Congrats to Danny R!!

Congrats to Danny Rappleyea on his successful Red Sash Test!!

Danny has been working diligently to learn the entire Liehubafa form and the hard work has paid off! On December 6th, 2023, Danny lead his form class in the entire form and passed his short vocabulary test.

Danny is an great example of making progress even though schedules might get in the way. When he’s out of town and not able to come to classes, he always comes back well practiced and ready for a new posture.

This accomplishment is also a credit to his senior student. When one of us is raised in rank, we all are. Steve Cox, Susanna Henley, and Dorothy Wright can stand proudly with him!!

Congratulations again to Danny! As you know, the learning really begins at this point. And we all look forward to learning together - the fun is in the details!!

Glossary of Chinese Terms, Names and Phrases

Any student of LaoMa’s will be very familiar with his admonishment to use a Chinese dictionary to look up terms for yourself! And he was committed to providing documentation that would allow students follow his example.

He also wanted information to be easy to find and available to his students - so they could start begining to assess things for themselves and build a deeper knowledge of the martial arts world and larger culture.

Many students who have attempted to follow this lead will be familiar with the difficulty finding some definitions and terms used frequently. It’s even harder for those used infrequently!

In order to make it easier, LaoMa and his senior students compiled a Glossary of Chinese Terms, Names and Phrases into one spot. As his Number One, I feel it important to continue this tradition and have this resource available to anyone who would find it valuable. So we’ve done a new printing of the collection and have it available for those who would like a copy.

This glossary contains 94 pages of terms, with Chinese characters, pinyin and often Wade-Giles romanizations, plus tones and definitions and a newly introduced index. It is the most extensive glossary of terms useful to taiji students that we know of. The table of contents is presented here. Click here to view sample pages.

His summary of this document is below or you can read about it on our website here. Please contact me if you’d like a copy. They are $25.

A unique reference work with a short history of romanization systems, a bibliography of 19 sources, and the characters, pinyin, and tones for over 640 Chinese names and terms related to the study of Taijiquan, arranged by category. An invaluable aid for students interested in deepening their understanding of Chinese language and culture.

This glossary contains 94 pages of terms, with Chinese characters, pinyin and often Wade-Giles romanizations, plus tones and definitions and a newly introduced index. It is the most extensive glossary of terms useful to taiji students that we know of. The table of contents is presented here. Click here to view sample pages.

Chinese terms are in the pinyin romanization. Terms in brackets, [ ], are in the Wade-Giles romanization, or in the romanization most often seen in literature. The names of notable Chinese persons are in the romanization most commonly seen in literature.

A limitation in the computer program that was used to create this document prevents the displaying of a tone mark on an uppercase letter. In those cases where this occurs in this document, we have used a lowercase letter with the proper tone mark, even though it may make the word or phrase appear unusual. In addition, the Chinese characters for the Taijiquan techniques lu and lie are specific to Taijiquan and are not generally available in computer fonts. In this document, we have substituted those characters most often used by Chinese Taijiquan players when they refer to these techniques in computer-generated documents.

This glossary is a living document. The authors welcome suggestions and additions. Readers may contact LaoMa with comments regarding this glossary.

Raise in Rank - Brian White Red Sash

I’m delighted to congratulate Brian White on a very successful Red Sash test!

Brian completed the first stage of learning taiji by completed and performing the complete Wudangshan 108 Taiji long form on Sept 18th - a little shy of his 2 year anniversary!

Janice, his wife, joined his classmate to cheer on the performance.

Last week, Brian completed all the vocabulary recitation that goes along with the performance part of the test and we were happy to wrap up the dantian in a new Red Sash!!

As LaoMa would say “NOW is when your learning starts”.

Steve Cox: Raise in Rank!

A big congratulations to Steve Cox for completing Yellow Sash!! After many years of study, I’m so happy to be able to officially recognize his hard work and dedication to our art form.

We are all lucky to have Steve with us in classes. He is dedicated and focused with a curious and critical mind that serves all taiji players well! His classmates also benefit from such a patient elder brother!

We recently reinstated the advancement program based off of the program that was originally established for Magic Tortoise with Dr. Jay and LaoMa. The program provides a good guide to levels of study and can give students a pathway through the vast components of taijiquan!

Yellow sash indicates growth in taiji principles.

A student is eligible to wear the yellow (earth) sash when they are able to demonstrate significant command of internal principles in form: empty stepping, relaxation, proper structure and posture, good stance work, whole body movement, matching, hip mobility, knee stability, lightness and agility as examples.

Knives, Bows, Arrows and Practice

Dao by John Neu

Left to right: John Neu, Wanda Neu, Dorothy Wright, Violet Anderson

As many people know -there is NOTHING like having the right tool for the job. This holiday l got the rare treat of someone creating that for me and his classmates.

Let me take a second to show off the new practice daos (knifes) that John Neu made for myself, Dorothy and Wanda. There is nothing like a perfect weapon to make you feel like a form is elevated!

For those that don't know John, he is a very skilled woodworker who also happens to be one of our senior students. He also that entertains us with so many colorful thoughts and stories. John is also is a very dedicated student of Japanese archery - kyudo. He recently shared this short blurp with me. While he wrote this about his kyudo study, I see it as a good way to approach training in any discipline and thought this the perfect time to share this with you all.

Why Kyudo (or anything)? 

January 4, 2022 

It starts with a little boy who likes bows and arrows: The arrow made of a cat-tail stalk with a beef-bone point is in mid-flight towards a stump thirty yards away. Too far. Impossibly far. But it is going to hit. He knows. An acquaintance presuming the role of a teacher once said: ”Your Kyudo is no better than my nine-year old son’s skateboard obsession.” I say: ”Then I am so happy for Lance.” Happy? Why? In formal practices, I’ve heard about ”deep intimacy with your own body.” What is that? I also heard: ”Many trees in the forest, like us. Now descend through the trunk of any one of these into the subterranean net of living tendrils. Down there, the identity of ’this tree’ is lost. Even its ’thingness’ dissolves into energy and movement.” For the Kyudoka with his years of formal training, may his Kai (full draw) be just such a descent as this. Like the little boy, but different. 

May we all feel our energy sink to our roots to mingle together!

Can you Grasp the Sparrow’s Tail?

The ever elusive Sparrow. Sometimes it feels as if it is not for mere mortals to grasp the tail… surely those who manage to do so have been blessed by celestials.

Thanks to our fabulous student Steve Cox for sharing this delightful work of art! And for sending us into our weekend with beauty and a smile on our face!

Join us on Saturday and we’ll be attempting our less graceful attempts to capture that tail!

Tranquility and Taiji Training Effecting Daily Life

Taiji is commonly practiced for health and mediation. Moving our bodies regularly improves our health! Standing on one leg is good balance practice. Stance work strengthens our legs. Moving slowly with full attention is very meditative. And on and on….. The benefits of practicing taiji are many and can be expounded upon at length by many - those that practice and those that don’t. I enjoy hearing them all and often agree (who doesn’t like to hear that their favorite activity heals all ills and soothes all souls!) However, often these benefits feel superficial to the deep internal training that can happen with a continued and focused practice.

I rarely run across good explanations of how our minds in our daily lives are impacted by our taiji practice. Brisbane Chen Tai Chi has managed to do just that here. This depiction is a near perfect representation of how earning to do form with mental relaxation sneaks into the rest of our lives.

And, as a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ll end mine here and leave you with these images.

You can follow Brisbane Chen Tai Chi on facebook at :https://www.facebook.com/Brisbane-Chen-Tai-Chi-128273090553599/?__tn__=-UC*F

LaoMa remembered

We celebrated the Ox New Year this past weekend with our sister school, Magic Tortoise and it was great! Although, we were unable to celebrate in person, we were very happy to enjoy the vibrant spirit of gathering together each year.

At the party, we shared a video remembrance of our teacher and very dear friend. It is with such great joy and sorrow we’re able to share it now. There is great joy in seeing LaoMa in younger days and in more recent days. What a pleasure to see him moving and laughing with us again. And what sorrow in our hearts feeling that space so open and empty now.

Please indulge us in this remembrance of our cherished friend. We have leaned on the words of his close friend and taiji brother, Dr. Jay, as well as one of his Senior Students and friend Debra Dean. You’ll hear Violet’s voice speak Debra’s words. Dr. Jay voices his own remembrances.