Photo by Onera at http://www.onera.fr/english.php
It’s tough to put internal events into words and it often over-simplifies them. The truth is, you’ll never know what it’s like to experience the world as Jason Socci and I’ll never know what it’s like to experience the world as anyone but Jason Socci. It’s ultimate existential loneliness. This doesn’t mean it’s pointless to try to come as close as possible. Try with me now, won’t you?
Allow me to share my experience of sinking. I’ve noticed this experience most often during the dim mak heart qigong. It goes something like this: My hands hover at about chest level, elbows dropping downward. Just below my hands, running parallel to the ground is a membrane. It’s like a very viscous liquid. My mind slowly drops down into it. Other times it’s more like I find a small crevice or whole in the membrane to drop into.
Read Sink Your Mind Into This »
There’s a lot of WTBA activity in Salt Lake City right now. Eli Montaigue’s annual workshops and a fast growing WTBA student body under Steven Smith at Real Taiji make for great learning opportunities. Coming from out of town and need a place to stay while you study WTBA methods in Salt Lake City? If you’re interested in a cozy room in a beautiful home with a wonderful cooked breakfast, check out the following list* of beds and breakfasts:
Read Bed & Breakfasts in Salt Lake City »
Double Dragon T’ai Chi Studio
Josephine Anderson holds consistent World Taiji Boxing Association Workshops with Head Instructor Eli Montaigue. Located in Ottowa, Ontario, up there in Canada, Double Dragon T’ai Chi Studio hosted Eli right before Tai Chi Utah’s Event in Sept 2008.
They host their next WTBA Workshop already in February 2009.
Contact Josephine Anderson or Eli Montaigue to get this one.
Yang Chen Fu Formed Foundation
In January of ‘08, I wrote that Tai Chi Utah organized its foundation around Yang Chen Fu’s Early Form. That was then; things change. We head into deep waters.
Tai Chi Utah organized around the Yang Chen Fu Long Form, because I had trained that form since 1993. I knew that form better than the Old Yang Form. I taught people Yang Chen Fu’s Form, so we had a small network here that practiced it regularly. Many people here know the full length of it: it’s quite a bit longer, breath for breath, than 108 movements.
We practiced it in-depth and in-detail. We worked applications, martial and healing, for all the motions, and we covered the nuances that finesse fa-jing from this form. I know how it works, and I have received corrections that brought me deeper into the Supreme Ultimate Fist.
With the help of many students, I built a small skilled Tai Chi Chuan School here, in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. Everyone grew talented and strong. We thank Yang Chen Fu and the World Taiji Boxing Association’s Erle and Eli Montaigue for passing to us a fantastic, fluid, fun form. Thanks.
Eli taught here twice now. In each Tai Chi Chuan Workshop, he’s demonstrated the beginnings of the Old Yang Lu-chan Style. It’s better. It’s more slow (in parts), more explosive (other parts), more fluid, more dynamic, and more fun.
It goes deeper.
Read Organizing A Tai Chi Reformation »
Eli Montaigue, Head Instructor of the World Taiji Boxing Association, returned to Utah. He brought us more advanced Taijiquan. In September 2008, Saturday 27th - Sunday 28th, each day’s training went 10 am - 5 pm! 18 folks worked hard to become elastic and powerful.
It was at Steven Smith’s condo-complex, on the big lawn.
130 South 1300 East #210
Salt Lake City, UT 84102
For Eli’s second journey to Utah, we took it a step further.
Eli demonstrated and taught us:
- Advanced Small San Sau
- San Sau’s Deadly Mother Applications!
- Old Yang Form
- Single & Double Pushing Hands
- Striking Methods
- and Qigong
Plus, everyone worked directly with Eli, receiving corrections and tips on Pushing Hands at the workshop. A number of folks signed up for private instruction before or after the workshop. And Steven Smith hosted dinner on Saturday night—that’s becoming a tradition.
Mother Applications in Taiji Small San-Sau
Mother Applications do not appear much in writing or on DVD. This is exclusive. From Eli: “The mother applications from the small San-Sau are some of the best multiple strike kill methods out there, teaching you all about body movement, Fa-jing, and Dim-Mak. These method were banned in the US for a time due to being too violent! There is one Mother Application for every move in the Small San-Sau, the postures in the form are your first reaction, your defence, even though some of them alone can kill, the mother applications are your follow ups, never giving a sucker an even break as we like to call it!”
Read World Taiji Boxing 2008 Event »
I feel safe in the presence of stress and aggression. I speak bravely and hold a confident attitude because I can kill with my bare hands. What silly rules of etiquette, scary social norms, or sadistic corporate policies stand in my way? What deviant criminal or sadistic fool can harm my good will? None. I can remain calm and watchful in the midst of aggression and chaos.
I won’t need to compromise my principles. I can protect folks close to me (including myself), my family, my friends, and anyone who stands nearby. And I cannot be provoked, with pushing or screaming, into chaotic scenarios. T’ai Chi Chuan — the system of martial-art training methods including martial pushing hands and death point strike training — lets me live so well.
