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It was in the Winter of 1994 — I have to consult my diary about it — and  enroute to Hawaii from the Philippines, the plane stopped over at Narita in Japan. I was with a couple of Chinese women I met in Hongkong. (Our United Airlines flight was delayed for a whole day in HK because of a terrorist report. I’ll tell you the story another time.)  We had a whole day to kill, so we decided to  take  a train to Tokyo and walked around. We  were not dressed for the cold weather. I saw this park and did Tai chi there, something I have done in many parks around the world. The women took a few photos of me. We eventually landed in Oahu, Hawaii. It turned out the Chinese women were going to spend a few days at the University of Hawaii in Manoa. I took them around the island. Another coincidence: we met again in Harvard University a week or two later. (There is no space to follow the thread, so I’ll also reserve it for later.) Perhaps, life has a lesson or two to teach us when we encounter synchronicity. Perhaps it is just happenstance — random, incomprehensible events that have no meaning?

In the outskirts of Hangzhou are the tea plantations and the temples. Some of the buddhas were carved on the mountainsides. I have been to Hangzhou a few times. To me, it is the most interesting city in all of China. I spent many memorable hours doing Tai chi inside a walled garden devoted to bonsai on Xihu/West Lake. You paid for a flask of hot water and a spoonful of tea and you sit on the patio. Because there is an entrance fee, there aren’t many practitioners of Tai chi there, so you can actually have the place to yourself for hours. If you arrive early enough, there are no guards and you can come in for free. Within walking distance there’s Hefang, a street with old wooden houses. The place is a kind of mall with shops vending tea, scarves, paintings, decor, gourds, buddhas, wu-shu weapons, clothes, bags. There’s a food court on one side selling delicacies of the city — Su Dong Po pork, West Lake carp, duck bills and feet, stinky tofu. There’s also near the entrance a couple of massage centers run by the blind.

My birthday celebrated with the family at one of my favorite restaurants, the Seoul Garden, on E 32nd Street and Broadway in Manhattan. With my granddaughters Ava and Isabel. Seoul Garden has some of the best doufu in town. I’ve celebrated several of my birthdays there.

I make it a point to go to Walden Pond every time I go to Boston. I often do Tai chi in the parking lot in the summer or by the water in other seasons. The guards do not bother me; they just tell me to practice farther from the weekend traffic, especially when I have my Dao/Knife and Jian/Sword. After practice, I walk around the lake, stop by the original location of Henry David Thoreau’s cabin and light an incense or two there.

One time, in observance of Spring Equinox, on a Sunday I went to Concord and spent a couple of hours sauntering around Walden Pond, where Henry David Thoreau lived for a couple of years in his famous cabin. Sauntering: from sainte terre, now meaning a pilgrimage to a sacred place.

I have done it many times before, especially during my years studying and later teaching in acupuncture school outside of Boston. There were occasions at Walden when I practiced Tai chi chuan for hours at The Farm with my friend Debra Kang Dean, an award-winning poet and Tai chi teacher and aficionada (www.debrakangdean.com). Her late husband Bradley Dean was a respected Thoreau scholar.

I almost always end up at the original location of Thoreau’s cabin where a cairn has been built nearby. A sign was posted saying (from Walden, or A Life in the Woods):

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

I did repair to the store on the premises and bought a few memorabilia: a couple of items with Thoreauvian quotes:

“Surely joy is the condition of life.”
“Always you have to contend with the stupidity of men.”
“Simplify. Simplify.”

I also got some cards with the famous line:

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.”

At Fengdu, the city of the dead. The cruise ship stops at different points on the trip to the 3 Gorges and the Great Dam. There were vendors peddling memorabilia, umbrellas, masks, snacks, bottled water. Inside there were statues of people undergoing punishment in the different circles of hell.

I was in Paris a long time ago. I practiced Tai chi at the Jardin de Tuileries before I went to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa and the Winged Victory of Samothrace, two of my favorite art objects in the museum. I cannot remember now if I.M. Bei’s pyramid was already in place at the time, but somehow in my memory, it has always been there during the times I was visiting. In the photo, I posed in the White Crane posture.

If you are at the Tao Garden, GM Mantak Chia’s first-rate resort in Doi Saket, Chiangmai, Thailand, be sure to take a walk around the village. There are temples where you can listen to the monks chanting early at dawn, a noodle shoppe run by the thoughtful and lovely Pilat, and a few arts and crafts stores. These giant tamarind trees in the photo have their own spirit house and a small chapel for pilgrims. And oh, yes, don’t miss the coconut ice cream in a private house across the creek. It is the best ice cream I have had anywhere. We often snuck up to the freezer at night and helped ourselves, always leaving the payment on the table.

A viewing window at the Humble Administrator’s Garden in Suzhou, the Venice of the East. One time when I was visiting, there was a small ensemble playing traditional music on traditional instruments like the zheng/zither and the pipa/lute. Easy to be transported to the past in these surroundings.

My first time in Chichen Itza, near Tulum and Cancun, was in 1984. I had been there many times in the 80s. I guess that was before the New Age people discovered the place. Nowadays, it is a center of pilgrimage for thousands during the equinoxes and solstices. One of my memories is seeing the serpent crawl down the steps. Since then, there have been much research into the different pyramids. It is amazing how much esoteric information is encoded in them.

Ana and Gonca by the Bosphorus in Istanbul in 2004. They were studying Shaolin with me. I have studied with them, too, basically Xing Shen Zhuang Fa, with Gonca in Huangshan, China and Ana in Rome. Istanbul was a particularly memorable place for me since my first visit in the 90s. The restaurants, Grand Bazaar, the mosques, museums and the baths were particularly striking. I was the guest of David Verdesi. We did the baths and the restaurants. He and I tried the water pipes/hookah. I’ve done it a couple of times, but always, I choke when I puff. People asked me about it, but I did not experience anything particularly elevating.

Huangshan/Yellow Mountain, has the reputation of being the most beautiful mountain in China not only for its misty peaks and unusual stone formations, but also because of its sunrise. Cindy Zhou, the English translator and tour guide, told me it was going to rain and not to bother about the sunrise that day. Just the same, I got up between 4 and 5 in the morning. I did not know flashlights were available in the hotel, so I started walking in the dark in the general direction of a peak where the sun was supposed to rise. Along the way, two women from Hongkong offered to lend me a flashlight. So the rest of the way was illuminated. We settled on a comfortable rock of our choice — in the dark — and waited. The sun did not burst through the clouds. It actually started as a sliver and slowly shed its light on the surrounding mountains. Suddenly, there were flashes from cameras followed by applause and jubilation. There must have been a hundred people waiting for the sunrise. It was a zen moment of surprise and joy. Later, we gathered in front of the hotel, some in groups, others individually, and did our morning Tai chi and qigong rituals.

I was on a boat, the Princess, on the way to the 3 Gorges and the Great Dam. I was waiting for a good angle, the alignment of the sun, the boat, mountains, and the bridge. I do not know if they were the best shots I took. But there they are, for whatever they are worth. The pocket Samsung camera tried its best. I do not have any set rules for taking photos. Much of my aesthetic sensibility is intuitive. But there is often in my mind that “crucial moment” the zen tradition talks about. I also try to follow the Tai chi chuan adage: Stillness in movement, movement in stillness. A photograph should not be static. It should capture a scene in the context of the passage of time and space.

David Verdesi (www.davidverdesi.com) with his students at the Basilica di San Clemente in Rome, a Roman Catholic church built, like many churches in Italy, on the ruins of pagan sacred ground or temple. We visited 3 times during a period of one month. Once it was closed for the day. The other times we descended to the underground cave. There were some ancient columns and relics, if I remember, a spring and an excavation presumably for bull sacrifice, a ritual that may have had an association with cleansing, sacrifice and the astrological period of Taurus.
It was the site of the temple of Mithra. I did not know anything about him at the time, except that he was a Persian god or prophet.
I had an eerie feeling walking around the place — it felt like it was haunted by restless ghosts. How many of these spots were the scenes of battle? The quick information I gathered on the internet was that Mithra was born of a virgin or the sun and moon, he had 12 disciples, preached love and compassion, was called the Light of the World, died and was resurrected on the third day. Oh yes, he was born on December 25, about 500 to 600 years before Jesus. When I told a friend about it, he sent me the link to a website that says at least 25 other prophets were born on December 25, the day of the Winter Solstice that announces the coming of the Light. (I Ching, Heagram 24/Fu/The Return of the Light.) Another occasion that is related to astrological phenomenon.

The waterfalls in Banahaw in 1986, my first pilgrimage to the holy mountain. My old college friend Isis took me and a couple of her friends there for a weekend retreat. It was part of the ritual of cleansing, dipping in the cold water of the river at Santa Lucia and showering in the waterfall before you went up to light a candle at the different grottoes on the mountain. A shaman told me that that some things and places are inherently sacred, others are sacred because we venerate them. Almost every time I visited the Philippines I went to Banahaw. Last September (2012) I could not make it. I was informed by my students in Chi Nei Tsang that Banahaw was dirty, with people dumping their garbage in the river and playing loud karioke music.

I used to do Tai chi chuan on the beach before sunrise in Cyprus. At one time there was Jupiter and Venus in the sky. In the dark, there were shadows, and voices greeting: Kalimera! There were fishermen casting their nets from their boats. When they were done, I would look at their catch — mostly octopus and sea bream. Every morning, when I was on the beach, there was a stunning sunrise. I decided to take a couple of photos. I’ve written poems and essays about my sojourn in Cyprus. I’ve taught in the North (Turkish and Muslim) and in the South (Greek and Orthodox Christian). See “Letter from Cyprus” in the Writings section.

It was quite a dizzying tour through Croatia and Slovenia along the coastal and mountain route. From Dubrovnik in the south to Zagreb in the north past a landscape of astonishing beauty: islands on the Adriatic, castles and fortresses on mountaintops, olive and orange groves, picturesque harbors, old towns, jade lakes, autumnal forests. Seeing the land, It is hard to imagine that not too far away there was war and “ethnic-cleansing” within the last two decades. How do people live with a history of atrocities and ancient hatred? The travel guides, English-speaking women, did not shy away from narrating stories of destruction, vengeance, and inhumanity in certain areas.

Often I wandered away from the tour. I took photos of buildings, churches, canals, doors and gates, castles. Monuments that endured. Sadly, I had no time to keep a diary. I often stood still mesmerized by the stunning scenery. Sometimes I stared at bullet holes on walls. As a child during the war in the Philippines in the early and mid- 40s I remember the evacuation to the mountains, the dug-outs and the malnutrition. (See poem “Memory” in the Poetry Section and the essay “Reflections on the diaspora, burung babi, Malayan fish head curry, a favorite uncle and a trip to the mountains” in the Writing Section.) Certain images kept sneaking into the journey and I asked myself: What did the people remember of the war? With such a fragile peace, will there be another descent into madness?

I have decided not to write captions to the photos. But I should note that I encountered one of my favorite composers — Gustav Mahler — in Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia. He was the resident artist for 6 months sometime in 1881. I took a photo of his statue and his bust and the Academia Philharmonicorum building where he was the director. Among other things, I owe Mahler my deep admiration for Du-Fu and Li-Po. Their poetry was used by him in his composition “Das Lied von der Erde” (“Songs of the Earth”). Valentina, the tour guide mentioned that his music was played at the square during the 20th anniversary of Slovenia’s independence. She did not specify which one but I imagine it was Symphony #2 (The Resurrection).

Despite the horror of war, and the plague of hate and cruelty, the landscape restores faith.  Beauty and truth bloom in the landscape,  in works of art and in the human heart.

The birthday banquet of GM Gin Soon Chu at the Imperial Garden in Boston’s Chinatown:

 

GM Chu Gin Soon with his senior students at the September 22 celebration of his birthday.  I recognize Linda, Peter, Mary Beth, Phil, Arthur, Jean, Michael, Arthur and a few other faces. Just behind the celebrant is Kim shifu, his second disciple. That’s me  with a red scarf. There were at least 200 in attendance, mostly the master’s students from the last 40 years.

GM Chu Gin Soon with his family at his recent birthday banquet in the Imperial Garden Restaurant in Boston’s Chinatown. The Chu clan was also present.

GM Chu with Kim shifu and other students during a demonstration of martial arts in NYC. Undated.

I cannot remember when these photos were taken exactly. But it was at another September banquet, which was held on GM Chu’s birthday. Chu shigong had time to pose for photos and to Push.

GM Chu Gin Soon doing Push Hands with me in 1992. The school was located on the first floor of the Turnpike Tower Apartments at the time until it moved to its present location on Harrison Street corner of Beach. When the school, the oldest in Massachusetts, opened in 1969 it was located in the building across the street. The present address is on the second floor and is more spacious. if you are in Boston, visit the school and see the students in training.

 

With Traditional Yang Family Tai chi chuan Grandmaster Gin Soon Chu and his wife at the birthday banquet in the Imperial Garden Restaurant in Boston’s Chinatown last September 22, 2012. I have studied with GM Chu since 1990. See essay “Looking for Yang Cheng-Fu” in the Writings section of this website. He has the most comprehensive knowledge of the Yang Family system. His mastery of the 34 fajing techniques, the curriculum, and the process of teaching is beyond words.

Celebrating his birthday with a traditional  Chinese banquet and a cake, Grandmaster Chu poses with his wife. The party was attended by at least 200 of his admirers, students, family and relatives. There were countless toasts, photo ops, Tai chi performances and speeches.  It was a spontaneous and indescribable  outpouring of love, respect  and admiration for the Grandmaster.

The Carlos Palanca Memorial  Literary Awards Night :

Alfred “Krip” Yuson and Ed Maranan are two of the few Hall of Fame recipients in the  Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, the most prestigious literary competition in the Philippines. A Hall of Fame award means that the winner should have received 5 first prizes in  the main literary categories — poetry, short story, play, essay. Krip, Ed and I have appeared in different poetry anthologies. My poetry has been included in 3 of the anthologies edited by Krip — “Father Poems,” “Eros Pinoy: Contemporary Erotic Poetry and Art in the Philippines,” and “Love Gathers All: Anthology of Love Poems” (published in both Singapore and the Philippines).

That’s F. Sionil Jose, National Artist for Literature. He has written many books (novels and short stories), the most famous of which are the Rosales novels. I have known Frankie since the late 1950s. I first met him at student editors’ conferences and then at his bookstore “Solidaridad” in Ermita, Manila.

Grace D. Chong, winner of the first prize in the children’s short story for her work “The White Shoes.” I had not seen Grace for at least 45 years. We were both students in the University of the Philippines in the early 1960s writing for the campus newspaper. I was surprised when she recognized and called me from a distance.

Ed Maranan and Rene with a group of writers at the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature.  I was Ed’s guest to the event held at the Peninsula Hotel.  I was also his guest last year. See the photos from that night in this website.

At the Zhan Zhuang and Tai Chi Chuan DaoRen seminar. Organized by Florante, my younger brother, it was held at the main conference room of the Bahay Kanilaw in the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. The seminar was actually a repeat of a seminar I taught two years ago to introduce students to the traditional techniques of Tai chi chuan training, starting with Zhan Zhuang postures and moving stances, eventually going to the basic Tai chi chuan movements. The regimen is quite accessible, even to  the older practitioners and those with certain disabilities. These techniques become the foundation for the more complicated fist and weapons forms of Traditional Yang Family Tai chi chuan system. I have taught the same seminars in other parts of the world — in the US, Cyprus, London, and Egypt. In the Philippines the predominant Tai chi form is the contemporary Wu-Shu set that was choreographed for competition by the government  in China. The traditional Tai chi forms are hardly seen in the parks there.  What I have been trying to do in teaching Zhan Zhuang and Tai chi chuan DaoRen together is to bring back the Tai chi practice to its basic traditional components — the 8 core movements, the dantian breathing, and the focus on the integrated physical, energetic and spiritual aspects of the tradition based on the Traditional Yang Family Tai chi chuan system.

At the Jade Mountain Chi Nei Tsang internal organs seminar sponsored by the Philippine Academy of Acupuncture, Inc. It was held at the St. Joseph Convent in Quezon City. More than 30 participants attended the workshop, including 2 nuns. The weekend seminar was organized by the indefatigable Janet Paredes, an acupuncturist, officer of PAAI and head of NADA Philippines. She is a certified instructor of the NADA protocol. She graduated from the program at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx, NY. She has taught in the US and Germany and is a recognized instructor internationally.   She works actively with street kids. The first CNT seminar I taught in the Philippines was in 1998. It was sponsored by an NGO — Acupuncture Therapeutics Research Center (now called INAM). I have taught many seminars in Manila since then — Qigong/Taoyin, Microcosmic Orbit Meditation (with Inner Smile, 3 Breaths and 6 Healing Sounds), Zhan Zhuang, Tai chi and CNT. Many of my students work in disadvantaged urban and rural areas. My childhood friends Romy Liwanag, a minister of the United Methodist Church from Tarlac City, and Sonny Villa, former Philippine ambassador to Thailand and China, attended the seminars in CNT and Tai chi chuan as my guests. I also taught a special seminar for members of  NADA Philippines. It is always a pleasure to teach in my country where they do not have many trained instructors like me. Next time I will write about Janet Paredes and her admirable work with street kids as the head of NADA Philippines. She was one of my first students in the Philippines.

Zhan ZHuang/Qigong Foundations
Sept. 8 / Saturday / 9AM to 6PM

This seminar sets the foundation for many healing, self-cultivation and spiritual work. Too often neglected, these postures constitute the structure without which many practices cannot be done. How do you start? What do you do? What is the position of the spine, the pillar of many practices? The paradigm will be set on this workshop so that you will see what us the Daoist body, the energetic relationship of different energy centers. Important concepts are are discussed and performed: body positioning, alignment, breathing, emptiness, the dantian, qi, and transformation. Included: Embracing the Tree, Opening Tai Ji, Heaven and Earth, Dai Mai Circle, Pushing. This subject os strongly suggested and recommended for those who are taking Tai Chi Chuan Daoren or any other meditative and healing work.

Tai Chi Chuan DaoRen
Sept. 9 / Sunday / 9AM to 6PM

Tai Chi Chuan DaoRen is a short version based on the traditional Yang Family form. Requiring little space and time, it contains the 4 classical temple core movements of Tai Chi Chuan. Its unhurried pace promotes relaxation, centering, joy, calmness, gentleness, and inner peace. Tai Chi Chuan DaoRen begins with a Qigong signature movement and draws energy from Heaven and Earth and activates the Dan Tian (Field of Elixir) center. After 40 years of practicing the art, Rene J. Navarro choreographed this form showing the reality of energy as the student moves from posture to posture repeated in a clockwise direction. The from takes you to different levels of experience the way Tai Chi Chuan should be dome: magical, playful, joyous and shamanic.

Venue
Bahay Kalinow, Guerrero cor.
Dagohoy ST., UP Diliman, Q.C.

Course Fee
Full payment of P 3,000.00 on site.
Full payment of P 2,700.00 on or before August 1st.
Full payment of P 2,500.00 each for a group of 3 persons or more on or before August 1st.

For inquiries and reservations, please contact:
Florante J. Navarro
Email: florantejnavarro@yahoo.com
Mobile: (0917) 522-3008

Jade Mountain Chi Nei Tsang (JMCNT) Internal Organ Massage Seminar-Workshop

The Philippine Academy of Acupuncture, Inc. (PAAI) invites you to a seminar on Jade Mountain Chi Nei Tsang (JMCNT) Internal Organ Massage with Sifu Rene Navarro on September 1 and 2, 2012.

Workshop participants will learn the basic diagnostics and treatment of abdominal massage, clearing of the organ channels, Opening  the Wind Gates,  manipulating the Colon, Liver, Stomach, Spleen, Kidneys,  Pancreas, Lungs, and detoxifying the Hara.

Sifu Rene Navarro will also cover 3 Breaths, Inner Smile,  6 Healing Sounds, Qigong and Zhan Zhuang and classical 5 Elements.

Rene J. Navarro, Dipl. Ac., NCCAOM (National Commission for Certification in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine) is a licensed acupuncturist, herbalist, martial artist, healer, writer, poet and internationally known teacher. He is one of the earliest instructors of the Healing Tao and Chi Nei Tsang founded by Mantak Chia. He wrote “The Greatest Enlightenment of Kan and Li”, and edited “Sealing of the Five Senses”, manuals in the high Taoist spiritual practice of internal Alchemy, “Chi Nei Tsang Internal Organs Chi Massage,” the master guide on abdominal manipulation, and “Dao-In” the book on meridian activation and muscle stretching.

Rene holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political science, and a Bachelor of Law, a diploma in acupuncture and a certificate in classical Chinese herbs from the New England School of Acupuncture in Boston, MA. He has taught in four continents.

Seminar details:

Venue:  Religious of the Good Shepherd Convent (RGS), Heart of Mary Villa Conference Hall, 1043 Aurora Blvd., Quezon City. This is beside St.  Bridget’s School and the Katipunan LRT station.

Training Fee: P 6,500 regular fee.

Early bird fee is P 5,000 only if paid on or before August 15, 2012. Training fees include handouts only.

Attire: Please wear comfortable clothes and foot wear. Bring a towel, malong, powder and massage oil.

Schedule: September 1, Saturday 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m
September 2, Sunday     9:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Participants will have to provide for their own snacks and lunch. Food can be ordered for delivery from restaurants in the Katipunan area.

PAAI will only accommodate 30 participants on a first-come, first-served basis. They will work in pairs during the practicum.

For reservations, please contact Ms. Sinag Cuasay at PLDT mobile landline Tel. 4254247, mobile number +639336360908, or email sinagcuasay@yahoo.com.

Assure your slot by depositing the full amount to PAAI BPI Loyola Katipunan branch Savings Account Number 3083-7065-88.

Please bring your deposit slip on September 1.

The Philippine Academy of Acupuncture, Inc. (PAAI) is a non-stock, non-profit organization.  It engages in fund generation and resource mobilization activities to finance its projects and activities. The organization aims: to promote and develop quality education, training, and research in TCM acupuncture; to improve professional quality for TCM acupuncture practice; to promote the science of  TCM acupuncture; to support grassroots endeavours in the practice of TCM acupuncture; and to ensure the integration of acupuncture and TCM into the Philippine health care system.

Executive Committee Members: President-Dr. Jaime Galvez-Tan, Vice President:Dr. Alfonso Lagaya, Secretary:Dr. Tess Umipig, Treasurer: Janet P.Paredes, Auditor: Dr. Jennifer Madamba.

Board Members: Dr. Rosalinda Maglana, Dr. Francis Ras, George Facsoy, Dr. Tan Cho Chiong