Get the Dao Where I Can

It is very safe to say that over the last 12 months I have been immensly influenced by Daoism.  It has been my way of dealing with the loss of my grandfather, and it will probably be how I deal with the loss of my dad.  It also made me want to take up Tai Chi and play Go.

Both are lovely activities, but neither are at this point my true path (pun intended).  I order my time with Daoism by the following hierarchy:

1) Time in nature, with the right silence, openness, and stillness of mind.  This is where perfect days should be spent.

2) Time with the Daodejing.  Last year I copied passages by hand.  This year I will memorize my favorite passages.  In the future, I might take up calligraphy and really make some beautiful copies.  Also, there is the possibility of copying it in Spanish, French, or other languages.

3) Tai Chi.  I plan to pick it up in the winters, when the land has lost most of its scents and bird song.  True story: I was doing quite a bit of Tai Chi in the winter and then one day I went out in February and I could just smell the spring.  After that, I have not learned any new moves.  I mostly just used it for stretches when we got out of the car during our vacation.  I think when nature speaks to me less, I will take up Tai Chi again.  It's a seasonal thing.

4) The game of Go.  So in the end, I am not going with Go.  A dozen games or so of Go forms the basis of some images that serve as metaphors for the Dao, but after that it just a game.  Granted, an absorbing game full of tactics.  Oh my, just in writing, I am getting an itch to play.  But that is nothing that losing a few games to a computer wont fix.

Go as a metaphor can help in my spiritual enlightenment, but the actual practice of Go does not get past being a game.  And as I get older, I find more satisfaction from getting things done in real life and progressing in useful skills.

I also find more purpose in spirituality.  And I want the time I spend in my life to reflect that.

Tai Chi Notes #3 -- Some footwork fundamentals

Last night my wife went out to a movie with her friends.  This left me the house free -- and I finished the cleaning project, getting the dishes back up, the sink cleaned out and a few other pieces of space work.

I then read a bit, because I had tuckered myself out.  Then I worked through the footwork of the tai chi video I had bought (again, who can believe I bought something?)

On the first run through, my mind does not readily register a "twine step," or at least how it is not a "hook step."  I don't say this to say I am stupid, or that I will never understand this basic piece of footwork.  I'm just being honest about what happened on the first attempt.

I am fascinated by the process of taking something conscious, doing that conscious feedback and then working on it several times until it moves to the unconscious "muscle memory."

Twine step will in several practices be just another one of those pieces.  

Tai Chi Notes #2 -- horse parting mane

I cracked and -- gasp -- spend money on something.  We went to Barnes and Noble and I had money in pocket from Christmas.

It's a DVD/book set called Anatomy of Fitness: Tai Chi.   The set has two closer to complete routines to do, but before moving on to the first of those, the books explains some of the footwork to master.

I have no problem with working on the fundamentals, but I want something to play with as well.  So I present horse parting mane, with a you tube video that gives some good tips as to what to focus on:


My morning wake up (starting today) is: work on starting position in tai chi, do some warm up stretches from there, then some work wild horse parting the mane, and then my squats and push ups for my greasing the groove.

When I return back to the school year, I will have the benefit of full length mirrors (my room used to be an acting room).  I will be able to work on move after move, experimenting with variations and getting pretty good feedback on whether I look like the exemplars.

Tai Chi Notes #1

Source: long you tube video.

• Keep head and eyes up. 
• Don't look down, it changes your balance
• Keep knee perpendicular to ankle, not leaned forward to foot line, or even further.
• Be mindful of shoulders and keep loose and downward
• Shoulders and waist move as a unit
• Knees and toes point in the same direction

Okay, that's already 5 things to be looking for.  My teaching style for others is to teach only a few things and then give feedback on them.  It is only with the fundamentals pushed down the level of automatic that more complex things can be looked at.  

So these are the first criteria of what to look at for my first moves.

Tai Chi Videos

First, a link with some super simple moves explained.

A much bigger video, with first philosophy and then good technical instruction: