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Hall of Happiness

(photo taken at Carla's Haile Village Bodywork by Mike Levin)

Here's one person's account of the poetic "Hall of Happiness".

Ken Van Sickle writes about the Hall of Happiness in the DaoIsOpen forum:

"Hi All,
Cheng Man ching was brought to NYC by the wealthy merchants of china town. They established a Hall for him to pass on the most wonderful art of china, Tai Chi . When long haired breaded dop smoking white " hippies " begin to show up , the chinese called CMC to a meeting. They informed himonly chinese would be taught. Whites were trash people, he was told. Besides the white mind could not understand high chinese culture, they were not gifted as were the asians. Chinese , like most asians were very racist. White devils were not to be spoken of in the same breath with chinese.

CMc said he would teach whoever came. NO, whites were not to be allowed. It is said CMC seldom was seen angry, but they claim fire came from his eyes; he slamed his palm down on the table ( internal iron palm ) and the thunderclp filled the room and the chinese merchants fell back in fear.

CMC turned on his heel and ws gone. He returned to Taiwan for some business. Meanwhile the " hippies " had prepared a new Hall for him. He arrived and smiled. These Hippies would be the base of his school. tho dope smoking, free sexed..long haired and all , they loved CMC and wanted to learn tai chi , a few chinese also came. CMC sat down and wrote this poem ( this poem was written on the wall of the Hall and preserved by one of the sr students. Ken Van Sickle"

(photo taken at Carla's Haile Village Bodywork by Mike Levin)

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Carla Van Arnam on June 3, 2009 at 5:55pm

Mike -- thanks for finding and posting Ken Van Sickle's story about the Professor. I've heard the general part about CMC's desire to teach all, but not the bit about writing Hall of Happiness for the long haired hippy students.
Please also check out "There Are No Secrets" by Wolfe Lowenthal. Beautiful book about the Professor. Wolfe's a lovely human - grew that from his dedication to tai chi.
I've seen some video of the Professor teaching posted on youtube. In one of them Ken steps in to work with him, tall fellow, long blondish hair and big mustache. He was one of those who took every opportunity to be in contact (literally) with CMC's teaching.

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