Taijiquan Cane Practices

Walking and exercising with a cane has many health benefits.  Tai Chi Chuan practices with a cane are an interesting addition to a walker's pleasures and fitness.

When I take long walks (3.6 + miles), I walk six times, east then west, .6 mile per whole lap.  I stop between laps to practice Taijiquan (24, 37, 108 Yang; 18 Chen), and the 8 Immortals Cane Form, Part 1.  The only martial arts weapon that I practice with is a cane.  I practice all the Taijiquan sword and broadsword forms that I know with a cane. 

Every time I take a long walk or hike I carry my cane with me.  A cane provides support to a walker (like a staff or trekking pole sticks), and a cane can be used effectively for self-defense.  Using various cane strikes and stretches while walking is an excellent way to exercise the upper torso.  I practice the 8 Immortals Cane Form, Part 1.  

I use an Instructor's Walking Cane, 40" (103 cm) long and 1" (2.54 cm) in diameter, from Cane Masters.  This cane weights 1lb, 2 oz (510 gm).  This beautiful martial arts combat cane is made of pure hickory heartwood, has multiple notches at three key gripping points, has a rounded hooked horn, and has a rubber covered tip.  I also own the same Instructor's Walking Cane made of oak - a gift from my children.
 

Way of the Short Staff.  By Michael P. Garofalo, M.S.  A comprehensive guide to the practice of the short staff, cane, jo, walking stick, gun, zhang, whip staff, 13 Hands Staff, and related wood short staff weapons.  A detailed and annotated guide, bibliographies, lists of links, resources, instructional media, online videos, and lessons.   Includes use of the short staff and cane in martial arts, self-defense, walking and hiking.  Separate sections on Aikido Jo, Cane, Taijiquan cane and staff, Jodo, exercises with a short staff, selected quotations, techniques, selecting and purchasing a short staff, tips and suggestions, and a long section on the lore, legends, and magick of the short staff.  Includes "Shifu Miao Zhang Points the Way."  Published by Green Way Research, Valley Spirit Taijiquan, Red Bluff, California.  Updated on a regular basis since October, 2008.  Filesize: 265Kb.  Related to Mike's popular webpage on the Staff.

"The correct use of the bo (sai, tonfa, kama, naginata, sword) can produce a stimulating and practical means of "extension" training. It offers a means of martial arts training and discipline. Weapons training teaches the meaning of control, timing, distance, and flexibility as one unit. The practitioner is required to possess speed, coordination, strength, and endurance in utilizing the respective weapons."
-  History of the Bo Staff

"The jo can be used to strike like a sword, sweep like a naginata, thrust like a spear (yari). Its two ends can be used, unlike the single point of a sword, and its ma-ai (fighting distance) can be varied according to the hand grip you take. Because of its speed and changeable ma-ai, it is a formidable weapon."
-  Muso Shindo-Ryu Jodo   

"In Chinese shamanism, a staff represents the power of the universe. With a staff, a shaman had the power to pass on the universal knowledge to others. Later, when teachers took over part of the shaman's job, they always taught with a small staff in their hands like a shaman."
- Master Zhongxian Wu, Vital Breath of the Dao, p. 106

Way of the Short Staff

Taijiquan Cane

Staff Weapons in Martial Arts

32 Cane Form by Master Jesse Tsao

Sifu Miao Zhang Points the Way  

Ecology and Mysticism Reading List

My Reading List for the Spring of 2017

Guide books, Day Hiking Books, Travel Books, History Books, and Campground Directory Books for Washington and Oregon

Ecomysticism: The Profound Experience of Nature as Spiritual Guide.  By Carl von Essen, M.D..  Bear & Co., 2010.  288 pages.  ISBN: 978159141183.  VSCL.  Thus far, this has been an excellent read.  

Nature Mysticism.  By John Edward Mercer (1857-1922).  CreateSpace Independent Pub., 2016.  178 pages.  ISBN: 9781536805895.  VSCL.  I have the Kindle edition.

Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth.  Edited by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee.  The Golden Sufi Center, 2nd Edition, 2016.  336 pages.  ISBN: 97819413994144.  VSCL.  I have the Kindle edition. 

The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World.  By David Abram.  New York, Vintage, 1996.  Index, bibliography, notes, 326 pages.  ISBN: 978-0679776390.  VSCL.  I've read this book twice. 

Senses and Consciousness

One Old Daoist Druids Final Journey

Peaches of Immortality

This peach, these peppers,
These grapes, these tomatoes
Will all soon become me.
Such a tasty fact.
I am That and That is Me.
Bless the gardens!
Bless the gardeners!
Bless the kitchens!
Bless the cooks!  
Bless the food!
-  Mike Garofalo, Pulling Onions

Peach trees and peaches have a special place in my heart.  I carefully tend the peach trees in our orchard, but a bountiful crop is often just a gift, grace, luck. 

"In China, the peach was said to be consumed by the immortals due to its mystic virtue of conferring longevity on all who ate them. The divinity Yu Huang, also called the Jade Emperor, and his mother called Xi Wangmu also known as Queen Mother of the West, ensured the gods' everlasting existence by feeding them the peaches of immortality. The immortals residing in the palace of Xi Wangmu were said to celebrate an extravagant banquet called the Pantao Hui or "The Feast of Peaches". The immortals waited six thousand years before gathering for this magnificent feast; the peach tree put forth leaves once every thousand years and it required another three thousand years for the fruit to ripen. Ivory statues depicting Xi Wangmu's attendants often held three peaches. The peach often plays an important part in Chinese tradition and is symbolic of long life. One example is in the peach-gathering story of Zhang Daoling, who many say is the true founder of Taoism. Elder Zhang Guo, one of the Chinese Eight Immortals, is often depicted carrying a Peach of Immortality." - Wikipedia

Peaches are native to China and introduced to Persia via the Silk Road before Christian times.

Xi Wang Mu, Queen Mother of the West, keeps the Immortals fed with the Sacred Peaches.  "No one knows Her beginning, no one knows Her end."

Ripening Peaches: Taoist Studies and Practices

Xi Wangmu, Braham, the Divine, the Supreme Universal Spirit, the Unmanifested and Manifested, the Absolute, the Everlasting, the Shining, Everything, Food for Life, God ...

Jen Miller sent me her summary of the benefits of eating peaches.

Karen also enjoys our crop of peaches in the summer months in Red Bluff.

Ah, Such a tasty peach!!  

To get peaches in the summer, you must plant bare root peach trees in the winter.  Karen and I have planted nearly 100 trees in our orchard in Red Bluff, California.  We will miss these trees when we move to Vancouver, Washington, in April of 2017.  Someone else will enjoy them for decades.

How to Change Your Bad Habits

How to Free Up More Time for Productive and Practical Success
Applied with Reason and Practical Wisdom
“Making excuses
Focusing on the negatives
Fearing failure
Looking for the easy way
Beating yourself up
Being ungrateful
Concentrating solely on your needs
Getting distracted
Living aimlessly
Giving up.”
– Mike Oppland, 10 Things You Need to Stop Doing to Be Successful, 2016


“Don’t work only in your comfort zone
Don’t do without first learning
Don’t be afraid of asking for advice
Don’t get lost in the small details
Don’t multitask
Don’t lie to yourself
Don’t procrastinate in asking for feedback
Don’t follow, do lead
Don’t let your past dictate your future
Don’t hang around negative people.”
– Carl Preston, Ten Habits to Give Up to Increase Productivity, 2016


“Don’t do the following:
Overlook the possibility to save money
Heavily rely on others
Act irresponsibly
Feel defeated just because you need to reevaluate your convictions
Dwell on your errors
Permit your past from holding you back
Rely on good luck to solve your problems
Neglect important aspects of your business
Hesitate to learn from your mistakes
Give up on your good ideas just because other people don’t agree with them
Make strong remarks that can make you look weak in the future
Lose the opportunity to broaden your experience
Back off from a good cause
Waste the potentials of their gadgets
Overestimate their abilities
Make redundant enemies
Allow their pride to get in the way
Put all your eggs in one basket
Lie to themselves that everything will be easy
Take unnecessary risks.”
– Djordje Todorovic, Things Smart People Don’t Do, 2016


“Watch less mundane television
Reduce internet browsing time
Avoid ignorant and negative people
Avoid organized religions
Stop using any recreational drugs
Avoid sitting for too long
Give up childish ideas and pipe dreams.”
– Michael P. Garofalo, Free Up More Time for Productive Activity, 2016
 

Making Personal Changes for the Better

Virtue Ethics

Bowls of Cherries Coming On

Wise is the person who sees the cherry trees in bloom and does not say "life is not a bowl of cherries."

- Mike Garofalo, Pulling Onions

That States the Point

"Compare the silent rose of the sun
And rain, the blood-rose living in its smell,
With this paper, this dust.
That states the point."
- Wallace Stevens

"The country habit has me by the heart,
For he's bewitched forever who has seen,
Not with his eyes but with his vision, Spring
Flow down the woods and stipple leaves with sun."
- Vita Sackville-West

"The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook."
- William James

"Equipped with our five senses - along with telescopes and microscopes and mass spectrometers and seismographs and magnetometers and particle accelerators and detectors sensitive to the entire electromagnetic spectrum - we explore the universe around us and call the adventure science."
- Edwin Hubble

"A friend's son was in the first grade of school, and his teacher asked the class, "What is the color of apples?" Most of the children answered 'red'. A few said 'green'. Kevin, my friend's son, raised his hand and said 'white'. The teacher tried to explain that apples could be red, green or sometimes golden, but never white. Kevin was quite insistent and finally said, "Look inside." Perception without mindfulness keeps us on the surface of things, and we often miss other levels of reality."
- Joseph Goldstein, Insight Meditation


Seeing, Vision, Eyes, Looking
Quotations, Sayings, Poems, Facts
Compiled by Michael Garofalo

Takeaway Trump and the Republicants, Take 1, Out of the Gates

I seldom comment on current politics.  Television, radio, newspapers, and the Internet are filled to the brim with controversial discussions about the latest changing news about the proposed changes in our Federal Government.  People study and debate these matters to make a living, and are much more qualified than I to evaluate and comment.  I can only express my own opinions.  

I supported the proposals of Senator Bernie Sanders, and his candidacy for President of the United States.  I voted for Democratic candidates at all levels of government.

My problem with the conservatives and Republicants with a slight majority now in power, and with the rather rude maverick and bold Mr. Takeaway Trump, is their inability to see that you can't have major tax cuts AND a multi-trillion dollar federal infrastructure improvement plan, a modified Affordable Health Care plan, and build up the military to higher levels (all proposed by Mr. Trump).  The typical result from Republican administrations is escalating the national debt, and the rich getting richer. Trickle down economics has failed since the days of President Reagan.  (Read Noam Chomsky, Matt Taibbi, and Burt Hall.) 

Building a new Trump Wall along a 1,950 mile long border through largely deserted desert territory seems wasteful and impractical.  This is not an infrastructure improvement or security improvement. I suggest, for example, beginning with solving Flint Michigan's water problems, and a thousand other worthwhile local infrastructure projects.  How about the federal government doing a major national solar energy infrastructure project in our deserts, and repairing aging hydro-electric dams?  How about a plan to work with Canada, Washington, and Oregon to bring needed surplus water to California - a Green Pipeline?  

The Republican rejection of the global warming facts  is unwise and unscientific.  If you live in a coastal U.S. city you had better start worrying. 

I agree with many that Mr. Trump's inflammatory remarks and loose lips have greatly encouraged many of his ardent followers who are racists, bigots, conspiracy boneheads, preppers, gun hoarders, and one issue fundamentalist true believers. 

I do not support conservative and Republicant attacks on women's rights and women leaders.

I strongly support the separation of secular governmental functions at all levels from the many antagonistic and muddle headed religious creeds and their missionary agendas.  Our constitution, a product of Enlightenment thinkers, supports this idea.  However, since the Moral Majority days, the fundamentalist Christians (aka WASPs) and Islamics have been making every effort to force us all to accept their antiquated mores and customs.  Many church zealots don't support secular freedoms.  (Read Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Richard Dawkins).  

Republican attacks on our public education system are unfair and not fact based.  Anti-Intellectualism has deep and growing roots in America (read Richard Hofstadter).  Are using federal funds to indoctrinate children in Baptist, Islamic, and Catholic Schools what most people think is wise public policy?  

Mr. Takeaway Trump's constant attacks on the Press are very dangerous to a free society.  Strange, he, the demagogue of fake news and unsubstantiated claims himself, complaining about 'Fake News'?  The news source that criticizes him is bad 'liberal media', and if the same news source compliments him it is praiseworthy.  Trump's Tweets and trolls are often those of a petty, nasty, and argumentative brat.  


I retired at age 70, after 54 years of working.  Since my wife and I now make 60% of our monthly income from an independently managed portfolio of investments, stocks, successful businesses, savings, bonds, large investment organizations, real estate investments, annuities, and company profits, I do favor practical, honest, and fair ways to improve and strengthen our economy.

We earned pretty good money from these investments during President Obama's eight years as President; we did less well during the second term of President Bush Jr. (and the financial scandals of that period), and strong with President Clinton.  Mr. Trump might have some good ideas and plans for national business success - I hope so.  

When I hear Mr. Trump talking about "shutting down the government" it makes me quite alarmed.  What kind of competent leadership is that!  I do make 40% of my monthly income from Social Security, and a small CalPers pension from my 17 years of working part-time as a teacher-librarian; and, I hope not to loose these earned benefits. 

My wife and I have paid Federal and State taxes every year since 1963. However, the free-loading tax manipulators like Mr. Trump and other wealthy people, all the churches that pay no taxes, parents with big families that get many tax write offs and free public education and other benefits for all their many children, and criminal tax evaders all rankle my bones a bit.  Too many people don't financially support the government that benefits them or fights for them.  I favor increased taxes for everybody.


I am not very optimistic about the results of the current leadership in Washington.  I expect my taxes to increase to fund programs I don't support (e.g., subsidies for religious schools, more polluting coal plants, increased military spending), my Social Security or Medicare benefits to decrease, the national debt to rise, political divisiveness to increase, unemployment to rise, systematic attacks on the integrity of the judiciary to proliferate, increased polarization in our society, harassment of minorities to increase, women's rights denied, and our image around the world tarnished.  I hope I am wrong about some of my predictions.  

And, while I worry, Takeaway Trump is golfing with his millionaire buddies and lackeys and 'making deals', and 38% of Americans believe he is doing a good job.  What?  

Who will the new 'president' SCREAM at this week?

Enough said!

Winter Giving Way to Spring

March brought us more rain and snow.  Heavy rain in the local mountains, with snow above 4,500 feet.  Mt. Lassen has 20 feet of snow.  It will be dry and warm (70F) all this coming week.   

Winter - Quotations, Observations, Poems, Lore

March - Quotations, Observations, Poems, Lore
   

“There is a privacy about winter which no other season gives you …..
In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each
other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet
stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself.”
- Ruth Stout






At the end of the culdesac lane that I walk on, I come to Highway 99 West (shown above). This portion of Hwy 99 was constructed in 1926, mostly right along the side of the Union Pacific railroad tracks that go back to 1870. Highway 99 is a major highway in the far western U.S., from San Diego to Seattle.  Interstate 5 replaced Highway 99 in the 1960's.  



 

The nearby Shasta Yolla Bolly mountains, and the Trinity Alps behind them, to the north west of our home in Red Bluff, sometimes get snow down to 4,000 feet (shown above). We rarely get any snow in the valley where we live. 



 
The many nearby almond orchards are in full bloom in February.


The prune plum orchards, shown above, and the walnut orchards have yet to bud.
 

"Timeless thoughts of a winter’s stare;
eyes gazing over a landscape bare.
Memories drift on a blustery breeze;
dying light ushers in the freeze.
Reaching out for a grasp on the present;
stillness sets in, alone, and desolate.
Future unknown, outcome uncertain;
brilliance shadowed by a drawn curtain.
Path now set, laid before me known;
closing light now emanating from home.
Enter my homestead, heart filled with glee;
two eyes of the future peering upward at me.
Trusting in him to forge forward until fulfilled;
Basis of strength, values I have instilled.
A wary mind at last permitted to rest;
reflecting on the realization of how I am blessed.
-  Michael A. Barron, Winter's Epiphany    

"Winter is the time for comfort - it is the time for home."
-  Edith Sitwell

Maybe So, Probably Not

"The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts and the stupid ones are full of confidence."
- Charles Bukowski

"The fundamental cause of the trouble in the modern world is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt."
- Bertrand Russell

“I like the scientific spirit—the holding off, the being sure but not too sure, the willingness to surrender ideas when the evidence is against them: this is ultimately fine—it always keeps the way beyond open—always gives life, thought, affection, the whole man, a chance to try over again after a mistake—after a wrong guess.” 
― Walt Whitman


An Old Philosopher's Notebooks
By Michael Garofalo

Learn How to Breathe Correctly

"If I had to limit my advice on healthier living to just one tip, it would be simply to learn how to breathe correctly."
-   Andrew Weil, M.D., 1999  



"Our breathing patterns are the key to managing our attention, to our feeling of well-being, and more importantly, to nourishing our body with great lymph and blood circulation and with oxygen.   Breath holding contributes to a state of fight or flight, to impulsive behavior, to a flood of stress hormones, and to compromised digestion and elimination.  Teaching optimal breathing patterns, particularly in the early years, is as crucial as exercise and proper nutrition."
-  Mark Hyman, M.D., The Blood Sugar Solution, 2012, p. 236


Breathing in Mind-Body Arts, Health, and Fitness
Compiled by Michael Garofalo
  

Tai Chi Chuan 37 Form of Master Cheng Man-Ch'ing

Yang Taijiquan 37 Form of Master Cheng Man-ch’ing in 1940
Prepared by Mike Garofalo

1.  Preparation: Standing, Step
2.  Beginning: Raise Hands, Lower Hands
3.  Ward Off Left
4.  Grasping the Sparrow’s Tail: Ward Off L/R, Roll Back, Press, Push
5.  Single Whip
6.  Raise Hands
7.  Shoulder Strike
8.  White Crane Spreads Its Wing
9.  Brush Left Knee, Twist Step 
10.  Play the Lute
11.  Brush Left Knee, Twist Step
12.  Step Forward, Deflect, Parry, Punch
13.  Apparently Sealing, Seemingly Closing, Apparent Close, Push
14.  Cross Hands, Embrace Tiger
15.  Return to Mountain Brush Knee, Grasping Sparrow’s Tail, Single Whip
16.  Rely on Fist Under Elbow
17.  Step Back, Retreat, Repulsing Monkey 3X  
18.  Diagonal Slant Flying
19.  Cloud Hands 4X, Single Whip
20.  Snake Creeps Down  
21.  Golden Rooster Stands on Both Legs 2X
22.  Kick with Right Foot
23.  Kick with Left Foot
24.  Turn, Kick with Left Heel
25.  Brush Knees 3X, Punch Down
26.  Grasping the Sparrow’s Tail, Single Whip
27.  Fair Lady Works the Shuttles 4X
28.  Grasping the Sparrow’s Tail, Single Whip 
29.  Snake Creeps Down Left Leg
30.  Seven Stars of the Big Dipper Step Forward 
31.  Step Back, Ride the Tiger
32.  Rotate and Turn Body, Sweeping Right Leg Lotus Kick
33.  Bend the Bow, Shoot the Tiger  
34.  Step Forward, Deflect Block, Intercept and Punch
35.  Apparent Close, Withdraw and Push 
36.  Cross Hands, Horse Stance
37.  Conclusion: Feet Together, Hands Down, Standing

Valley Spirit Taijiquan, Mike Garofalo, 4/15/2016, PDF
http://www.egreenway.com/taichichuan/chengform4.pdf


Cheng Man-Ch'ing (1902-1975)
Chinese Medical Doctor, Taijiquan Master, Painter, Poet, Scholar

Playing like a Deer

"The Deer Play is to imitate the shape and movement of a deer hoping to attain long life and pure soul like a deer. The features of a deer are its gentle disposition, swift movement, love to push with horns, and good at running. When it stands it likes to stretch its neck to glance at things afar. The deer also likes looking at left and right and its rear foot. It is also good at moving its tail bones (sacrum). The tail bone is the place where the Jen and Du meridians meet. Thus, during practice, the practitioner not only needs to imitate the attitude of a deer with swift movement and calm spirit, but also need to focus attention on the tail bone. This will guide Qi to the whole body, open meridians, circulate blood, relax tendons and bones, and benefit kidney and strengthen waist. It can also enhance blood circulation in the abdomen. This play is suitable for curing dysfunctional nerves in the internal organs, chronicle infections of the internal organs in the abdomen, fatigue in the waist muscles, nerve pain in the pelvis, deteriorated thigh bones, and the lack of sex drives."
-   Five Animal Frolics  

"Breathing in and out in various manners, spitting out the old and taking in the new, walking like a bear and stretching their neck like a bird to achieve longevity - this is what such practitioners of Daoyin, cultivators of the body and all those searching for long life like Ancestor Peng, enjoy." -   Chuang-tzu, circa 300 BCE. 

"Firstly, we analyze its function in the aspect of psychological regulation as it is required that the practitioner should do it before and during each routines in the exercise of the Health Qigong Wu Qin Xi. The practitioner should mind on the Dantian and rid of the distracted thoughts with quiet mind and spirit before the exercise, get into the imitation of its physical activities of each animal in the exercise. When practicing the tiger exercise, try to imagine yourself as a fierce tiger in the mountains who is looking down upon other beasts and stretching its own pawns and about to pounce on its prey; in the deer exercise, imagine that you are prudent and mild, jogging on a green field; in the exercise of the bear, you are a clumsy bear, composed and steady, freely roaming the forests; in the monkey exercise, you become a happy and agile monkey; in the bird exercise, you are a free bird with quiet mind and flying in the sky. Therefore you can continuously regulate the mind state in the exercise and it is helpful to the relaxation of the mind. The regular exercise of this skill can transform and regulate the mind of the practitioner to relieve the spiritual nervousness, improve the emotional stability, reduce the mental stress and keep the healthy mind."
-   The Effect of Precaution against Sub-health of the Health Qigong Wu Qin Xi.  Chinese Health Qigong Association.  2008.   

 

Five Animal Frolics

Deer Frolic  (Someday I might finish this webpage.  Oh well!  No hurry!) 

Walking in the Morning

I enjoy walking in the early morning.  I walk on a country lane, Kilkenny Lane, directly in front of my home in Red Bluff, California.  This cul de sac lane is .32 miles from Highway 99W.  Occasionally, a car might use this country lane, and I move to the side of the road.  It is a very safe, peaceful, and quiet place with lovely landscaping and dramatic views.

The photos show here were taken in November after a series of gentle rain storms.  

I try to walk every day from two to four miles in the morning; when I was not working for the Corning Union Elementary School District.  I walked on this road from June of 1998 until we moved to Vancouver, Washington, in April of 2017; nearly 19 years.  


"Putting facts by the thousands,
into the world, the toes take off
with an appealing squeak which the thumping heel
follows confidentially, the way men greet men.
Sometimes walking is just such elated
pumping."
-   Lyn Hejinian, Determination


"Every day, in the morning or evening, or both, take a walk in a safe and peaceful environment for less than an hour.  The can be a great fountain of youth.  Choose a place to walk that has no kind of disturbance.   Walking done in a work environment and when your mind is busy is different; it is not as nutritious as the walking you do for yourself in the morning or evening in a quiet, peaceful, and safe place."
-  Master Hua-Ching Ni, Entering the Tao, 1997, p. 135

 

Looking to the northeast on Kilkenny Lane.  Mt. Lassen (10,000 feet) in the distance is capped with a little snow.  These photos were taken in late Autumn.   


"Walking is the natural recreation for a man who desires not absolutely to suppress his intellect but to turn it out to play for a season."
- Leslie Stephen

"Our philosophies must be rewritten to remove them from the domain of words and "ideas," and to plant their roots firmly in the earth."
- William Vogt

"If you look for the truth outside yourself,
It gets farther and farther away.
Today walking alone, I meet it everywhere I step.
It is the same as me, yet I am not it.
Only if you understand it in this way
Will you merge with the way things are."
- Tung-Shan

`

Looking west on Kilkenny Lane.  The red leafed autumn colors are from Raywood Ash trees. The Yolly Bolly mountain range (7,000 feet) is to the west of the North Sacramento Valley.  


"The interior solitude, along with the steady rhythm of walking mile after mile, served as a catalyst for deeper awareness.  The solitude I found and savored on the Camino had an amazing effect on me.  The busyness of my life slowly settled down as the miles went on.  For a good portion of my life I had longed for a fuller experience of contemplation, that peaceful prayer of the heart in which one is able to look intently and see each piece of life as sacred.  Ten days into the journey, totally unforeseen, the grace of seeing the world with startling lucidity came to me.  My eyes took in everything with wonder.  The experience was like looking through the lens of an inner camera – my heart was the photographer.  Colors and shapes took on nuances and depths never before noticed.  Each piece of beauty appeared to be framed: weeds along roadsides, hillsides of harvested fields with yellow and green stripes, layers of mountains with lines of thick mist stretching along their middle section, clumps of ripe grapes on healthy green vines, red berries on bushes, roses and vegetable gardens.  Everything revealed itself as something marvelous to behold.  Each was a work of art.  I noticed more and more details of light and shadow, lines and edges, shapes, softness, and texture.  I easily observed missed details on the path before me – skinny worms, worn pebbles, tiny flowers of various colors and shapes, black beetles, snails, and fat, grey slugs.  I became aware of the texture of everything under my feet – stones, slate, gravel, cement, dirt, sand, grass.  I responded with wonder and amazement.  Like the poet Tagore, I felt that everything “harsh and dissonant in my life” was melting into “one sweet harmony”."
-  Joyce Rupp  


"As I went walking
That ribbon of highway
I saw above me
The endless skyway
I saw below me
The lonesome valley
This land was made for you and me."
- Woody Guthrie, This Land is Your Land

The Ways of Walking: Quotations, Facts, Methods, Spirituality, Meditative

Compiled by Mike Garofalo

• Ways of Walking
• Walking Meditation
• Walking Quotations
• Walking Bibliography
• Circle Walking: Bagua
• Walking the Labyrinth
• Garden Walking
• Walking Qigong
• Walking Staff  

Tai Chi Chuan Standard Short 24 Form

"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.  





I practice this Taijiquan form twice every day.  It takes from 5 to 7 minutes to perform.
You can do this indoors by adjusting to the space available, or outdoors.  When done slowly and gently you don't need to do any warmup exercises unless your knees are problematic.  A lovely Taijiquan form!  Good for persons of all ages.  This form is a cornerstone of my personal T'ai Chi Ch'uan practices. 

The first Taijiquan form I learned in 1986 was the Standard 24 Movement T'ai Chi Ch'uan Form in the Yang Style of T'ai Chi Ch'uan.  At that time there were no books or instructional videotapes on this popular form.  Since that time, nearly 25 years have past.  Now there are dozens of books and instructional DVDs and webpages on the subject of the 24 Form. 

My webpage on the Standard 24 Taijiquan Form has been the most popular webpage on the Cloud Hands Website for many years. 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.  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.  Published by Green Way Research, Valley Spirit Taijiquan, Red Bluff, California:  Webpage URL:  http://www.egreenway.com/taichichuan/short.htm.  

This webpage provides many good suggestions for a person learning this form on their own if there is no Tai Chi class in their area. 

The best book that I have seen on the subject 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 24 Form in my webpage: Cheng Zhao, Foen Tjoeng Lie, Eric Chaline, Le Deyin, etc.. 

My students tell me that their favorite instructional DVD on the 24 Form is:

Tai Chi - The 24 Forms
By Dr. Paul Lam


I have taught this lovely Tai Chi form to hundreds of people since 2000.  Everyone tells me how much they enjoy learning and practicing this gentle form.

I also teach and enjoy playing the Chen Style Taijiquan 18 Movement Form created by Grandmaster Chen Zhenglei. Actually, in the last year, I prefer practicing the Chen 18 Form more. 

 

Strength Training for Old Men

We are currently very busy with preparing to move from Red Bluff, California, to Vancouver, Washington.  We expect escrow to close on April 14, 2017.  

I will be exploring options for training in Vancouver in taijiquan, weightlifting, yoga, and walking.  All new physicians will be chosen.  

With all the changes, and moving workload, I expect I will be reducing some of my fitness activities until April 20, 2017.  

My fitness goals and objectives for 2017 are outlined on a webpage.  I need to review my goals and objectives on a weekly basis to stay on course.  

Last night, I watched an inspirational documentary about senior athletes.  It was called "Impossible Dreamers" and released in 2016.  I highly recommend this documentary.  

The New Rules of Lifting: Six Basic Moves for Maximum Muscle  By Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove.  New York, Avery Penguin Group, 2006.  Index, 301 pages.  ISBN: 978158333389.  VSCL.  

"1.  The best muscle-building exercises are the ones that use your muscles the way they were designed to be used.  The Basic Exercises:  Squat, Deadlift, Lunge, Push (Bench Press), Pull, Twisting, Combo Moves. 
2.  Exercises that use lots of muscles in a coordinated action are better than those that force muscles to work in isolation.
3.  To build size, you must build strength.
4.  To build size and strength, you must train hard but less frequently, with plenty of recovery time between workouts.
5.  The goal of each workout is to set a record.
6.  The weight you lift is a tool to reach your goals.  It is not a goal in itself.
7.  Don't "do the machines."
8.  A workout is only as good as the adaptation it produces.
9.  There is no magic system of exercises, sets, and reps.
10.  Don't judge a system by the physique of the person promoting it. 
11.  You'll get better results working your ass off on a bad program than you will loafing through a good program.
12.  Fast lifting is not more dangerous than slow lifting. 
13.  A good warm up doesn't have to make your body warm. 
14.  Stretching is not warm up. 
15.  You don't need to warm up to stretch.
16.  Lifting by itself may increase your flexibility. 
17.  Aerobic fitness is not a matter of life and death. 
18.  You don't need to do endurance exercise to burn fat. 
19.  When you combine serious strength training with serious endurance exercise, you body will probably choose endurance over muscle and strength."