Autumn 2020 Newsletter
(September 2020)
Urbana, Illinois
Dear Living Tao Family:
It’s difficult to realize how quickly summer has gone by—already Autumn is in the air.
Since the Covid-19 lockdown with world-wide travel restrictions, most of us have had to learn to accept being at home for months now. It’s not easy. However, it is also a great opportunity to have time to pay attention, and to resolve and clear all the suspended items cluttering our lives. I am learning to be creative with alternatives, and to welcome and dance with new challenges.
Fortunately, with the support and effort from our Living Tao team, we jointly set out to join the flow of offering events virtually. We were able to do so, via ZOOM, in May, July, August, and now have offered a series of three Autumn seminars in September, October and November. So far, thanks to our support team, and the enthusiastic participation from so many of you internationally, these events have been successful, gratifying and ongoing.
Qian Jin 前進— forward action
Hou Tui 後退, Stepping back with contemplative reflections and perpetual personal Inner work.
I am very pleased and grateful to be able to share my learning/teaching and practice with you without interruption. In fact, it has been a blessing in disguise for many elders and those living far away to participate with more ease, while managing to adapt to the demands of this new technology. To all of us seniors (“Tutus”) in the Living Tao family: BRAVO to our “forever young” spirit/gumption. Never to shy away from learning new things and being ready to adopt and adapt these new tools—to be in the HERE and NOW. We can all be proud to be undauntedly flexible with these new challenges, flowing naturally
with the TAO, “The Watercourse Way”. 道法自然!
I have learned to enjoy this new experience of being at home for such a long period, to be at ease with the appropriateness be-fitting my 83 years of living, to settle back with more appreciation of having the time and space to re-discover all the alternative possibility with renewed insights and pleasure. I am savoring these enlightening revelations from moment to moment. Such “Satori” moments have revealed to me deeper meanings of the perennial TAO philosophy, and more potent Tai Ji metaphors of “Embrace Tiger, Return to Mountain”.
After a most gratifying first session of the Autumn Tai Ji Study Series on September 12th with a most responsive group of International Living Tao “Tai Ji dancers”, I felt your presence and your nearness which re-affirmed for me that our CHI-fulness was clearly able to transmit via cyberspace. I am eager to continue exploring further and deeper with you using this virtual learning experience in the October and
November sessions. In the meantime, we in America are currently suffering with raging fires and smoke in the western states, hurricanes in the Southeast; and facing both natural and human disasters plaguing this country and throughout the world.
More than ever, we must be aware of the Oneness of this Earth for us all, and hope for more mutual understanding in cooperation, to realize the hope for Change and Transformation. Yes, Let’s join together to find the Power to Learn and Change—One Heart One Mind One World.
Autumn Peace to ALL,
As in the natural flow of life’s journey, our Living Tao family continues to lose our elders, while at the same time our Tai Ji babies are growing beautifully, and new ones have arrived. In my own family, my elder brother Chao-liang Alex passed on.
Here is his beautiful “Awakening in Practice with Change and Transformation Eternally” calligraphy:
