MMXII - 3

MMXII - 2

MMXII - 1

December

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.

Tuesday's Lunch

Precision

Sometimes the deep passage that we want is narrow and we need to guide our ship through a precise location.











Leaving the green to port and the red to starboard as we head for the mouth of the river and into the bigger picture.

Samhain - exposed and sheltered

Exposed - but ready for next Spring

Sheltered - but ready for next Spring

By Hand / 3

 

Thursday's Painting: Sara Sentada.

By Hand / 2

Today's watercolour is a 'copy' of a Lucien Freud oil painting. Today's watercolour is a 'copy' of a Lucien Freud oil painting. Today's watercolour is a 'copy' of a Lucien Freud oil painting. Today's watercolour is a 'copy' of a Lucien Freud oil painting. Today's watercolour is a 'copy' of a Lucien Freud oil painting. Today's watercolour is a 'copy' of a Lucien Freud oil painting. Today's watercolour is a 'copy' of a Lucien Freud oil painting. Today's watercolour is a 'copy' of a Lucien Freud oil painting.

By Hand

Practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, ...

think

Bealtaine

earrach spring primavera

Chen Style Sword - 49 Form [seite]

  *  Na Zha Explores the Sea  *  The Monstrous Serpent Turns Over  *  Wei Tuo Offers the Pestle  *  Grinding Disk Sword  *  Closing the Form.

Chen Style Sword - 49 Form [seis]

...  *  Slant Flying  *  The Left Side Holds Up A 1000 Lbs  *  The Right Side Holds Up A 1000 Lbs  *  The Swallow Pecks The Soil  *  The White Ape Offers Fruit  *  The Falling Flowers  *  Thrust Slantwise Up And Down  *  Slant Flying  *  ...

Chen Style Sword - 49 Form

entrenamiento

solsticio de invierno lunar eclipse

This winter solstice was 'brightened' by a Lunar Eclipse. Apparently the first such for about 2000 years.

Chen Style Sword - 49 Form [cuatro]

Pluck the Stars and Change the Constellations * Scoop Up the Moon from the Bottom of the Sea * The Immortal Points the Way * The Phoenix Nods Its Head * The Swallow Pecks the Soil * The White Snake spits out Its Tongue

Chen Style Sword - 49 Form [tres]

* The Black Bear Rolls Over Its Back * The Swallow Pecks the Soil * The White Snake spits out Its Tongue * Slant Flying * The Eagle and the Bear Vie with Their Wits * The Swallow Pecks the Soil

Chen Style Sword - 49 form [dos]

* nod the head * pull the grass in search of the snake * the golden cock stands alone * the immortal points the way * cover and block * the ancient tree entwines the roots * the hungry tiger attacks the food * the blue dragon sways its tail * the wild horse leaps over the brook * the white snake thrusts its tongue * the black dragon sways its tail * Zhong Kwei wields the sword * the Arahat subdues the dragon

Chen Style Sword - 49 form [uno]

preparatory form * opening posture * homage to the sun * the immortal points the way * the blue dragon comes out of the water * protect the knees * close the door * turn around and chop downwards * the blue dragon turns over *xie fei shi - slant flying * spread the wings

Happy Chinese New Year, Spring Festival, Lunar New Year

Here we are looking forward to restarted growth, renewed energy, positive thinking,
looking the tiger in the mouth: I keep reminding myself that "It is not enough to begin
doing something. You have also to persevere, until you finish doing it."

So, keeping up the practice ...

Once In A Blue Moon,

you get to visit a place you wanted to visit for a while back and it's surprisingly different in some respect to what you expected: Collioure at the winter solstice for example.

Once In A Blue Moon ,

you may walk by the willows and enjoy

Once In A Blue Moon,

I appear here, 3 yellow willows surviving the new works, a white anteroom is painted afresh and pictures hung, some old, some new. Plans are crystallising for next trip, our first to Venice.

It's a grand day when you ...

paint a picture

help a friend

sink and relax

practise forms and ba juan jin

replant your rosemarys to roomier, classier pots

Seeing Colour

Our colour vision developed a long time ago to enable our ancestors to identify the newer shoots. Two books, "The Making of the Fittest", By Sean B Carroll and Neil Shubin's "Your Inner Fish", both of which I read with much interest last year, make this point.

My next photo is showing an exerpt from the former, which interest me as one of the 8% mentioned, having difficulty with reds and greens, but not always. However, I'd probably fail on a navigation test!

At 8 pm

al aire libre, de nuevo

A walk in the aroma of "coconut"

"a magic dwells in each new beginning" - HH

Zen proverb: Enlightenment

"Before Enlightenment: chop wood, carry water. After Enlightenment: chop wood, carry water." So straight-forward, so simple.

Zee

"I do like to be beside the seaside,
Oh, I do like to be beside the sea ...", I was humming to myself the other day, walking on the beach, when I came across these lines in the sand:

The moon, at this point, was ebbing the tide, and so the interface had moved away from where the child(?) had drawn the pointer.

the sun hung lowest

The sun hung lowest at my place at 12:04 yesterday. Here's what it looked like at Drom Beag two years ago.

separate right foot

I’m always grateful after class. I enjoy going to share in the practice with others. It's good to synchronise my movements with those of my classmates. I find this gives me a feeling of being energised and relaxed at the same time.

When teaching class I’m thankful each time for the opportunity to deepen my own practice as I’m demonstrating the details of the form for the first time to a learner.

Lately it has been Separate Right Foot. Stepping back from Golden Rooster Standing On Right Leg, forming the ward-offs, transferring the weight, crossing the hands, turning the waist, kicking, arms unfolding “as do the edges of an opening fan”, exerting no strength from the shoulders. Wonderful!

standing like a mountain

taichi: standing like a mountain or standing like a tree on the slopes of a mountainside looking out over the ocean. We try to cultivate this rather than resisting purposely. Becoming rooted is the key.

tai chi: wrestling versus dancing

Marcus Aurelius said, in Meditations, with, I assume, no knowledge of tai chi: "The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing, in that it stands ready for what comes and is not thrown by the unforeseen."

This is a constant tension in our practice, are we going through a form or are we practising applications?

I'm in the latter camp really, it's wonderful to read this book.

(My copy is by Penguin Classics, trans. by Martin Hammond)

la papa creciente

51º 23.3’ North 9º 36.1’West

Chance is always powerful

As Ovid said: let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish. I practise each day to get my hook cast. When we practise together, we emphasise hooking each other, joining our intention to make the interaction more alive.

In a few days I will give a class, an introductory class, to complete beginners. Always a special challenge to take a short time and a crowd and see if something clicks.

Does anyone, me included, walk away the better for it ...

The finger or the Moon

I'm reading The Elements of Tai Chi, by Paul Crompton, at the moment. In his introduction, he says Tai Chi developed at a time when Taoists influenced thinking and conduct at many levels in Chinese society but that now the total situation into which Tai Chi was introduced is gone.

Tai Chi is like a finger pointing at the Moon. The student can either study the finger [Buddha] or look at the Moon [Buddha's teaching].

This seems to be the idea behind Yoshitoshi's picture, done circa 1892, and which I saw recently at the Chester Beatty Library.

His own haiku reads:

Holding back the night

With its increasing brilliance

The summer moon

(Yoshitoshi’s death poem)

Pushing Hands

Pushing Hands is such an essential part of tai chi for me. Dealing with the other person is what it's all about. I'm lucky to be able to push hands at least twice a week - the interaction shows me how much I have still to learn.

Ward Off

Ward off should come from the back of the heart, through the arm(s), the fender of your space, sensitive to the partner (or, opponent), listening to him (her), responding with due diligence, opposite side ready to thwart any effort to invade your space uninvited. Alert, aware, paying attention to your partner(or, opponent) you are giving them your full attention, sunk in stance, relaxed in posture, turning at the waist when needed.

tai chi painting photgraphy travel

tai chi ch'uan, painting, photgraphy, and travel are my 4 current themes to develop self-understanding.

A Topical Thought

The woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.
- Henry David Thoreau

MMVI XI XXVI

This is where I'm at for the past while, working away, a bit here and a bit there. Trying to get into 'The Feast Is Foward' mode, and enjoying it when I do.

September Spiritual

Video of short form from 1960's?

Found this video today on youtube - well worth a look.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl2mvyjHYS0

How Long Must I Practice?

The answer is illustrated quite well at this introductory page for Aikido FAQs. Scroll down to " An old story might tell you some of the mindset you ought to apply when studying martial arts". All your attention must be on finding the Way.

'lifting hands' & 'playing guitar'

these are two positions for rooting discipline when 'the heart of the foot should adhere to the ground' [see Book 4 of my previous entry]. Here, one is reminded of the fundamental rooting practices, standing on one leg first and then the other for several minutes. One can use fingers on the back of a chair at first to help maintain balance and gradually get to the point of not needing the hands at all.

my 20061106 entry continued

Others books that I have read are in the last few years are:

TAI CHI The Supreme Ultimate by Robert Galante, Weiser, ISBN 0-87728-497-0
From p. 89: "The Solo Form presented in this book is the 'short' Yang style as taught to me by Grand Master Cheng Man-ch'ing"

T'AI CHI Classics, trans with commentary by Waysun Liao, Shambhala, ISBN 1-57062-749-5
From p.95: "The T'ai Chi Form originated as the thirteen postures of meditation. these are the eight postures, or directions- ... - in combination with the five different ways to maneuvre the eight meditative postures ..."

Cheng Tzu's Thirteen Treatises on T'ai Chi Ch'uan, by Cheng Man Ch'ing, North Atlantic Books, ISBN 0-938190-45-8
From p. 91: " 'I'm not a meat rack; why do you hang on my body?' "

There Are No Secrets, by Wolfe Lowenthal, North Atlantic Books, ISBN 1-55643-112-0
From p. 61: "Mastery of the art of Tai Chi Chuan is difficult; one of the functions of push hands is to remind us of how far we have to go."

The Tao Of Health and Longevity, by Da Liu, Marlowe & Co., ISBN 1-56924-718-8
From p.52: "Each of the individual movements has a potential use for self-defense, and some are named after this use. Other are named after the movement of animals that they imitate."

"En los árboles canta el viento" : Federico García Lorca

flowers open
days grow
sun-heat again feels good

in our classes we always have a vase of flowers

present scheme of work

3 short forms each day, alternately left-hand side and right-hand side. First, a wake-up one, da capo, followed by a long slow one, adagio, this one is still my most difficult to practise, and then, my favourite, fast and cheerful, allergo. Now, I can look forward to my breakfast because I've made a start.

who maintain the Tao do not want to be full

"Chapter 15

In ancient times, those who were well educated were in communion with heaven, and were subtle, profound, mysterious and penetratingly wise.
Their depth was unfathomable.
Because of this, they appeared reluctant, hesitant, like one wading across a stream in winter;
Wary, as if there were dangers on all four sides;
Solemn, as if a guest;
Yielding, like ice on the verge of melting;
Pure, like uncarved wood;
Broad and expansive, like a valley;
Chaotic, like muddy water.

Who can still muddy water and gradually make it become clear?
Who can make the still gradually become alive through activity?
Those who maintain the Tao do not want to be full.
Just because they are not full they can avoid wearing out and being replaced. "

from
http://www.terebess.hu/english/tao/tamgibbs.html

written published sources

The five main written published sources in the last nine years are in the order I read them over about that time span are:

1 Tai Chi by Paul Tucker, Lorenz Books, ISBN 1-85967-503-4
2 Principles of Tai Chi by Paul Brecher, Thorsons, ISBN 0-7225-3474-4
3 T'ai-Chi, The "Supreme Ultimate" Exercise for Health, Sport, and Self-Defense by Cheng Man-ch'ing and Robert W. Smith, Tuttle & Co., ISBN 0-8048-0560-1
4 The Tai Chi Book by Robert Chuckrow, YMAA Publication Center, ISBN 1-88696-64-7
5 T'ai Chi Ch'uan Ta Wen by Chen Wei-Ming, North Atlantic Books, ISBN 0-938190-67-9

They all helped me at the stage I first read them, the last three in particular are still referred to regularly.

Need for Homework

You have to understand a field well before you develop a good nose for what needs fixing. You have to do your homework. See this article

El lugar y el momento es ahora

Short Form (LHS), GuardianSalutations 1 to 4 and Heart salutations are mostly what I work on alone.

A little more on Figures-of-8

Figures-of-8 have expanded quite a bit since the last time. 2 hands simultaneously describe figures-of-8 in a vertical plane, starting with palms up(say) in front of the the tantien or heart area, the top half reaching out and up for the heavens energy bringing it down through your head and the bottom half reaching down and out to take in earths energy, and then up through your coccyx.

Further expansion of this is when we describe a similar figure-of-8 in a horizontal plane, reaching out around the person in front and coming back through his/her heart to your own, and then continuing through to reach behind and gather the energy from the guardian and bring that back to your own heart.

Finally, we want to emit this to the partner(person in front) ...

Figures-of-8 with palm up & Figures-of-8 with palm down

I am now practicing 4 figures-of-8 with my teacher and fellow classmates. Two with palm up and two with palm down.

The palm up is where we began, at heart height, leading originally with the thumb. So, RH would go anticlockwise, following the thumb up and over the top "circle" of the eight at head height, down to starting position between "circles", thumb now pointing R, palm up and then continuing down to the R around the lower "circle" at tan tien height and on back to the starting position.

LH is similar starting clockwise outwards and upwards, and ...

Another RH one is to begin palm up and leading with pinkie-finger, anticlockwise, inwards and downwards to bottom and back to starting position between "circles", and the clockwise upwards to top and back to the starting position.

LH is similar, starting clockwise inwards and downwards, and ...


Palm Down. First, here is the hardest one. Leading with the thumb, inwards and upwards clockwise to the top, continuing around and down to starting position between "circles", and then down anticlockwise to the bottom and around to the starting position.

LH is similar, starting anticlockwise upwards to top, thumb now pointing L, around and down to starting position between "circles", and then down clockwise to the bottom and around to the starting position.

Much easier is the last one; RH, palm down, following pinkie, lead off outwards, downwards clockwise and back to starting position between "circles", and the anticlockwise outwards and upwards to top and around to starting position.

LH is similar ...

Every Which Way

I'll need everything I have, intellectually, emotionally and physically, to come up with the burst of energy to accomplish a new skill or take in that new lesson.

To know what I'm capable of constant challenge is needed, so that the form must get deeper and on top of the basics I must add more twists and turns that bring me into the form more and more.

Verve VE-R-VE Verve

I was in Barcelona recently and saw this beautiful picture by Matisse. It's gouache and paper cut-outs work done in 1943 measuring approximately 71 cm by 38 cm. Verve IV it's called. I like the hearts working, the dancing and the movement. Great picture to express the joy and movement of tai chi.

I'm back to Long Form again, and salutations and figures-of -eight.

winter work

Now that the evenings here are getting ever so slightly longer, despite the mornings getting later still, it is time to consolidate and practice the basics. Forms, partner work, figure-of-eights are the order of the day. It's months since I last did a long form, which I last did on a daily basis in June. The contrast between then, in Spain, at 07:00 at 24ºC and here now, where even at noon in the garage on a good temperature day, the temperature rarely gets to comforable is only one excuse. However, it's not all bad - good work is being done.