Autumn Living Tao Essential Tai Ji Series — Session One
(September 2025)
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Let Life Live Through You (from Hokusai Says by Roger Keyes)
Master Huang’s teaching encourages a holistic approach to Body, Heart/Mind & Spirit study through the practice of the Living Tao philosophy, metaphors, and forms. Over the course of this Series, while reviewing Tai Ji essentials, Master Huang will introduce new material in the following practice areas:
* Classics, Culture & Music: ZEN/CHAN Classic 永嘉證道歌 Yung-chia’s Song of Enlightenment (A new translation by Red Pine), along with the Tao Te Ching 道德 (Dao De Jing); I Ching 易經 (Yi Jing); and Trust In Mind Xin Xin Ming 信心銘 our perennial learning texts; and Joseph Campbell “Katharsis”;
* Related Calligraphy & Metaphors ; and
* Continued Articulation & Development of the Tai Ji Forms.
YIN YANG BALANCE
HOKUSAI SAYS
by Roger Keyes
Hokusai says look carefully.
He says pay attention, notice.
He says keep looking, stay curious.
Hokusai says there is no end to seeing
He says look forward to getting old.
He says keep changing,
you just get more who you really are.
He says get stuck, accept it, repeat
yourself as long as it is interesting.
He says keep doing what you love.
He says keep praying.
He says every one of us is a child,
every one of us is ancient
every one of us has a body.
He says every one of us is frightened.
He says every one of us has to find
a way to live with fear.
He says everything is alive —
shells, buildings, people, fish,
mountains, trees, wood is alive.
Water is alive.
Everything has its own life.
Everything lives inside us.
He says live with the world inside you.
He says it doesn’t matter if you draw,
or write books. It doesn’t matter
if you saw wood, or catch fish.
It doesn’t matter if you sit at home
and stare at the ants on your veranda
or the shadows of the trees
and grasses in your garden.
It matters that you care.
It matters that you feel.
It matters that you notice.
It matters that life lives through you.
Contentment is life living through you.
Joy is life living through you.
Satisfaction and strength
is life living through you.
He says don’t be afraid.
Don’t be afraid.
Love, feel, let life take you by the hand.
Let life live through you.
Ju Jing: Collect your essence
Yang Qi: Nurture your Qi
Hui Shen: Allow your spirit to be focused
Ju Jing
Yang Qi
Hui Shen
WU XING (FIVE MOVING FORCES)
THE CYCLICAL / SEQUENTIAL NATURE
木 WOOD – MU
火 FIRE – HUO
水 WATER – SHUI
金 GOLD/Metal – JIN
土 EARTH – TU
(in center)
SHOU HUI PI PA ⼿揮琵琶
HAND STRUMMING OR PLUCKING PI PA
Hua
Flowering / Blossoming
Hua
Flower / Blossom
GUAN YIN CHANT
Namo Guan Shi Yin Pusa
Joyfully participating in the sorrows of the world
Yung-chia’s SONG OF ENLIGHTENMENT
Translated by Red Pine
CHUNGLIANG SPEAKS ABOUT PRACTICE
“To help us to trust our inner truth…to live our life more real. To allow the living process to become more real.
Joseph Campbell always said, ‘it’s not the meaning of the life, it’s the experience of being alive’. Very big difference!
Many of us try to reach for ‘truth’ as a noun—as a ‘thing’, trying to think about life as a noun, as a ‘thing’. But it’s about the experience of being alive. Tai ji is not a ‘thing’, tai ji is not a form—dead form—tai ji is how to live through your form—to become alive in a tai ji watercourse way. Very Big difference!
Many of you first learn tai ji, you want to learn the form. You want to learn the look. You want to learn what you call tai ji–the ‘thing’.
You are not a ‘thing’. You are experiencing through the structure. Every form is only a structure. You have to live through it, come alive by doing the form. You must not be confined…to get stuck inside the form and become a ‘thing’. That’s so important to me as a teacher, as someone who guides you through the practice.
Listen to me again, so important. Tai ji is a structure for us to live through. Tai ji is not a box. Tai ji is a box you need to put a circle around it. Not only a circle, you need to open the circle to come through every time…”
SUPPLEMENTAL REFERENCES
- Yung-chia’s Song of Enlightenment, translated by Red Pine
- J.S.Bach Mass in B minor— Kyrie Eleison. (Robert Shaw with Atlanta Symphony Orchestra & Chamber Chorus)
- Reflection of the Moon in Er-quan*
(Twin Springs). 二泉印月 (CHINA SONG with Shanghai Quartet arrangement by Yi-Wen Jiang)
*Original 二泉印月 Er-hu version
Two Springs Reflect the Moon – A masterpiece of a blind composer
5:04 作曲：阿炳| Composer：Abing 演奏：许可| Performer: Xu Ke 乐器：⼆胡| Instrument: Erhu The most widespread piece of Erhu – a two-stringed bowed instrument - Let There Be Love: Nat King Cole sings with George Shearing Quartet (Capitol Records)
