Dzao San....
Never underestimate the power of good manners.
Couldn't sleep again, so went for my early morning wander through Victoria Park, getting the usual suspicious looks (i'd be suspicious of me though; long haired twenty-something with tattoos and piercings wandering around at 4.30 in the morning!). The power of a smile and a "Dzao San" won through though, and an old lady stopped to talk to me, first correcting my pronunciation (it's pronounced like "how" but with a J instead of a H), then going on to ask me what i was doing awake in perfect English. I explained that I couldn't sleep and that I also really enjoy watching people practicing their Tai Chi first thing in the morning. She asked if I would like to exercise with her and explained a little about chi kung, which i gather to be a kind of breathing exercise that means that when you exert external force your breathing goes with it. This is not foreign to me as this is the breathiing method used in the other martial arts I have practiced, Tae Kwon Do and Muay Thai. She explained that Tai Chi is "soft" and referenced the Tao Te Ching, and she seemed pleased when I understood what she was referring to immediately.
"The soft and the pliable will defeat the hard and strong."
The simple routine she took me through was walking and stamping, shaking arms and legs then stretching arms and legs in a similar fashion to the way it is practiced in warm up for TKD. She then went on to join a group for their main Tai Chi exercise and I sat and watched for a while. I would have liked to have been invited to join, but without invitation I did not want to presume or take advantage of her generosity in spending the time with me that she had.
She recommended going to a Taoist Temple at Tuen Mun, which i intend to do later today now that I know that it is there! I've just been looking at the MTR maps and it looks like a bit of a drama to get to the Ching Chun Koon though. I'll have to take the MTR to Kwai Fong then get a couple of buses/ask for directions. Should make today an interesting day though.
Couldn't sleep again, so went for my early morning wander through Victoria Park, getting the usual suspicious looks (i'd be suspicious of me though; long haired twenty-something with tattoos and piercings wandering around at 4.30 in the morning!). The power of a smile and a "Dzao San" won through though, and an old lady stopped to talk to me, first correcting my pronunciation (it's pronounced like "how" but with a J instead of a H), then going on to ask me what i was doing awake in perfect English. I explained that I couldn't sleep and that I also really enjoy watching people practicing their Tai Chi first thing in the morning. She asked if I would like to exercise with her and explained a little about chi kung, which i gather to be a kind of breathing exercise that means that when you exert external force your breathing goes with it. This is not foreign to me as this is the breathiing method used in the other martial arts I have practiced, Tae Kwon Do and Muay Thai. She explained that Tai Chi is "soft" and referenced the Tao Te Ching, and she seemed pleased when I understood what she was referring to immediately.
"The soft and the pliable will defeat the hard and strong."
The simple routine she took me through was walking and stamping, shaking arms and legs then stretching arms and legs in a similar fashion to the way it is practiced in warm up for TKD. She then went on to join a group for their main Tai Chi exercise and I sat and watched for a while. I would have liked to have been invited to join, but without invitation I did not want to presume or take advantage of her generosity in spending the time with me that she had.
She recommended going to a Taoist Temple at Tuen Mun, which i intend to do later today now that I know that it is there! I've just been looking at the MTR maps and it looks like a bit of a drama to get to the Ching Chun Koon though. I'll have to take the MTR to Kwai Fong then get a couple of buses/ask for directions. Should make today an interesting day though.
posted by Roachy at 6:23 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home