So on August 3 we re-launched DrTaiChi.com as the home site for the new T’ai Chi Network – the “Facebook” of T’ai Chi. In less than a month we’ve grown to more than 200 active members, and at the rate we’re growing we should be over 1000 by the end of September.  Already the community is extremely dynamic – and very international.  We have members from Japan, Bulgaria, Puerto Rico and Italy… as well as from all parts of the USA.

We originally thought we would charge a small monthly membership fee (adding lots of extra value, of course). But after testing it out this month, it’s pretty obvious the T’ai Chi Network has got to be free and open to everyone.  All the members of the development team got together and said, “What were we thinking?!!”  So it’s official now – membership in The T’ai Chi Network is FREE.

But now we’re in blue sky country. As the Network grows, it becomes more and more whatever you – the members – decide to make it.  I know I’ve got some ideas.  I think there should be more video uploads.  T’ai Chi hits the eye and travels inward to the soul, and I’d like to see how people are practicing it all over the world.  I’d like to expand the T’ai Chi Directory and truly make it the largest user-friendly T’ai Chi teacher database on the web.  That’s not all of my ideas by a long shot, but I’d like to see what you come up with.

So what can YOU do?  Well, I’m glad you asked! First of all: participate! If you haven’t signed up for the Network yet, what are you waiting for? Membership is FREE and it literally takes two minutes to get your own login.  Just go to www.drtaichi.com/taichi-network/ .  And if you do already have a profile set up – come back and make friends. I can tell you, there are some reeeaalllyyy interesting people here already. Post a blog, start a new topic in the forum, or write on someone’s wall.  Share your T’ai Chi experiences. And finally, share the site with others.  This is a chance to build a great community together.  Let’s not miss this opportunity.

Because seriously folks, you don’t want me to start making another website.

I first started thinking about the phenomenon of sub-cultures when I discovered the underground ballroom dancing world… in Omaha, Nebraska of all places.  Well, that was just where I was introduced to it.  It turns out that this underground world, this sub-culture — this niche community — can be found everywhere! But I’m digressing… Anyway, I started thinking about the common characteristics of sub-cultures:  a unique language used by its members; folkloric heroes and epic stories;  shared dress codes; and -most important – favorite toys!  For example, one of the most important toys for ballroom dancers are their shoes.

Then it dawned on me that I’ve been a part of a sub-culture for 30 years:   the T’ai Chi sub-culture, which is actually a sub-set of the martial arts sub-culture.  A niche within a niche, if you will.  We have our own special language – even in China regular people don’t talk about jing or compare how relaxed their kwas are.  T’ai Chi aficionados compete most of all – not in the ring – but with who has the best story about the fighting skill of some obscure master in their school’s past.   And like dancers, we do love our shoes.  I myself have four different pairs of shoes made in China specifically for T’ai Chi.

The funniest thing about subcultures is that all their stuff is so totally cool and fascinating – when you’re one of the INSIDERS.  The rest of the world looks at  you as either a freak (like Bruce Lee) or a geek (like the kid who wears his karate gi to the pizza parlor).  It’s often better not to say too much about your particular sub-culture’s inner idiosyncrasies when you’re talking to infidel non-believers.  Let there be some mystery.

On the other hand, every member of a sub-culture can be an ambassador about the beauty of their underground community to the rest of the world.  Every niche is an incubator for unique expressions of art, science and philosophy.  The creations of these sub-cultures slip out into the larger world and enrich every one of us.  And let us not forget that one of the characteristics of most sub-cultures is that they connect people who would be otherwise impossibly separated by language, geography or politics.  Even Arabs and Israelis may put aside their differences and find peace as long as they’re both part of the antique car restoration sub-culture.

I’m kind of one of the freaks of the T’ai Chi world – The T’ai Chi Guy; the white guy on all those videos; America’s T’ai Chi Champion.  But I prefer to think of myself as an ambassador.  I want to share those aspects of T’ai Chi that can unite rather than divide people – like the fact that Qi can keep you healthier, stay younger and live longer – and most of all, that practicing T’ai Chi can be so much FUN!

(I just won’t mention the shoes, OK?)

But as I am beginning to learn, Web 2.0 is a whole lot more than social networking and Google maps. It is about the open (as opposed to “secret”) sharing of information, communication and ideas across all platforms of technology. That last part really has me intrigued. It means that you can get all kinds of media – text, images, video and audio (both spoken and music) on any kind of device – your computer, your t.v., your ipod and even your cell phone.

So how does the Web 2.0 relate to T’ai Chi? Well, here’s an example: the other day one of my students sent me an article by a pretty well-known (caucasian) T’ai Chi teacher. In the article, he was talking about his claim that the style he teaches was only taught to a small inner circle of disciples of the second son of the original master of all masters… OK, about this time I just tuned out.

I kept wondering, “What good is information if it is impossible to find? What good is knowledge if it is never shared?” One the other hand, what would it be like to live in a world in which we could freely access the wisdom of the ages (particularly in the moments of great stress when we need it most of all)?

Ever since I found my first Flip video camera, I’ve been more or less obsessed with the idea that we are living in an age in which T’ai Chi instruction could meet the 21st century. Instruction could follow you anywhere, and it could be completely interactive. For example, since more and more cell phones have video cameras built right in; almost anyone could fire off a short video clip to a T’ai Chi teacher for a quick Q&A during practice! Or you could take a lesson online – while waiting in line at the DMV! Or you could tweet about a particular move with a group of fellow students – all of whom live in different parts of the world.

It’s what I call T’ai Chi 2.0… and so we decided to make drtaichi.com the first example of combining T’ai Chi with Web 2.0 technology to become (what we hope will be) the largest resource for interactive T’ai Chi learning on the internet! You may have noticed the changes on our site lately. We are creating a rich forum for T’ai Chi. We envision an Academy for the study, research and development of T’ai Chi; a marketplace for ideas; and a virtual community for the exchange and exploration of thoughts and questions.

It’s starting tomorrow (assuming that all our techno stuff goes well). It’s going to be HUGE! But that’s all I can say about it – until tomorrow. See you then!

T’ai Chi Ch’uan is about the balancing of opposites. In the T’ai Chi Classics it says, “Wherever there is a left there is also a right; wherever there is a forward there is first a back; and wherever there is an up there is first a down.”

Another way of saying this is that wherever there is a yang there is also a yin. So many times I watch people perform T’ai Chi and I notice that what is missing is that there is no real yin. (Of course, sometimes I see the opposite – no real yang. These are the T’ai Chi people who have misinterpreted the meaning of softness and just become limp… all yin.) Now in most T’ai Chi forms we can find the “yin” moments in the transitions – the motions that link the actual martial techniques and their final positions. In Yang Style, for example, we see the yin in the “shift back then step up T-Step” transitions.

But it’s not enough just to go through the motions of shifting back.  this is a moment of release, withdrawal  and sinking down.  In fact, there are many moments where you actually want to sink really deep into the kwa (watch this week’s T’ai Chi Minute on Rooster Stands on One Leg) before rising up into the next move… then next yang. Too often, I see students perform a shift back motion  without changing their energy or intention.  They’re really just doing a yang in reverse!

OK – by now most of you know me well enough to know that I teach the principle of The Body is a Metaphor: everything you see manifesting on the physical level is almost certainly happening on every other level at the same time – mental, emotional, energetic and Spiritual. We’re faking our yin.  Our lives get so caught up in doing that we ignore the non-doing.  It’s not enough to take a day off — if that day off is filled with errands and visits to friends and household projects.  We need real yin – quiet time to reflect,  meditate and inhabit a quiet inner space.

That inner space – the yin – is the real womb of all action and results.  It is the place of replenishment.  Without real yin we wind up running on empty for a long time, using up our qi instead of conserving it. This week was another long one for me. I’m carrying a larger load of clients than I typically do, and I am working on two websites.  I did a guest appearance T’ai Chi class, and I’ve been preparing for a workshop I’m teaching all day tomorrow.  My Tuesday, for example, started at 4 am and didn’t end until after midnight.  It’s been a go go go week.  I may have sat down a couple of times – in fact I even tried to take a quick nap in my office once.  But I was just going through the motions.  It wasn’t until last night, when I put my daughter to bed, that she and I just sat and did nothing.  Rocking in the rocking chair, she reached up her little hand and touched my face, and I just listened to her breathe.  I finally found a yin to match my yang.

Imagine if all those blogs were voices, and you had to try to pick out a particular voice to listen to. And now I’m going to add to all that noise with this blog.

Almost every day I have a conversation with the Gods of T’ai Chi. OK – I don’t mean that literally. Several years ago a woman I met suggested that when I did my practice I should “listen to the T’ai Chi gods.” Well, I don’t know about gods, but I do know that every day when I practice and when I teach I see new and amazing insights into the meaning of T’ai Chi. Sometimes these insights are material – the nuances of the actual motions of the body – and sometimes these insights are metaphorical. Spiritual.

Messages from the T’ai Chi Gods. That’s what I’m going to write about in this blog. Maybe they will make sure my voice gets heard amongst all those others. Check back often to read what they’ve told me, and send feedback to let me know what you think…