Obey My Blog

Animation student John Francis Leo recently created this awesome video of Darth Vader doing the 42 Movements of Tai Chi Straight Sword. I was just talking to someone the other day about how I much I would love to learn Tai Chi Sword. Looks like I’ve found my answer!

Star Wars Tai Chi from John Leo on Vimeo.

Matt over at Ikigai Way challenged me to a meme. Because I have way too much pride not to accept this challenge, here ya go.

The meme works as follows. You post five things about yourself. Four are untrue. One is true. All are so outlandish, implausible or ridiculous that no one would be inclined to believe that any of them are true. And despite the pleas from your readers, you never divulge which is true and which are fabrications. You then tag five other people (four seriously and one person you are pretty sure would never participate).

Fact or Fiction:

1. I have a black belt in kicking your ass.
2. I once drank a beer with David Carradine in Heathrow Airport.
3. Upon meeting him for the first time, was told by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh that I was “awesome.”
4. Used my Qi energy to save a group of innocent children from a mob of bloodthirsty, ninja unicorns.
5. I was taught Qigong by a famous Chinese movie star.

I’ve had one crazy life. no?

Okay, gotta tag some peeps. Walt, if you had a blog, I would tag you. Suzy Kohout come on down, Mike at MyTaiChiLife you’re the next contestant, Steven at Real Taijiquan (I know you’re still out there!), Taylor Shanklin at T-Shanks Cycles you’re up chica,  and last but not least, Wujimon.

I had a dream last night and this is how it went:

I’m running. I look over and Cate Blanchett, the actress, is running next to me. We’re running from a giant lizard-like serpent thingy that’s chasing after us and wants to eat us. We run into a locker room, desperate for a place to hide. We look around but there are only two options – the bathroom or a small crevice between the end of the lockers and the wall. We both look at each other and head for the crevice. It’s the most obvious place and we know we won’t be completely hidden, but there isn’t any other place to go. We grab hold of each other and wedge ourselves into the crevice and wait for the inevitable. Cate starts to sing (the only logical thing to do when you’re about to get eaten). Her voice is beautiful, but does little to distract me from the giant lizard serpent making it’s way through the locker room towards us. I squeeze my eyes shut and wait. I feel the ground tremble. I sense it’s presence mere feet away and I hold my breath, anticipating the moment I’ll feel teeth. And then…nothing. There is silence. Curious, I cautiously open my eyes and look over. Instead of a hideous monster hovering over us there is only a chubby, half-naked Japanese lady with her head tilted to one side, staring at us, obviously taken with Cate’s voice. We  hesitate for a second, not really comprehending, but then make a mad dash for the door. We leave the stunned, half-naked Japanese lady standing there.

The moral of the story?

That our fears may sometimes seem to us like enormous lizard-like serpent thingies chasing us down, but when truly revealed, they are really nothing but chubby, half-naked Japanese ladies.

Ha!

Tonight was another awesome Silk Reeling class. I’m so incredibly glad I decided to give this teacher another chance. It really has been wonderful so far and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. I had every intention of signing up for the Tai Chi class following this, but then I started doing some research on Baguazhang. Which was also in my dream last night oddly enough. The word kept repeating in my head over and over. When I woke up, there it was again – Baguazhang! Ugh, I could not get rid of that word for the life of me (it is kind of a funny word). But anyway, I didn’t give it much thought after that, until I walked up to my Silk Reeling class this evening and saw a flyer posted for – Baguazhang! Un-freakin-believable. So, I think I’m going to sign up for it. I don’t want to jump around too much and be a flaky martial artist, but I am so intrigued by Baguazhang (!) that I may have to explore this.

And now…a clip from the best worst martial arts movie e-v-e-r… The Black Mask.

Since I’m finishing up Ray Bradbury’s Zen in the Art of Writing, I thought I’d share this hilarious video of a commercial  featuring…Ray Bradbury! I want to travel about in pneumatic people tubes! Is it just me, or is it kind of funny that a prune commercial features the word pneumatic? Okay, maybe it’s just me…

I couldn’t stop looking at my hands. Following my Qigong movements in the mirror during class, all I could think about were how big my hands looked. Usually girls worry about their breasts or the size of their butts, but for me, I guess it’s my hands. Not that I am particularly unhappy with my hands. I think they’re quite nice actually! But on this day they looked a bit large to me. Maybe it was due to suggestion. After all, Master Li tells us to imagine our hands as huge, taking in qi from the universe. I like to imagine my hands look like the Hamburger Helper glove.

I guess it’s hard for me to take myself too seriously in my Qigong class. Not that I don’t take Qigong seriously, because I do. But there is something about it that brings out the silliness in me. I resist the idea of putting too much power into my teacher and into the practice itself. After years of searching outside of myself for answers and looking to other people, I’ve finally learned that the answers to the questions I am asking are always inside. Master Li can guide us, but he doesn’t have the answers for us. Be wary of any teacher that claims to know the truth. It’s tempting, I think, to want someone else to tell you what is true, what is wrong and what to believe. It seems so much easier than experiencing all the pain of facing your own fears and determining the truth for yourself. But it comes at a price. A very high price. There are entirely too many people in the world willing to take on this role for you. It gives them a sense of purpose and power.

Nothing delights me more than poking holes in these peoples’ beliefs. And humor is ideal for poking holes and revealing truths. If someone can’t laugh at themselves, then I am highly suspicious that they are simply full of crap or of their own self-importance. Not that I am a saint by any means or that I don’t indulge my ego like everyone else. Still, it is humor that always brings me around. I’m very grateful for that.

On that note, I’d like to leave you with a little video by Brad Warner, “Brad Warner debates Genpo Roshi about BIG MIND™“.

Okay, so you’ve probably seen this. But if you haven’t…a nice chuckle for you…