The Three Treasures

Repost from December 17, 2023

The Three Treasures

My Body
Feelings, Emotions, Body-Self, Past-Present, Id-Ego,
Physical Health, Unconscious Dimensions, Breathing, 
Eating, Moving, Sleeping, Digesting, DNA, Sexuality,
Drinking, Vitality, Brain, Immediate Environment.

My Mind
Thoughts, Emotions, Experiences-Reflections, Ego, Goals
Past-Present-Future, Language Culture, Heart-Mind, Attitudes,
Beliefs, Opinions, Histories, Will, Hope, Memories, Spirit,
Brain-Body interactions with mundane environment.

My Actions
What I Do Today. My Behaviors and Character. 
Family Life.  Social and Community Interactions.  
Purposeful activity towards the Future.  Moral-Ethical Acts.
Practices, Exercises, Play.  My employment or work.  

The Three Treasures are intertwined, integrated, interconnected, involved, and interwoven in some way all the time; all to the benefit of well-being and good health.  They can become disconnected and conflicting which produces poor bodily health, mental confusion, and useless, evil, or self-destructive acts.  Balance, clear purpose, and reflection are some essentials.  

We can separate these aspects of Being-In-The-World intellectually when reflecting; when Acting and Doing they are integrated.  

The Living Body is the foundation of Mind and the means of flourishing Actions.  Consciousness requires a Living Body.  

I don't find it scientifically plausible to accept notions of our having consciousness after death, having an invisible immortal soul, being ghostly beings, having immortal supernatural lives in fanciful heavens or hells, or other imaginary religious memes about our "after-lives."  

Qigong routines are intended to nourish, refresh, rejuvenate, and reenergize our Living Bodies.  Seeking immortality, spiritual rebirth, or special magical super-powers via Qigong, ascetism, or prayers do not seem reasonable to me.  Seeking and cultivating good health and longevity - Yes!  

- By Michael P. Garofalo,  9/2022

Cultivating Longevity (Yang Sheng Gong)

The Longevity Plan. By John D. Jay and Jane Ann Day, wth Matthew LaPlante. 2018, 304 pages. 1. Eat good food. 2. Master your mind-set. 3. Build your place in a positive community. 4. Be in motion. 5. Find your rhythm. 6. Make the most of your environment. 7. Proceed with purpose. John D. Jay, M.D., Cardiologist, Electro-physiologist.

Books by Tom Bisio      Books by Eva Wong       Books by Livia Kohn

Books by Ken Cohen     Books by Yang Jwing-Ming

Three Treasures - Wikipedia

"In long-established Chinese traditions, the "Three Treasures" are the essential energies sustaining human life:

• Jing 精 "nutritive essence, essence; spirit, sperm, seed; extract; refined, perfected"
• Qi 氣 "breath, spirit; air, vapor; vitality, energy, force; vigor; attitude"
• Shen 神 "spirit; soul, mind; god, deity; supernatural being"

This jing-qi-shen ordering is more commonly used than the variants qi-jing-shen and shen-qi-jing.

The Three Treasures or Three Jewels (Chinese: 三寶; pinyin: sānbǎo; Wade–Giles: san-pao) are theoretical cornerstones in traditional Chinese medicine and practices such as neidan, qigong, and tai chi. They are also known as jing, qi, and shen (Chinese: 精氣神; pinyin: jīng-qì-shén; Wade–Giles: ching ch'i shen; "essence, breath, and spirit")."

"The Three Treasures or Three Jewels (Chinese: 三寶; pinyin: sānbǎo; Wade–Giles: san-pao) are basic virtues in Taoism. Although the Tao Te Ching originally used sanbao to mean "compassion", "frugality", and "humility", the term was later used to translate the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha) in Chinese Buddhism, and to mean the Three Treasures (jing, qi, and shen) in Traditional Chinese Medicine."
-  Three Treasures in Taoism

Guarding the Three Treasures.  By Daniel P. Reid.  Simon, 1993, 484 pages.

The Three Treasures.  By Jong Kook Baik.  2019, 397 pages.  

Quintain Poetry: Rhyme Schemes for Quintain Poems

Index to Rhyme Schemes for Quintains

By Michael P. Garofalo

 

Q = Quintain Rhyme Scheme
Quintains, Pentastichs, Tankas, Quintillas
End of Line rhyme
Sorted by Rhyme Pattern

 

AAAAA Bellingham Q #168, 1517, 1580, 1586, 1632,
        # 1643, 1697, 1814, 1908

AAABB Cayucos Q # 423, 765, 1243, 1459, 1759,
        # 1807, 1810, 1892, 2043, 2142, 2508

AAABC Ferndale Q #824, 1742, 2118, 2153, 2158

AABAA Forks Q #477, 1801, 1858, 1866

AABAB Illwaco Q # 1648, 1740

AABBA Limerick Q #577, 927, 1113, 1642, 1652
        # 2067, 2068, 2069, 2078, 2092

AABBB Eureka Q #7, 1554, 1584, 1883, 1960, 2122, 2148

AABBC Astoria Q # 791, 1616, 1680, 1803

AABCC Mendocino Q # 69, 538, 1225, 1633, 1869,
        # 1980, 2019, 2038, 2267, 2491, 2743

ABABA Sicilian Q #702. 1107, 1611, 2114, 2126, 2130,
        # 2202

ABABB English Q #726, 1197, 1498, 2110, 2113, 2127, 2135,
        # 2157, 2160, 2177

ABACC Inverness Q # 1788, 2062, 2131, 2147, 2515

ABBAA Spanish Q #862, 1464, 1465, 1485, 1575,
        # 1666, 1800, 2211

ABBBA Queets Q #1609, 1743, 1776

ABBBB Newport Q # 1667, 1674, 1669

ABBCB Ventura Q #1000, 1618, 2136, 2490, 2120

ABBCC Yachats Q # 1781, 1804, 1505, 2020, 2024,
        # 2032, 2033, 2040, 2045, 2097

ABCBA Envelope Q #288, 1806

ABCBB Coos Q #669, 1213, 1577, 1767, 1784, 1904, 1909, 1984
        # 2159, 2030, 2034, 2037, 2058, 2145

ABCBC Cambria Q # 2057, 2070, 2075, 2095, 2098

ABCCA Brookings Q #1113, 1967, 1974

ABCCC Fortuna Q #1460, 1777, 1865, 1955

ABCDA Crapsey Q #170, 214, 280, 1191, 1489,
        # 1499

ABCDC Monchielle Q #1594

ABCDE Concrete Q #1203, 1441, 1473, 2093, 2144

ABCDE Didactic Q #1551, 1852

ABCDE Free Verse Q #4, 1730, 1861, 1867, 1877,
        # 2039, 2081

ABCDE Gogyohkas Tanka Q # 1661, 1504, 1760, 1762

ABCDE Imagist Q # 1716, 1723, 1751

ABCDE Minimalist Tanka Q #141, 222, 1769

ABCDE Pentastich Q #194, 585, 597, 1730, 2011

ABCDE Prose Poem Q #1455, 1561, 1672, 1867, 1877

ABCDE Tankas Traditional Q #603, 604, 2021, 2031

ABCDE Wakas Q #603, 902, 1022, 2041

!@ #@! Shape/Concrete Q # 1441, 1203, 1731, 2055, 2073, 2074,
        # 2088, 2093, 2144, 2234, 2316, 2357, 2405, 2455

X$&eG Typographical Q # 21, 187, 189, 470, 1012, 1203,
        # 1553, 1940, 2004, 2074, 2179

xxxxx Free Verse Q # 4, 1730, 1861, 1867, 1877, 2081,
        # 2112, 2316

xxxxx If-Switch Q # 1505, 1939, 1955, 1967, 1974, 2020,
        # 2030, 2045, 2096, 2097

xxxxx 1 Syllable Q # 2113, 2167, 2224, 2394
xxxxx 2 Syllables Q # 2122, 2173
xxxxx 3 Syllables Q # 2110, 2114, 2118
xxxxx 4 Syllables Q # 2148, 2153, 2157
xxxxx 5 Syllables Q # 1633, 2112, 2176, 2275
xxxxx 6 Syllables Q # 2120, 2177
xxxxx 7 Syllables Q # 2156
xxxxx 8 Syllables Q # 2155, 2178, 2490
xxxxx 10 Syllables Q # 1980, 2126, 2135

xxxxx Nonsense Q # 2067, 2079, 2080, 2113, 2170

xxxxx Riddle Q # 636, 1199, 1906, 2059, 2055, 2072, 2094
        # 2108, 2109, 2289

xxxxs Sonnet Q # 904, 1513, 2077, 2154, 2229, 2303,

 

Quintains - Research

Quintains: 2,100+ Quintains (Free Online)

Quintain Poetry Rhyme Schemes

Syllable Counting for Quintain Poems

Quintain Sonnet Forms ( 5252, 555, 553 )

Quintains: Bibliography, Links, Research

Poetry - Research

Syllable Counting for Quintains

Poetry by Michael P. Garofalo

Updated on January 31, 026

 

Cultivating Taste

Repost from October 2022

I have been reading books by and about John Dewey (1859-1952).  I favor many of the positions of the American Pragmatist philosophers.  

The mind-Body arts and disciplines I practice and write about are useful for maintaining fitness and good health, helping with self-defense at a number of levels, encouraging oneself and others to be peaceful and calm, reducing anxieties and tension, balancing internal forces, opening one up to interesting cultural and philosophical Eastern traditions, and having a dignity and beauty associated with their practice.  I judge them to be "good," and exemplars of "good taste."  They seem right and noble to me, based on broader judgments as to value, and not just my personal preferences or habits.       

"Well, a vast number of our moral perceptions also are certainly of this secondary and brain‑born kind. They deal with directly felt fitnesses between things, and often fly in the teeth of all the prepossessions of habit and presumptions of utility. The moment you get beyond the coarser and more commonplace moral maxims, the Decalogues and Poor Richard's Almanacs, you fall into schemes and positions which to the eye of common‑sense are fantastic and overstrained. The sense for abstract justice which some persons have is as eccentric a variation, from the natural-history point of view, as is the passion for music or for the higher philosophical consistencies which consumes the soul of others. The feeling of the inward dignity of certain spiritual attitudes, as peace, serenity, simplicity, veracity; and of the essential vulgarity of others, as querulousness, anxiety, egoistic fussiness, etc‑-are quite inexplicable except by an innate preference of the more ideal attitude for its own pure sake. The nobler thing tastes better, and that is all that we can say. “Experience” of consequences  may truly teach us what things are wicked, but what have consequences to do with what is mean and vulgar?"  ....


"The word "taste" has perhaps got too completely associated with arbitrary liking to express the nature of judgments of value. But if the word be used in the sense of an appreciation at once cultivated and active, one may say that the  formation of taste is the chief matter wherever values enter in, whether intellectual, aesthetic or moral.  Relatively immediate judgments, which we call tact or to which we give the name of intuition, do not precede reflective inquiry, but are the funded products of much thoughtful experience. Expertness of taste is at once the result and the reward of constant exercise of thinking.  Instead of there being no disputing about tastes, they are the one thing worth disputing about, if by "dispute" is signified discussion involving reflective inquiry.  Taste, if we use the word in its best sense, is the outcome of experience brought cumulatively to bear on the intelligent appreciation of the real worth of likings and enjoyments.  There is nothing in which a person so completely reveals himself as in the things which he judges enjoyable and desirable, Such judgments are the sole alternative to the domination of belief by impulse, chance, blind habit and self-interest. The formation of a cultivated and effectively operative good judgment or taste with respect to what is aesthetically admirable, intellectually acceptable and morally approvable is the supreme task set to human beings by the incidents of experience."
-  John Dewey, The Construction of Good in the Quest for Certainty, 1929

Quintain Poetry: The One Syllable Quintain

 Syllable Counting for Quintains

Note: In the first ten types, listed below, the number of
syllables per line must be the same for each of the
five lines in the quintain stanza.

 

1 Syllable Quintain

Examples: # 2224, 2394

nose
hole
blow
snot
out
- Mike Garofalo, # 2224

 

my

Mind

moves

my

Time

Mike Garofalo, # 2394

A line with only one syllable is sometimes
referred to as a monometer.

 

2 Syllables Quintain

Examples: # 2116

statue
deep blue
sitting
so still
Sunday
- Mike Garofalo, # 2116

A line with only two syllables is sometimes
referred to as a dimeter.

 

Bundled Up:

Quintains, Tankas, Pentastichs, and Onions

Quintain Poetry By Mike Garofalo

Bundled Up, Volume 1
Quintain Poems 1 - 1,000

Bundled Up, Volume 2
Quintain Poems 1,000 - 1,500

Bundled Up, Volume 3
Quintain Poems 1,500 - 2,000

Bundled Up, Volume 4
Quintain Poems 2,000 - 2,500

Bundled Up, Volume 5
Quintain Poems 2,500 - 3,000

 

Quintains - Research

Quintains: 2,100+ Quintains (Free Online)

Quintain Poetry Rhyme Schemes

Syllable Counting for Quintains

Quintain Sonnet Forms ( 5252, 555, 553 )

Quintains: Bibliography, Links, Research

Poetry - Research

Poetry by Michael P. Garofalo

 

Dao De Jing 45 Tao Te Ching

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

Chapter 45


"What is most perfect seems imperfect,
But using it doesn't use it up.
What is most full seems empty,
But using it doesn't wear it down.
Great straightness seems crooked;
Great skill seems clumsy;
Great eloquence seems hesitant.
Movement conquers cold,
But stillness conquers heat.
Clearness and serenity
Are beneath-heaven's norm."
-  Translated by Herrymon Maurer, 1985, Chapter 45   



"Sit quietly
focus and forget
rest with the great achievement.
The ancient child asks
"what is the great achievement?"
It is beyond description in any language
it can only be felt intuitively
it can only be expressed intuitively. 
Engage a loose, alert, and aware
body, mind, and sound
then look into the formless
and perceive no thing.
See yourself as a sphere
small at first
growing to encompass
the vastness of infinite space. 
Sit quietly
focus and forget then
in a state of ease and rest
secure the truth of the great achievement.
Employing the truth will not exhaust its power
when it seems exhausted it is really abundant
and while human art will die at the hands of utility
the great achievement is beyond being useful.
Great straightness is curved and crooked
great intelligence is raw and silly
great words are simple and naturally awkward. 
Engaged movement drives out the frozen cold
mindful stillness subdues the frenzied heart.
Sit quietly
focusing
forgetting
summon order from the void
that guides the ordering of the universe."
-  Translated by John Bright-Fey, 2006, Chapter 45  



"The greatest perfection seems inadequate,
But it is unfailing in its usefulness;
What is brimful seems empty,
But it is inexhaustible in its usefulness.
The completely straight seems crooked, the greatest skill seems awkward,
The greatest eloquence seems like stammering.
Activity overcomes cold,
But stillness overcomes heat.
Only by purity and stillness will the world be governed."
-  Translated by Herman Ould, 1946, Chapter 45  



"Esteem lightly your greatest accomplishment, your patience will not fail.
Reckon your great fullness to be emptiness, your strength will not become exhausted.
Count your rectitude as foolishness,
Know your cleverness to be stupidity,
Recognize your eloquence to be stammering words,
And you will find that
As movement overcomes cold, and as stillness overcomes heat, even so, he who knows the true secret of tranquility
Will become a pattern for all mankind."
-  Translated by Isabella Mears, 1916, Chapter 45  




大成若缺.
其用不弊. 
大盈若沖.
其用不窮. 
大直若屈.
大巧若拙.
大辯若訥. 
躁勝寒.
靜勝熱. 
清靜為天下正. 
-  Chinese characters, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 45


ta ch'êng jo ch'üeh.
ch'i yung pu pi. 
ta ying jo ch'ung.
ch'i yung pu ch'iung.
ta chih jo ch'u.
ta ch'iao jo cho.
ta pien jo no.
tsao shêng han.
ching shêng jê.
ch'ing ching wei t'ien hsia chêng.
-  Wade-Giles Romanization, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 45




"The highest perfection is like imperfection,
And its use is never impaired.
The greatest abundance seems meager,
And its use will never fail.
What s most straight appears devious,
The greatest skill appears clumsiness;
The greatest eloquence seems like stuttering.
Movement overcomes cold,
But keeping still overcomes heat.
Who is calm and quiet becomes the guide for the universe."
-  Translated by Lin Yutang, 1955, Chapter 45 



"La Gran Perfección parece insuficiente,
pero surte un efecto infinitamente eficaz.
La Gran Plenitud es de apariencia vacía,
pero su acción es inagotable.
La Gran Rectitud es en apariencia torcida.
La Gran Habilidad es en apariencia torpe.
La Gran Elocuencia es en apariencia incongruente.
El movimiento vence al frío.
La quietud vence al calor.
Lo pacífico y sereno son las cosas que restauran
el orden del Universo."
-  Translation from Wikisource, 2013, Capitulo 45



"He who sees that his highest attainments are always incomplete may go on working indefinitely.
He who sees his greatest possessions to be inadequate may go on acquiring forever.
His highest rectitude is but crookedness.
His greatest wisdom is but foolishness.
His sweetest eloquence is but stammering.
Action overcomes cold; inaction overcomes heat.
With virtue and quietness one may conquer the world."
-  Translated by Walter Gorn Old, 1904, Chapter 45  

A typical webpage created by Mike Garofalo for each one of the 81 Chapters (Verses, Sections) of the Tao Te Ching (Daodejing) by Lao Tzu (Laozi) includes over 25 different English language translations or interpolations for that Chapter, 5 Spanish language translations for that Chapter, the Chinese characters for that Chapter, the Wade-Giles and Hanyu Pinyin transliterations (Romanization) of the Mandarin Chinese words for that Chapter, and 2 German and 1 French translation of that Chapter.  Each webpage includes a Google Translate option menu for reading the entire webpage in many other languages.  Each webpage for each one of the 81 Chapters of the Tao Te Ching [246 CE Wang Bi version] includes extensive indexing by key words, phrases, and terms (concordance) for that Chapter in English, Spanish, and the Wade-Giles Romanization.  Each webpage on a Chapter of the Daodejing includes recommended reading in books and websites, a detailed bibliography, some commentary, links, research leads, translator sources, and other resources for that Chapter.  

     A Top Tier online free resource for English and Spanish readers, researchers, Daoist devotees, scholars, students, fans and fellow travelers on the Way. 

Chapter 45, Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu  Chapter 45

Chapter and Thematic Index (Concordance) to the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

English Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Spanish Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Ripening Peaches: Taoist Studies and Practices

Taoism: A Selected Reading List

Process Philosophy

One Old Daoist Druid's Final Journey  

How to Live a Good Life: Advice from Wise Persons

Quintain Poetry: The Bellingham Quintain Rhyme Scheme

 Bellingham Quintain Rhyme Scheme

AAAAA

Examples:

AAAAA Bellingham Q #1517, 1580, 1586, 1632,
        # 1643, 1697, 1814, 1908

Bellingham Quintain Rhyme Scheme Prosody

A. raking rust colored leaves
A. from under a sweet gum tree
A. tossed by a November breeze
A. scattered randomly---
A. my head drips sweat free

- Mike Garofalo, # 1517

Suddenly, the wind did rise
Blowing higher King Tides.

     Spraying high on cliff sides,
     Sucking sand side to side—

We stepped back. Mesmerized!

- Mike Garofalo, # 1586

Bundled Up:

Quintains, Tankas, Pentastichs, and Onions

Quintain Poetry By Mike Garofalo

Bundled Up, Volume 1
Quintain Poems 1 - 1,000

Bundled Up, Volume 2
Quintain Poems 1,000 - 1,500

Bundled Up, Volume 3
Quintain Poems 1,500 - 2,000

Bundled Up, Volume 4
Quintain Poems 2,000 - 2,500

Bundled Up, Volume 5
Quintain Poems 2,500 - 3,000

 

Quintains - Research

Quintains: 2,100+ Quintains (Free Online)

Quintain Poetry Rhyme Schemes

Syllable Counting for Quintains

Quintain Sonnet Forms ( 5252, 555, 553 )

Quintains: Bibliography, Links, Research

Poetry - Research

Poetry by Michael P. Garofalo

 

Flight From Boredom

"No pleasure endures unseasoned by variety."
-  Publilius Syrus  

"The essence of pleasure is spontaneity."
-  Germaine Greer

"Why not seize the pleasure at once, how often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparations."
-  Jane Austen

"Perhaps all pleasure is only relief."
- William Burroughs

"Man, Nietzsche contended, is a being that has leapt beyond the "bestial bounds of the mating season" and seeks pleasure not just at fixed intervals but perpetually.  Since, however, there are fewer sources of pleasure than his perpetual desire for pleasure demands, nature has forced man on the "path of pleasure contrivance."  Man, the creature of consciousness whose horizons extend to the past and the future, rarely attains complete fulfillment within the present, and for this reason experiences something most likely unknown to any animal, namely boredom.  This strange creature seeks a stimulus to release him from boredom.  If no such stimulus is readily available, it simply needs to be created.  Man becomes the animal that plays.  Play is an invention that engages the emotions; it is the art of stimulating the emotions.  Music is a prime example.  Thus, the anthropological and physiological formula for the secret of art: "The flight from boredom is the mother of all art." "
-  Rudiger Safranski, Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography, p. 23



Seven Pleasures: Essays on Ordinary Happiness  By Willard Spiegelman.  The seven simple pleasures discussed are: dancing, reading, walking, looking, listening, swimming, and writing.  If you included Taijiquan as "dancing" then all of these can be solitary activities.  Picador, 2010.  208 pages.  ISBN: 9780312429676. 

Pleasure and the Good Life: Concerning the Nature, Varieties, and Plausibility of Hedonism.  By Fred Feldman.  Clarendon Press, 2006.  240 pages.  ISBN: 978-0199297603.  VSCL. 

Pleasure and Enjoyment: Quotations, Sayings, Information

Hedonistic and Epircurean Philosophy

The Five Senses  

Play

Exercising with a Ball

Martial Arts, physical culture, and Qigong enthusiasts can benefit from using a medicine ball when doing exercises.  There are many routines developed by Taijiquan and Qigong masters using a medicine ball.   Qigong Ball exercisers can get into a calm mode, mellow their mood, and go with the Flow.  

Medicine Ball Training and Exercises: Bibliography, Links, Resources .  Prepared by Mike Garofalo.  A general introduction to the use of medicine balls in exercise programs. 

I developed my own medicine ball routine called: Magic Pearl Qigong. 

Magic Pearl Qigong, Part I, Movements 1-8 .   Instructions, Bibliography, Links, Handouts, Resources, Mythological Associations, Lore.  Prepared by Mike Garofalo. 
The Magic Pearl Qigong can be a very vigorous physical culture routine if you increase the weight of the ball, lower the stances, and increase the number of repetitions of each movement.  Serious Qigong Ball enthusiasts use a very light wooden ball, move slowly, stay relaxed, sink, play.  

In addition, upper body strength and athletic fitness is also be improved by practicing longer Taijiquan Forms using weapons like the saber, sword, cane, and staff. 

Yang Style of Tai Chi Chuan, Standard 24 Form

My webpage on the Standard 24 Taijiquan Form has been a very popular webpage on the Cloud Hands Tai Chi Chuan Website since 2001.  In the sidebar of this blog, you will find a quick index to this webpage.   

Standard Simplified Taijiquan 24 Form. Research by Michael P. Garofalo, M.S. This webpage includes a detailed bibliography of books, media, links, online videos, articles, and resources. It provides a list of the 24 movement names in English, Chinese, French, German and Spanish, with citations for sources of the movement names. It provides detailed descriptions of each movement with black and white line illustrations and photographs. It includes relevant quotations, notes, performance times, section breakdowns, basic Tai Chi principles, and strategies for learning the form. This hypertext document was last last updated in December of 2017.  

The Peking (Bejing) Chinese National orthodox standard simplified 24 movement T'ai Chi Ch'uan form, created in 1956, is the most popular form practiced all around the world. This form uses the Yang Style of Taijiquan.  

There is also a famous short Tai Chi Chuan form, created by Professor Cheng Man-ch'ing in the 1940's.  It has 37 movements in the Yang Style of Taijiquan.

My 24 Form webpage provides many good suggestions for a person learning this basic Tai Chi Chuan Form of 24 movements on their own if there is no Tai Chi class in their area.

I started learning Taijiquan in 1986.  I was taught the Standard 24 Movement T'ai Chi Ch'uan Form in the Yang Style of T'ai Chi Ch'uan.  I learned it from Aikido Sensei Frank McGourick in Whittier, California.  

In 1986, were no books or instructional videotapes on this popular form.  In 2019, there are dozens of books and instructional DVDs, videotapes, UTube demonstrations by women and men, streaming content, and scores of webpages on the subject of the 24 Taijiquan Form.  

Sensei McGourick also taught me the standard Long Form of the Yang Style of Tai Chi Chuan.  You hit the floor a lot in Aikido, it is vigorous, and it is very challenging for anyone, and it was too hard for me.  So, being a man in his 40's, and working 50 hours a week as a library administrator of 22 libraries in the busy and growing San Gabriel Valley, I practiced only Taijiquan and Qigong at the Aikido Ai Dojo in Whittier with Dr. Robert Moore and Sensei McGourick.

The most detailed book that I have seen on the subject of the 24 Form is:
The Yang Taiji 24 Step Short Form: A Step by Step Guide for All Levels
By James Drewe.  London, Singing Dragon Press, 2011.  382 pages, black and white photographs, charts, detailed descriptions, training tips. 

I give information on many other fine books by other good authors on the Basic 24 Tai Chi Chuan Form in my webpage.  Find books by Andrew Townsend, Cheng Zhao, Foen Tjoeng Lie, Eric Chaline, Le Deyin, etc.

Many persons have told me that their favorite instructional DVD on the 24 Form is: Tai Chi - The 24 Forms  By Dr. Paul Lam.  I attended Dr. Lam's Tai Chi for Arthritis workshop in Monterey, California; and  later workshops on Sun Tai Chi with other Bay Area teachers.  I am also quite fond of using instructional DVDs by Master Jessie Tsao from San Diego.  


I have played and practiced this form with many different persons and groups over three decades.  The many slight variations are fun to play and observe.  Taijiquan is a very pleasant and satisfying group exercise, dance, marital arts, and choreographed body-mind movements class.  Taijiquan and Qigong provide an excellent fitness class for seniors to help them with aging well.  I have practiced this Basic 24 Form with different groups in the Vancouver and Portland areas, and for many years around Red Bluff, CA.  

At age 79, I can do quite a few repetitions of the form during any day.  I warm up with Qigong and limbering up movements, if needed, before practicing the 24 Form.  I make adjustments necessitated because of my former injuries, falls, surgeries, and decreasing balance skills.  I like to play with the named movement sequences in ways outside of the 24 form choreography, e.g., HsingI type forward drills using Yang postures, changing directions to accommodate indoor practice near furniture, faster movements with intermittent fajing, etc.  I also think about the martial applications of defense or offense, following the Teacher and group members so to achieve a coordinated beauty in the performance style desired, the courtesies and comradeship of the practice team, Taijiquan principles, etc. 

I try my best to try to learn, and relearn, and unlearn.   

"At this period of wushu, the Nanking Central Kuoshu Institute in 1956 tasked the choreography of a Taijiquan routine what would be more suitable for popular dissemination among the masses, in keeping with the government's egalitarian agenda.  The traditional forms were just too long and time consuming to practice, and the traditional methods too arcane and demanding for mass propagation.  The challenge was to reduce the one hundred-odd movements of the traditional Yang Style Taijiquan, prevalent then, to its core, by removing the many repetitive movements as well as the less essential ones.  Thus, the 24-Form Taijiquan set was created.  Instrumental in this simplification effort was Li Tianji (1913-1996) who had been appointed a wushu research fellow at the Institute.  Under official auspices, the 24-Form Taijiquan quickly became the standard form, taught throughout China as part of physical education curriculum in schools and colleges.  It is perhaps the best know Taijiquan form in the world today.  As widespread as it is, the 24-Form is at best an abridged version of the traditional Yang form, a synopsis of the art."
-  C. P. Ong, Taijiquan: Cultivating Inner Strength, 2013, p. 7.  


Lift the head, stand strong and balanced, move gracefully.
Imagine resistance, water boxing, dealing with an opponent, pushing hands.
Be loose and relaxed, avoid over-exertion, use coiling energy.
Keep moving, flowing, shaping yourself in body-mind.
Shoulders down, gentle breathing, dignified bearing.
Stylish, artistic, beautiful, sensuous, dancing, formal.
Yin more than Yang, soft over hard, water over stone, gentle over muscular.
Follow the Teacher, coordinate, create unity, act as one. 

Bandon, Oregon

 

The Quintain Poetry Website: Bundled Up

 

Bundled Up:

Quintains, Tankas, Pentastichs, and Onions

Quintain Poetry By Mike Garofalo

Bundled Up, Volume 1
Quintain Poems 1 - 1,000

Bundled Up, Volume 2
Quintain Poems 1,000 - 1,500

Bundled Up, Volume 3
Quintain Poems 1,500 - 2,000

Bundled Up, Volume 4
Quintain Poems 2,000 - 2,500

Bundled Up, Volume 5
Quintain Poems 2,500 - 3,000

 

Quintains - Research

Quintains: 2,100+ Quintains (Free Online)

Quintain Poetry Rhyme Schemes

Quintain Sonnet Forms ( 5252, 555, 553 )

Quintains: Bibliography, Links, Research

Poetry - Research

Poetry by Michael P. Garofalo

 

A Selection of Quintain Poems
By Michael P. Garofalo

book unopened

          hidden potential
covered insights
closed ideas
     Waiting...

between
two eternities
     my brief life
               is stretched
tight

My experiences
have not broken me;
     but, indeed,
     have bent and twisted
          my identity.

-  By Mike Garofalo

How to Live a Good Life