Boing.

Spring's here, in Monkey's pure land!

This lunchbreak, having broken free of the mountain of words, I did what I could of my forms, standing on what used to be a fine garden (steps down to where they play footy under "g") where semi-private tai chi is possible.

Squishing my feet on the clumpy grass (not enough summertime trampling yet) I realised how much slipping and sliding goes on in normal practice. Such foot-scraping may or may not be good form, but it makes the balance easier. How to spin and kick on a grabby surface?

Euurh, monkey struggles. But the sun shines warmly, mmmm!

Hmmm. Munky scratches head. Different styles abound. Tai Chi is open source though isn't it, no real Authority and many forks in the road ha ha! Here's a sample of the diverging style dialogue, amongst two close relatives. Thanks to Peter B.

At the end of the day though, as is pointed out beings of greater sageliness than me, the Forms are merely the scales to a large extent, and what matters is playing the tune: living, moving, fighting, loving and all that jazz. Hip hop, away I go!

I missed practice this week because it was my birthday, and I spent it doing seated raising the glass exercise.

Last week, however, we did some long, for us anyway, standing exercises. After about 10 mins in the lower embracing position I could swear that my palms seemed to be springing together and/or apart! Is this the strange "dodgy etheric field" that Peter warned us not to think about (post has now been deleted), or the reality of Kong Jin, or just an illusion caused by aching muscles and re-calibrated motor nerves?

Randomness: Before I started poisoning yesterday, D. and I went through what we knew of the Chen style (little). Later, back from being freshly Dr'd. Jon and L. seemed interested in the ideas, but probably think I'm a nutter. "How do you square your scientific mind with concepts of etc." I also told the Dr. he had a monkey-mind, a phrase I've stolen from somewhere (see second ever post).

Still, I'm beginning to feel radically better, which Monkey says is a Good Thing. Onward!

Books

I'm thinking I ought to read and refer to no more than Seven books, or Nine.

Here's some. Follow the links for susequent links to shop-sites. [x] = ISBN.

• Dan Docherty : Complete T.C.C. (his site- very well respected UK teacher, history of HK police training, strong on Martial Applications) : history/applications/+a Wu(?) style form. [1861260334]
• Robert Parry: The T.C. Manual (site) (he also wrote the Teach Yourself TC book(s): v. easy to follow photos of short Yang form + a bit of seasoning. out of print.[0749916990, 074991713-x (pbk)]


• Cheng Man Ch'ing. Cheng Tzu's Thirteen Treatises on T'ai Chi Ch'uan. Translated by Benjamin Pang Jeng Lo and Martin Inn. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books, 1985. [no coordinates I'm afraid, but this lineage-on-a-catalogue-card must be connected with most practitioners, or are we all Players?

I have seen/read/possess others. Not many worthy of mention, I think.

What else: Barefoot Doctor (no intro or link required, surely, but see The Observer/Boots the Chemists/telly if stuck) : Return of the Urban Warrior.

There must be megablogs of Tai Chi sites, all with booklists. 10,000! Monkey Sighs.

Here's one I spied earlier, with a Joke.

Monkey likes jokes, ha ha!

Ahoy!

I'd like you all to say hello to Sandy, author of the Dragon Journals.

Now who's going to play Pigsy?

Essence

The essence of the withdrawing step is that awareness, root, and spirit must be maintained; a distinct contrast to the way an untrained person “backs up,” losing power and reducing his/her capacity to counterattack with any potency. In the philosophical sense, it is about yielding ground or space without losing one’s root, calmness, well-being, and power. It is a Yin movement (sinking and withdrawing) which maintains a powerful Yang potential inside.

[October 2008: Rotten Link!] excerpted from "Don Millers secrets of Repulse Monkey".

monkey-intent

Walking backwards, but with eyes open.


It's a mini-manifesto! No no no I'm not going to write haiku!!