The Monkey Mountain Story: A New Way to Learn and Do Tai Chi

By Michael White and Bai Jin De

The Monkey Mountain story started in a Canadian community health centre. Over the past ten years, it has been successfully introduced to groups attending community health and recreational centres and in retirement and nursing homes, in diabetes and mental health programs. Presentations at community college activation programs and at the Toronto Island Sunshine Center have resulted in Monkey Mountain being taken to many settings.

Tai Chi has real benefits for all ages. But especially as we get older, we can lose the ability or confidence to walk and move about easily. That loss can be the result of physical changes or simply because of life factors such as our constant use of chairs. Consider falls alone. A serious fall in later years is often the event that may begin the loss of independence.

People who do Tai Chi and who do the Monkey Mountain story really do improve their balance and flexibility. They avoid or recover from near falls. They gain or regain their ability to walk or to enjoy exercise. Being able to move about with confidence encourages socialization and adds to the enjoyment of living. There is also a calming logic to the moves of Tai Chi and the Monkey Mountain story. The concentration required to learn and play the moves clears the mind and relieves stress. Tai Chi is sometimes called a moving meditation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 19, 2013
• ISBN: 9781481716086

Michael White

Ex-drummer, Ex-software author and Ex-flares wearer Michael White was born and lives in the northwest of England. In a previous life he was the author of many text adventure games that were popular in the early 1980's. Realising that the creation of these games was in itself a form of writing he has since made the move into self-publishing, resulting in many short stories and novellas. Covering an eclectic range of subjects the stories fall increasingly into that "difficult to categorise" genre, causing on-going headaches for the marketing department of his one man publishing company, Eighth Day Publishing.Having accidentally sacked his marketing director (himself) three times in the last two years, he has now retired to a nice comfortable room where, if he behaves himself, they leave him to write in peace.In his spare time (!) Michael likes to listen to all kinds of music and is a big fan of Steven Moffat, whether he likes it or not.Michael is currently working on several new projects and can be contacted at the links [e-mail], or via my own website on http://mikewhiteauthor.wordpress.com, or via twitter on @mikewhiteauthor.

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© 2013 Michael White. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

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Revised in 2021

ISBN: 978-1-4817-1607-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-1608-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013902704

Published by AuthorHouse 06/04/2021

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Dedication

I would like to dedicate this book to the teachers who gave me Tai Chi, Master Moy Lin Shin, Dr. Zhu Gwang Ya and Dr. Peter Kun Yang, and to Norma and Al Levitt and all my friends of the South Riverdale Seniors Wellness Group, and to Elsie Petch who has been with this from the beginning.

The new book is also dedicated to Mrs Kwan and to Lai Shan Cheung White who have passed on their practices of Chi-Kung in Tai Chi.

Contents

Part I. Prelude -The Song of the Trip to Monkey Mountain

Part II. The Manual for Learning and Doing Monkey Mountain Tai Chi

Chapter 1 The Warmup Exercises for the Monkey Mountain Story

Chapter 2 - The Tai Chi trip up Monkey Mountain

Chapter 3 Going Down the Mountain

Chapter 4 About Tai Chi, and Monkey Mountain Story Tai Chi, and The Story about the Story ---

Chapter 5. The 24 Tai Chi Moves of the Short Classical Yang Style Tai Chi in the Monkey Mountain Story

Annex I. Details of Tai Ch Moves

Annex II. The Animals in the Monkey Mountain Story

Annex III. One Approach to the Story of the Trip up Monkey Mountain 15 Stations along the Trip Up and Down Monkey Mountain.

Annex IV. Different Endings for the Monkey Mountain Story The Moves of Dr. Peter Kun Yangs Traditional Set

Annex 5.

Annex V. The Five Chee Kung Animals. An enjoyable series of exercises to introduce many ways to feel and imagine Chee in a popular and energetic way.

Annex VI. A short list of References

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The Monkey Mountain Story: A New Way to do Tai Chi

Introduction to Monkey Mountain Story 2021

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It is 8 years since the Monkey Mountain Story was written and published. Some things have changed. Some have remained the same. The Monkey Mountain Tai Chi practical experiences over the years have mostly led to simplifying the teaching of the Story and the Tai Chi. This will appear in the first parts of the new book. The concept of the Story of the Tai Chi set has not changed, use a story to encourage people to try Tai Chi. So the Song of the Trip up Monkey Mountain remains almost the same.

One of the facts of Tai Chi is that one is continually learning from the first time you hear of Tai Chi. In my case this was from when I first read the Tao Te Ching the poems of Chinese philosopher Lao Zu who introduced the ideas of the Tao and the Way of life in about 500 BC in pre history China.

I was told there was a way of learning about the Way, a yoga, to use the Buddhist term. It was called Tai Chi. I met my first Master of Tai Chi, Moy Lin Shin, and I have been learning ever since.

The learning involves how the learning the moves of Tai Chi change our body as well as our mind.

In this new edition some other changes have become part of the story. I relearned the 108 Classical Yang style of Tai Chi. From some of the 108 style students I begun learning the connection between Tai Chi and Chi energies of our bodies, spoken of as Chi Kung.

From another teacher I have learned the connection between the study of Tai Chi, Chi-Kung, and the study of Chi and Tao of the world and the universe.(See Annex