the ones that correspond to the front and back channels are around your shoulders...

each of the personal practice areas are a separate forum, rather than a thread like in the main discussion forum.

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man, that's the funniest question I've heard you ask (and you ask a lot of funny questions!)... the answer to it is not so funny... Is a painting just a sequence of brush strokes putting paint on canvas? well - yes and no... On the Galapagos islands many of the bird species have not had any predators for hundreds of thousands of years... Animal behaviour researchers made a kite in the shape of a hawk and flew it all over the island while observing the behaviour of the birds... most of the birds would hide in trees and under rocks... Vilayanur Ramachandran, a world famous neurologist conducted a study where researchers would travel arround the world with two pictures - one has spikey, sharp shapes, the other has soft, round shapes... they would also say aloud two made up words "kaka" and "buba" and ask the people to choose which name went with which picture - 99.99% of people chose 'kaka' for the sharp picture and 'buba' for the soft picture... the study was conducted cross culturally with dozens of different nationalities and languages... I remember reading about a study on learning and its correspondence to genetics... The researchers would take mice and put them through a maze - the ones that performed the best were bred together and the ones who performed the wors were bred together... so you had a 'stupid' group and a 'clever' group.... so the kept doing the maze and kept breeding stupid with stupid and clever with clever... their prediction was that the clever ones would get better at doing the maze (and they were right!) and that the stupid ones would get progressively worse and worse doing the maze - they were wrong... each of the 'stupid' generations got better at doing the maze... so is 'kaka' just a sound? a hawk-shaped kite just a kite? and a stupid mouse just a stupid mouse? I'm trying to illustrate that there is more to things that we do than we may think... At the same time I'm suggesting how some ritual like Tai Chi might work... and I'm also touching on the subject of 'lineage'...

I remember doing a chart of correspondences between aspects of QM and Taoist cosmology (I Ching)... I'll dig it up if anyone's interested...