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Chen Man-Ching




    Moved to NY City in 1964 and was the first Tai Chi Master to encourage Westerners to study what had previously been the closely held secrets of certain Chinese martial arts circles.

    Chen Man-Ching was Master of Five Excellences:

    Caligraphy, painting, poetry, tai chi, and medicine

    He said about tai chi study:

    "It is not magic...it is true."

    "Invest in loss."

    From a student: "He was as fully engaged, as fully committed to his teaching, as he was to everything else he did—totally in the moment, totally involved, and passionately happy to be so. Nothing was uninteresting to him, and nothing was outside his sphere of engagement."

    Recommended reading: Cheng Tzu's Thirteen Treatises on T'ai Chi Ch'uan, by Chen Man-Ching


    Fishing with a straight needle



      "There was a fisherman in China who for forty years used a straight needle to fish with. When someone asked him, "Why don't you use a bent hook?" The fisherman replied, "You can catch ordinary fish with a bent hook, but I will catch a great fish with my straight needle."

      Word of this came to the ear of the Emperor, so he went to see this fool of a fisherman for himself. The Emperor asked the fisherman, "What are you fishing for?"

      The fisherman said, "I am fishing for you, Emperor!"

      "If you have no experience in fishing with the straight needle, you cannot understand this story. Simply, I am holding my arms on my breast. Like that fisherman with the straight needle, I fish for you good fishes. I do not circulate letters. I do not advertise. I do not ask you to come. I do not ask you to stay. I do not entertain you. You come, and I am living my own life."

      -Sokei-an

      From Zen Pivots: Lectures on Buddhism and Zen


      THE THREE PILLARS OF ZEN



        ree

        "In this classic work of spiritual guidance, the founder of the Rochester Zen Center presents a comprehensive overview of Zen Buddhism. Exploring the three pillars of Zen—teaching, practice, and enlightenment—Roshi Philip Kapleau, the man who founded one of the oldest and most influential Zen centers in the United States, presents a personal account of his own experiences as a student and teacher, and in so doing gives readers invaluable advice on how to develop their own practices.

        A moving, eye-opening work, The Three Pillars of Zen is the definitive introduction to the history and discipline of Zen".


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