Leaderboard

Hi All, I wanted to share something I’ve been arriving at in my Chen-style practice, that touches on Taoist internal practices, Qigong, and what I’d call embodied self-discovery. In my experience, Chen-style Taijiquan reveals itself more as something to be discovered rather than learned in the conventional sense. It's as if the principles already exist within the body, and simply need to be uncovered, felt, refined, and integrated over time through careful, attentive practice. For me, what’s striking is how this practice interacts with the body’s connective tissue, nervous system, and interoceptive capacities. Standing cultivates baseline tone, alignment, and subtle internal stretch. Silk Reeling and Form practice introduce dynamic spirals and nervous system feedback that repatterns and reshapes tissue and helps the body discover efficient, integrated pathways of movement. Together, they create an internal calibration that feels very tangible, a “felt sense” of how my body organizes, balances, and responds. I’m curious how this resonates with others’ experiences. How have your own Taoist, Qigong, or internal practices shaped your sense of internal organization, alignment, or subtle body awareness? Have you noticed anything similar to what I describe in Chen Taijiquan: feedback, regulation, or embodied learning that feels discovered rather than taught? I’d love to hear your thoughts, insights, or personal experiences. If anybody is interested, I wrote a longer article exploring this in detail, you can read that article here: https://www.taijiquan.quest/post/chen-tai-chi-discovered

Chapter 25 1.有物混成 2.先天地生 3.寂兮寥兮 7.吾不知其名 8.強字之曰"道" 1. A thing formed 2. Before heaven and earth were born; 3. Soundless and formless 7. I don't know its name. 8. I'm reluctantly calling it "Tao". The character混 means mix; blend; integrate, form. First of all, let's see what the abvoe lines say: There is a thing was mixed/blend/integrate/formed together before the existence of sky/heaven and earth. It is soundless and formless. I don't know its name. So, I just have to make up a name for it and call it Tao. From the above description, the thing was not a solid physical thing. It is there but invisible. This was substantiated by the introduction of Tao in Chapter 1. 3. 無，名天地之始。4. 有，名萬物之母。5. 故常無，欲以觀其妙。6. 常有，欲以觀其徼 3. Invisible, was a name given to Tao at the origin of sky and earth.4. Visible, was a name given to Tao as the mother of all things.5. Hence, when Tao is always invisible, one would grok its quale.6. When Tao is always visible, one would observe its boundary.

How are you translating the ‘hun’ in line one?

@ChiDragon very well, it’s your thread. All entries deleted. No worries.

Happy new year! A few weeks ago I posted this mani essay - then got an itch to rewrite a poorly written paragraph. I'm afraid I'm going senile because, turns out, there was a ton o' rewrite to do - and I feel better that I've hacked through that. Now, posting this mani mantra ~ secret style essay to the community to kick the tires, testing for bullet-proof: #1 does it communicate clearly? I'm trying to make the concepts commonly accessible (not just to us esoteric nerds) #2 other editorial comments https://johndaoproductions.wordpress.com/2025/12/15/mani-mantra-secret-style-a-primer/ cheers, Trunk