A quote from the preface of my book “Of Fire and Water: Alchemy and Transformation”
(Tambuli Media: 2023):
A last cautionary tale. The Western Procrustean Bed. The Eastern paradigm of the human being and the world includes not just the physical and material but also the energetic, mystical, intellectual, emotional as well as the spiritual. But much of Eastern culture is often perceived and practiced through the framework of the materialistic West. Yoga has been reduced to an exercise for physical fitness and flexibility, meditation as a mode of relaxation, and nothing more. Martial art, a temple discipline among monks, has become just a system of fighting, sans philosophy, compassion, and virtues. Sunzi’s Art of War, the classic of warfare, is just a manual for capitalist business and gamesmanship. Eastern disciplines often pass through the procrustean bed of the West. We have a long way to go to reach the heart of authentic Eastern culture.
From the Encyclopedia of Greek Mythology:
Procrustes (proh-KRUS-teez). A host who adjusted his guests to their bed. Procrustes … kept a house by the side of the road where he offered hospitality to passing strangers, who were invited in for a pleasant meal and a night’s rest in his very special bed. Procrustes described it as having the unique property that its length exactly matched whomsoever lay down upon it. What Procrustes didn’t volunteer was the method by which this “one-size-fits-all” was achieved, namely as soon as the guest lay down Procrustes went to work upon him, stretching him on the rack if he was too short for the bed and chopping off his legs if he was too long.
When I was teaching at the New England School of Acupuncture outside of Boston, I taught a course that included Inner Smile, 6 Healing Sounds, Buddha Palm Qigong, a meditation on the 12 regular meridians, Microcosmic Orbit, and Tai chi chi kung. Some students complained that they were in school to study acupuncture, not any of these subjects. The course was intended to provide not only a cultural foundation for acupuncture but also to help develop a practice that is part of the healing and wellness lifestyle in China. Acupuncture cannot be divorced from the other healing modalities. I also gave a seminar on different healing methods like massage, herbology, nutrition, qigong, and martial arts as a Continuing Education course.
What happens when a country like the US takes a part of the culture of another country? Tai Ji Quan, for instance, has been subjected to a change to make it fit “scientific standards” – meaning, the different components of the art are being removed to make the practice “evidence-based.” In some places that means eliminating the practice of Qi, meridians, dantian, and other parts that are not “scientific.” In other places, small parts or excerpts of Tai chi chuan are presented as the system itself. The trend has become ridiculously widespread that even a single Zhan Zhuang posture like Embracing the Tree or Horse Stance is being peddled as Tai chi chuann.
How do we restore Tai Chi to its original cultural setting, where certain concepts and practices are a part of it? What are these? We must understand that Tai chi chuan was created in a particular environment with certain beliefs and practices.
Tai Ji Quan was not just an exercise or means of relaxation. It includes different routines, fist and weapons forms, breathing methods, internal work and a belief system. To take it out of its milieu and practice and use it is as a mere physical exercise or a remedy for a medical problem is to cut off its essential nature, a tree shorn of its leaves, branches, roots and fruits. It’s like building a house without walls, roof, kitchen, water, electricity, doors and windows.
To start with, the practitioner has to come up with a definition, What is Tai Ji Quan? What is its curriculum?
The Yang Family had a specific curriculum, consisting of fist and weapons and internal work. When I studied at the Hua Eng Athletic Club in Manila’s Chinatown in 1968, I learned the Taiwanese master Han Ching Tang’s version of the Long Form and Push Hands. They had a Tai chi Sword form but I was not able to study it because the class dissolved when another Taiwanese master Liu Yun Hsiao came and the students, including me, joined his class. He taught another version of the Yang Long Form.
For a about a year, when I lived in Long Island, I studied the Wu style Long Form with Master Leung Shum. I do not know if he taught any other Tai chi chuan form but I do remember he had an excellent Push Hands.
I lived in Easton, Pennsylvania when I encountered another teacher, Mantak Chia, in 1983. His curriculum covered a variety of subjects:
Inner Smile*
6 Healing Sounds*
Microcosmic Orbit *
Taoist Sexology*
Fusion of the 5 Elements 1, 2 and 3*
5 Finger Kungfu
Iron Shirt 1 (Zhan Zhuang), 2 (Tendon) and 3 (Bone Marrow Neigong)*
Tai chi chi kung 1 (Slow Tai chi) and 2 (Fast Tai chi)*
Neidan/Innter Alchemy: Lesser Kan and Li, Greater Kan and Li and Greatest Kan and Li*
Sealing of the 5 Senses
I became a senior instructor in 1989. I was cerrified to teach those courses with the asterisk. I should note that the courses, especially Kan and Li included knowledge of the meridian system (12 Primary Channels and 8 Extraordinary Vessels). My Tai chi teacher Chan Bun Te taught me his versions of the Microcosmic Orbit and Daoist Sexology when I saw him in the Philippines in 1986.
Later on, when I decided to move to Boston and study acupuncture and herbs at the New England School of Acupuncture in 1989, I trained at the Gin Soon Tai chi Federation in downtown Boston. Here is the list of forms I studied:
Tai chi walk
Da Lu/Great Pulling
Zhan Zhuang/Standing Postures
Tai chi chuan solo fist form (108)/Tiger style, Medium frame
Fa Jing/Discharge of Jing
Staff (single and paired)
Dao/Broadsword 1and 2
Jian/Sword 1 and 2 (Yang Chengfu’s form)
Push Hands (Stationary, Moving, One Hand, Two Hands, Broken Flowers)
Sanshou/2-man fighting set
Tai chi chuan Chang Chuan/Long Boxing
Fast Tai chi (I do not know where it came from)
I do not know if anything else was taught or if the Gin Soon Tai chi Club is still following the curriculum. GM Chu passed a few years ago. He was the second disciple of Yang Sao-Chaung. His children Gordon and Vincent are now in charge of the school.
In my experience, the curriculum varies from school to school and teacher to teacher. Mantak Chia studied the long Tai chi forms of the Yang and the Wu but teaches only the short Tai chi forms in public. He also teaches a more elaborate Bone Marrow Neigong that includes “beating” the tendino-muscular meridians with a bamboo or wire beater and hanging weights from the genitals. It is possible that he, like other masters, teaches more courses to private students. Some teachers charge extra for these “secret” teachings. How much, is left to the imagination and the student’s pocket book. What a discipleship costs, is another matter. You could ask these “disciples” how much they paid. I think you’ll be surprised to know how expensive these transmissions are and how extremely commercial martial arts have become. A famous master openly brags that he paid for a technique with a “house” – meaning the technique cost him the price of house. Another master admitted he paid $70,000 for a “Ultimate” Qigong.
An important aspect of Tai chi study is the meridians. Not everybody includes them in their teachings and practice. There are valuable principles behind their study: the pathways that include different “power points,” the cycles (Controlling, Creation, Circadian, etc.), among others. It is like wiring the house and installing electricity, light and power after building the roofs, foundations, walls, floors, bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, stairs. Points like Yong Quan/Bubbling Spring/KD 1, Lao gong/PC8, Bai Hui/GV 20, Ming Men/GV 4, and Shen Que/CV 8, among others, are essential in the practice. The Circadian Rhythm shows the cycle of time when the meridian (and the organ) is most active, starting with the Lung at 3 AM and closes with the Liver at 1-3 AM, and begins again. Obviously the trajectory and which Element (Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, Wood) dominates are important too because the flow of Qi is part of our experience in Tai chi chuan and its application in the “pressure point” aspect of combat, of which more later. How do they come into play in actual practice? How are they activated?
The Microcosmic Orbit (MCO)or Small Heavenly Circle is often the starting point for the study of the 8 Extraordinary Vessels. How it is done differs among practitioners. But they have a common trajectory: the Ren Mai and Du Mai. Usually it goes up the GV in the back and goes down the CV in front. There are basically 14-16 stations. Some teachers use the Nei Jing Tu as a theoretical and practice aid. Others simplify the method by going up and down the route. There also those who “reverse” the process and/or connect the front and the back stations in what resembles a “Lightning Path.” How much time and what is done at each stage also differs from one teacher to another. From the MCO the practice moves on to the Macrocosmic Orbit.
End of Part 1. I will cover the topic “Dantian: What is it?” next time.