Slide Away Like a Snake

There are two ponds on my property. Quite often I will come upon a snake enjoying a rest in the shade at the edge of the pond. The snakes seldom move far from the edge of the pond for fear of the 20 or so guinea hens that patrol the fields and our dog. As soon as the garter snake becomes aware of my presence it quickly slithers and slides back into the pond. Retreat is the first defense.

The folklore of Taijiquan includes a story about Taoist Master Chang San-feng dreaming about a fight between a snake and a crane. What do you do when you can't retreat?







"Snake is one of the archetypal Five Animals of Chinese martial arts; the other four being Crane, Tiger, Leopard, and Dragon. These five animals originally represented the five classical Chinese elements before developing into their own styles. Snake is usually Earth, Tiger is Fire, Crane is Metal, Dragon is Water, and Leopard is Wood. Since they were derived from the Five Elements, they are kept in this pattern. At this point many styles delve into more advanced animal training or actual element training. The Taoist temples of the Wudang Mountains were known to have produced many snake stylists.

Snake style is based on whipping power which travels up the spine to the fingers. The ability to sinuously move, essentially by compressing one's stomach/abdominal muscles, is very important. Footing is quite grounded. The stance work is fluid in order to maximize the whipping potential of any movement. This necessitates building a strong spine to contain the power and strong fingers to convey the strike. Since breath is important to any movement of the spine and ribs, snake style is considered one of the main styles which eventually led to internal training. Snake style is also known as an approach to weapons training, the Chinese straight sword and spear in particular. There are even specialty varieties of sword blades and spear points that curve back and forth down the length of the blade in imitation of the snake's body known as snake sword and snake spear."

Snake Style Kung Fu
History of the Martial Arts Blog

Five Animal Frolics

Heads Up

Two Thoughts, Reminders, and Ques for My Qigong Practice Today:

Heads Up and Seeing the Meaning.

1. Keep your head up. Your head in line with your spine. Enjoy having a lifted and relaxed head. Find exercises to help you make your head, neck, and upper back muscles stronger, coordinated and flexible. Listen up, and perk up the head and ears. Lift the top of the head to the heavens, square the head over the neck and back, allow the shoulders to relax and fall, allow the chin to gently tuck, look forward, try to stay fully present here and now, be alert, show a soft smile, keep your head up, stay focused, concentrate as needed, hold the asana of The Dignified Head of the Buddha, and do your Qigong practices.


2. Keep your eyes active and integrated in your work, games, and Qigong practices.

At times, your eyes will require careful supervision and specific exercises. Your eyes will lead your thoughts, your thoughts will build your mind. The eyes can lead the mind, and the mind can lead the eyes, and the Watcher watches. Cultivate the Third Eye, and cultivate your two eyes. Discover the 1001 Eyes of All the Sensory Gates of your own body, spoken mind, senses, experiences, and the Tao. See into your true selves, the Light and darkness. See into your reasons for doing Qigong practices. Close your eyes sometimes while doing your Qigong practices.

Focus on Change

"Any significant long-term change requires long-term practice, whether that change has to do with playing the violin or learning to be a more open, loving person. We all know people who say that they have been permanently changed by experiences of a moment or a day or a weekend. But when you check it out you'll generally discover that those who ended up permanently changed had spent considerable time preparing for their life-changing experience or had continued diligently practicing the new behavior afterward."
- Michael Murphy and George Leonard

"Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning."
- Benjamin Franklin

"The cyclone derives its powers from a calm center. So does a person."
- Norman Vincent Peale

"I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I do and I understand."
- Confucius

"A will finds a way."
- Orison Swett Marden

"If you focus on results, you will never change.
If you focus on change, you will get results."
- Jack Dixon

"Gongfu is an ancient Chinese term describing work/devotion/effort that has been successfully applied over a substantial period of time, resulting in a degree of mastery in a specific field. Although the term is synonymous in the West with martial arts (though it is most over rendered Kung Fu), it is equally applicable to alligraphy, painting, music, or other areas of endeavor."
- Andy James

"An element of abstention, of restraint, must enter into all finer joys."
- Vida D. Scudder

Will Power: Quotes, Sayings, Aphorisms



"A callused palm and dirty fingernails precede a Green Thumb.
Wishes are like seeds - few ever develop into something.
Willpower is the art of replacing one habit for another."
- Michael Garofalo, Pulling Onions

Crane Frolic Daoyin

This past week, I updated the webpage on the Five Animal Frolics Qigong (Chi Kung, Daoyin).

The animals in the Five Animal Frolics exercise system are the Crane, Bear, Tiger, Monkey, and Deer.

Playing and practicing the Crane Frolic is recommend for the summer months. It is supposed to calm you down, help you realize serenity, and protect the Heart. The Five Animal Frolics, widely thought to have been created by Dr. Hua Tuo, circa 200 CE, in China, is a Daoyin (Guide and Stretch) practice that are Life Nourishing Ways (Yangsheng Zhi Dao).

My website on qigong, daoyin, yangsheng zhi dao, or chi kung is called Valley Spirit Qigong.

I also completed some preliminary research on the Yi Jin Jing Qigong (Muscle and Tendon Changing Exercises).

Champions Again!!

The Los Angeles Lakers basketball team are now the NBA Champions for 2009. They defeated the Orlando Magic in a convincing manner last night in Florida.

I purchased NBA League Pass and watched many Laker games on DISH Network TV this basketball season. I watched each of the Laker games in the playoffs. I read the Laker's Blog every day.

I've been a fan of the Lakers since the 1970's. Following the most successful team in the NBA, with 30 trips to the NBA Finals, has been a great experience.

The Lakers have millions and millions of fans all around the world. We are all feeling GOOD today.

YES! YES! YES!

My own atheletic endeavors are now in non-competitive exercises: yoga, taijiquan, qigong, walking, gardening. I stopped playing competitive basketball games 23 years ago. However, I still enjoy watching this very demanding sport, and I'm a serious Los Angeles Lakers fan.

Rhythm of Walking

"The rhythm of walking generates a kind of rhythm of thinking, and the passage through a landscape echoes or stimulates the passage through a series of thoughts. The creates an odd consonance between internal and external passage, one that suggests that the mind is also a landscape of sorts and that walking is one way to traverse it. A new thought often seems like a feature of the landscape that was there all along, as though thinking were traveling rather than making."
- Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking

"Thoughts come clearly while one walks."
- Thomas Mann

Ways of Walking

Walking Quotations

Way of the Short Staff






Mike Garofalo hiking in Death Valley, California.

Taijiquan Standard 24 Form Names in French

I want to thank Stephane Gervais, a 24 Taijiquan Form player in France, for sending me the improved translations into French of the names of each movement in this popular form.


1. Ouverture.
2. Séparer la crinière du cheval. 3 fois.
3. La grue blanche étend ses ailes.
4. Avancer et brosser le genou. 3 fois.
5. Jouer de la guitare (ou du luth).
6. Reculer et repousser le singe. 4 fois.
7. Saisir la queue de l'oiseau à gauche.
8. Saisir la queue de l'oiseau à droite.
9. Simple fouet.
10. Agiter les mains comme des nuages. 3 fois.
11. Simple fouet.
12. Caresser la crinière du cheval (ou Flatter l'encolure du cheval)
13. Donner un coup de talon droit.
14. Frapper les oreilles du tigre (ou frapper aux 2 oreilles).
15. Tourner vers la gauche et donner un coup de talon gauche
16. Le serpent qui rampe à gauche. Coq d'or sur une patte.
17. Le serpent qui rampe à droite. Coq d'or sur une patte.
18. La fille de jade lance la navette à droite et à gauche (ou Lancer la navette à droite et à gauche).
19. Chercher l'aiguille au fond de la mer.
20. Dos en éventail.
21. Tourner, absorber, parer et frapper du poing en avançant.
22. Ramener à soi et repousser.
23. Croiser les bras et reprendre la force.
24. Fermeture.



Standard Simplified Taijiquan 24 Form. Research by Michael P. Garofalo. Yang Style of Tai Chi Chuan, 24 movements. 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 Tai Chi form, created in 1956, is the most popular form practiced all around the world. This is a 450 Kb HTML file, updated in June, 2009. Published by Green Way Research, Valley Spirit Taijiquan, Red Bluff, California: Webpage URL: http://www.egreenway.com/taichichuan/short.htm.

Cloud Hands: Taijiquan, T'ai Chi Ch'uan, Weapons

Cloud Hands: Qigong, Chi Kung

Yi Jin Jing

The Yi Jin Jing Qigong is a popular qigong exercise set from China. "Yi Jin Jing Qigong" means "Muscle and Tendon Transforming Exercises."

In most cases, this qigong regimen consists of 12 movement sequences. There are some versions of the Yi Jin Jing with many more movements (22, 49, 108, 216). Some of the longer versions of the Yi Jin Jing include movements from the Eight Section Brocade Routine, the Animal Frolics Routines, the Louhan Routine, or the Bone Marrow and Brain Washing Routine.

Most people practice a 12 movement version of the Yi Jin Jing that was described in a book published by Pan Weiru in 1858 called "Essential Techniques for Guarding Life." Also, Wang Zuyuan published a book in the 1880's titled "Illustrated Exposition of Internal Techniques" that described the same qigong routine as did Pan Weiru.

Names of the Yi Jin Jing Qigong Movements

Opening Form

1. Wei Tuo Presenting the Pestle 1

2. Wei Tuo Presenting the Pestle 2

3. Wei Tuo Presenting the Pestle 3

4. Plucking Stars on Each Side

5. Pulling Nine Cows by Their Tails

6. Showing Talons and Spreading Wings

7. Nine Ghosts Drawing Sabers

8. Sinking the Three Bodily Zones
Three Plates Falling on the Floor

9. Black Dragon Displaying Its Claws

10. Tiger Springing On Its Prey

11. Bowing Down in Salutation

12. Swinging the Tail

Closing Form

Some claim that the Yi Jin Jing was created by the famous Zen Patriarch Bodhidharma (Da Mo) around 520 CE, and refined over centuries by Shaolin monks, while others argue for an even more ancient Daoist lineage.

There are numerous instructional DVDs available now for the 12 movement verion of the Yi Jin Jing. I like the instructional book and DVD by the Chinese Health Qigong Association:

Yi Jin Jing: Chinese Health Qigong. Compiled by the Chinese Health Qigong Association. Beijing, China, Foreign Languages Press, 2007. 95 pages, charts, includes an instructional DVD. ISBN: 9787119047782. VSCL. "Qigong is an aspect of traditional Chinese medicine that involves coordinating breathing patterns with physical postures to maintain health and well-being. Yi Jin Jing/ Tendon-Muscle Strengthening Exercises is an accessible, fully-illustrated guide to a particular qigong exercise that focuses on turning and flexing the spine. Based on the twelve traditional routines of Yi Jin Jing, the exercises covered in the book feature soft, extended, even movements that invigorate the limbs and internal organs. In particular, practice of the Yi Jin Jing exercises improves flexibility, balance and muscular strength, and has a beneficial effect on the respiratory system. Each routine is described step-by-step and is illustrated with photographs and key points. The authors also point out common mistakes and offer advice on how to correct these. Complemented by an appendix of acupuncture points and accompanied by a DVD, this book will be of interest to Qigong and Tai Chi practitioners at all levels, students of martial arts and anyone interested in Chinese culture." - Singing Dragon.

For a good book on the theory of the Yi Jin Jing, read Qigong: The Secret of Youth: Da Mo's Muscle/Tendon Changing and Marrow Brain Washing Classics. By Yang, Jwing-Ming, Ph.D., 1946-. An Advanced Qigong Regimen for the Serious Practitioner. Boston, Massachusetts, YMAA Publication Center, 2000. Second Edition 2000, First Edition 1989. Index, appendices, charts, 312 pages. ISBN: 1886969841. VSCL.

Eight Section Brocade Qigong

Eight Section Brocade Qigong Research by Michael P. Garofalo. Provides information about the history and purpose of this popular Chi Kung practice. Detailed descriptions are provided for each of the eight movements; including information on movement variations, health benefits, qigong meaning, and cautions. The document includes the most extensive bibliography, link guide, and comments on Ba Duan Jin Qigong resources available anywhere. Some animated graphics are provided in linked files. This document is updated as new information is discovered. This qigong set is the most popular set practiced around the world, and is also known as: Baduanjin, Pa Tuan Jin, Eight Silken Treasures, Ba Duan Jin, Pal Dan Gum, Ba Duan Gin, Pa Tin Kam, Otto Pezzi di Tesoro, Acht Delen Brokaat, Les Huit Exercices del la Soie, Eight Silken Treasures, Brocade Qigong, Wudang Brocade Qigong, Brocade soft qigong (Rou Gong), Eight Treasures inner qigong (Nei Gong), Silk Treasures Qigong, and the first eight Buddha Lohan Hands. This document is about 110 pages, 26,000 words, and with a filesize of 358Kb. Last updated on June 6, 2009. Web File Location: http://www.egreenway.com/taichichuan/esb.htm.

Eight Section Brocade Qigong Cane. How to practice this form using a wooden cane. Notes by Toma. Based, I think, on the "Northern Energy Taiji Cane" by James Bouchard.

Ba Duan Jin: Chinese Health Qigong. Compiled by the Chinese Health Qigong Association. Beijing, China, Foreign Languages Press, 2007. I58 pages, charts, and instructional DVD included. ISBN: 9787119047812. VSCL.

Notes and Stuff

I've had some problems with my popular Spirit of Gardening website. It was hacked a couple of times and my "Green Way" Word Press blog attacked and disabled. I moved the blog to Typepad and renamed it "green paths in the valley." I could not use my email or FTP for awhile. After three calls to my web host, I think I am now back online. People can now email me again.

Got some nice information from Master Thomas (Toma) Rosenzweig, Toma Modern Arnis. Home of Modern Arnis in Los Angeles. Phone: 1-818-339-4051. I added the information to my Way of the Short Staff webpage.

Shalie Kibler from The Ninjai Gang wrote to tell me about “Karma Kula – Mystic Warrior.” For press release information go to http://karmakula.ign.com/media-press

Karen and I hosted the "Blaize Family Reunion" recently at our home in Red Bluff. I've also been extra busy at work writing grants and managing downsizing. Consequently .... little time for reflection on the themes of this blog and for creative web publishing.

I've had some serious back spasms lately. My upper left side, in my lat, cramps up at odd moments during the day. Hmmmm! What the F!

I've been following the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team all season. I've been a Laker's fan since the 1960's. I purchased the NBA League Pass for half a season on DISH TV - an excellent bargain. Now, for the second year in a row, the Lakers are in the NBA finals. Last year the Lakers lost to the Boston Celtics in the Finals, and this year the worthy opponent is the Orlando Magic. I'm HYPED about the first Finals game tomorrow night. GO LAKERS!!

"And since all this loveliness can not be Heaven,
I know in my heart it is June."
– Abba Goold Woolson (1838–1921)

Eight Elements West

The Eight Elements West

1. Consistent Exercise
Energize through safe, results-oriented exercise.

2. Body Alignment
Promote proper posture, spinal strength with flexibility, and body awareness.

3. Natural Nutrition
Implement sound eating practices for life.

4. Sound Mind
Embrace life obstacles with self-awareness, reflection, imagination and creativity.

5. Relaxation and Centering
Cultivate and calm the bodymind connection everyday.

6. Community and Environment
Surround yourself with trusted friends and family. Be kind to the Earth.

7. Individual Action
Time is precious. Let change begin now, with you.

8. Heart of the Human Spirit
Transform life through your heart, where true strength resides.


I'm always looking for ideas and information about models that use
eight components. Take a look at my collection of information about
the Chinese Trigrams model.

Eight Elements West

Lifestyle Advice for Wise Persons

Chang San-Feng's Treatise

Master Chang San-Feng’s Treatise on T’ai Chi Ch’uan, Part 1
A Taijiquan Classic by Zhang San-feng, circa 1200 CE:

“With every movement string all the parts together, keeping the entire body light and nimble. ”
- Stuart Olson

“In any action, the whole body should be light and agile, or Ching and Lin. One should feel that all of the body’s joints are connected with full linkage. ”
-Jou, Tsung Hwa

“Once in motion, every part of the body is light and agile and must be threaded together. ”
- Yang, Jwing-Ming

“Whenever one moves, the entire body must be light and lively, and must above all be connected throughout. ”
- Barbara Davis

“Once you begin to move, the entire body must be light and limber. Each part of your body should be connected to every other part.”
- Liao, Waysun

“Move in an agile, balanced, and coordinated manner.
Once you decide to move,
The parts of the body should act together:
Feeling connected and coordinated,
As balanced as two feathers on a scale,
Strung together like pearls in a necklace,
Agile like a cat,
Lighter than moonbeams,
Mobile as a young monkey.”
- Michael Garofalo

- Master Chang San-Feng’s Principles of T’ai Chi Ch’uan.

“While making a stride, it is as quietly as a cat walks, and while putting forth strength the exertion is so mild, that it looks like reeling off raw silk from a cocoon. The movements, like clouds floating in the sky, are spry and light, but well-balanced and steady. Motion is even and fluid, the muscles neither stiff nor rigid. Breathing should be deep and even … the mind is tranquil but alert, with consciousness commanding thebody. In practicing T’ai Chi Chuan it is essential that movements be guided by consciousness and that there be stillness in movement - a unity of stillness and motion.”
- Official Chinese Instruction Manual for the “24 Movement Yang Short Form,”quoted by Howard Reid in his book The Way of Harmony, p. 90.

Being Completely Attentive

"Simply speaking, drushti is sensitive awareness to that which you are doing. This has two aspects that are vital to every aspect of our practice. First it means bringing your mind to bear exactly on what you are doing. Not doing one thing while thinking another. This actually means learning not even to be thinking about what you are doing. Rather, just be doing it, feeling it. In the beginning we must think before we act. Then we act. Then think again. But we must learn to separate these two processes so that we can act with precision and clarity, without the distraction of thought. Eventually we will learn to trust the intelligence of the body and will be able to dispense with the thinking process more and more. Then our practice becomes meditation in action."

"The second aspect is to feel the effect of what we are doing. Not only at the point of the action itself, but throughout the whole structure of the body and the quality of the mind. We must feel its impact on the functioning of the body, breath and mind. We use this feedback to go deeper into the poses by making adjustments according to the four secondary techniques of asana, vinyasa, bandha and pranayama. Then through the dynamic created between our intention and our actions, a meditative awareness emerges."

- Godfrey Devereux, Dynamic Yoga, 1998, p. 24

Realization in the Body

"But there is a new wilderness, a new trackless waste, a new unknown and limitless territory, a new terrain of chaos, that calls us. It is a territory that has not been, and cannot be, colonized and domesticated by human ambition and greed, that in its true extent cannot be mapped by human logic at all. This is the "forest" of the human body. The body is now our forest, our jungle, our "outlandish" expanse in which we are invited to let go of everything we think, allow ourselves to be stripped down to our most irreducible person, to die in every experiential sense possible and see what, if anything, remains. In this, I am speaking not of the body we think we have, the body we conceptualize as part of our "me" or my self-image. Rather, I am talking about the body that we meet when we are willing to descend into it, to surrender into its darkness and its mysteries, and to explore it with our awareness."
- Reginald Ray, Touching Enlightenment: Finding Realization in the Body, p. 12

"Touching Enlightenment: Finding Realization in the Body."
By Reginald A. Ray, Ph.D..
Boulder, Colorado, Sounds True, 2008. Index, 393 pages. ISBN: 978-1-59179-618-3. VSCL.

Valley Spirit Qigong

The One That Is Not

A Mr. Michal G. wrote to me and asked: "Your work is very impressive. I have one question: Do you feel the love from the One that is?"

I wrote back,

I feel deep and abiding gratitude for the love, goodness, beauty, knowledge, and successes in our lives.
I feel great sadness about the illnesses, tragedy, ugliness, ignorance, evil and failures in the world.
I try to act wisely on all of these kinds of feelings.

I feel love from the One That Is, and from the One That Is Not.
The One I am certain about is Many.

The Many Create and Elevate The One

"Simplifying our relations to things sometimes allows us to live
more complex intellectual and emotional lives.

Repetition and diversification are Nature's formulas.

Simplifying and simplicity are never simple matters.

The empty garden is already full.

The simplest garden is never simple.

It takes four seasons to know one year.

Complexity is closer to the Truth.

Diversity, multiplicity, relations, combinations, mixtures, complexity - rarely just one process or one thing.

Never just One: fruit, a hoe, the moving Sun."

- Michael P. Garofalo, Pulling Onions

"An agricultural adage says the tiny animals that live below the
surface of a healthy pasture weigh more than the cows grazing
above it. In a catalogue selling composting equipment I read
that two handfuls of healthy soil contain more living organisms
than there are people on the earth. What these beings are and
what they can be doing is difficult to even begin to comprehend,
but it helps to realize that even thought they are many,
they work as one."
- Carol Williams, Bringing a Garden to Life, 1998

Green Way Wisdom - Complexity

Green Way Blog Homepage
Blog Search Terms: Complexity, Gardening, Zen, Meditation.