I am a practitioner of the Taoist Arts for more than half my life. I started in 1991 when I was 20 and have loved the practice ever since. I taught for 15 years before starting my family project which for the last 8 years has consumed most of my time and energy. With an eight-year old daughter and a four-year old son, the windows of opportunity are opening up again to practice more of the forms. Prior to the family project, I had the chance to instruct all over North America from Alaska and Canada to Texas and New York. I was helping people learn Tai Chi, Lok Hup and the foundation exercises. I was even asked to instruct Taoism at comparative religion courses at a couple local universities in the Denver metro area.
I learned the Taoist Arts within the Taoist Tai Chi Society, Gei Pang Lok Hup Academy and Fung Loy Kok Institute of Taoism. If you’re interested in learning more about these organizations, please visit their website at www.taoist.org. There is all kinds of great information on their website. My wife was also a national level instructor for a time albeit a little shorter than myself. As we are 45-90minutes away from the closest location, we hardly ever attend class anymore. With our energy going toward the family and careers, attending a class becomes an all day affair. The kids are now getting into their own martial arts and extracurricular activities like violin which means my wife and I have to find the practice in our daily lives.
The Taoist Arts are very pragmatic and may be practiced any where and any time. By practice, I don’t mean doing a Tai Chi or Lok Hup set anywhere although that’s quite fun to do. Practice is taking the art form into our daily activities and interactions with people. In this sense we are still practicing the Taoist Arts daily. This blog is an offshoot of that practice. I’ve learned a great deal through my practice of the arts and part of the art form is to share our knowledge and experience with others. We learn from one another through our sharing and practice together.
To be clear, this blog is not sanctioned by the Tai Chi Society. I owe much of what I’ve learned to the society and it’s many amazing volunteer instructs. I owe even more to the late Master Moy Lin Shin who I had the opportunity to work with for a few years before his passing in 1998. I was one of the last instructors he recommended to be a Lok Hup instructors which is a great privilege and honor. That was one of the hardest things to let go when my wife and I switched our focus to raising a family.
I’m an engineer by trade and enjoy applying science and the investigative arts to my work and daily life. This couples well with the Taoist Arts due to the pragmatic nature of Taoism. Both disciplines share the same root of applying what we learn to the affairs of daily living and the issues we find therein. This blog is born out of the roots of applying what is available to learn as well as sharing openly.
I hope you enjoy it.
If you have questions, feel free to leave a comment and inquire.
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