Old Oak Taiji School (古栎太極學院)

Old Oak Taiji School is small a school of Taijiquan run by Jacob Newell (Gu Shen Yu Daoshi, 谷神钰道士) in Sonoma County, California.  I offer group classes and personal instruction in Taijiquan theory and practice.  My practice philosophy is rooted in the Daojia (道家) - internal cultivation traditions dating to pre-Han China based largely on the teachings of Laozi, Zhuangzi, and the Neiye.

I consider Ruyu-style Taijiquan to be a superb embodiment of Laozi's philosophy of wuwei, and as such my instruction emphasizes both familiarity with Laozi's text, the Dao De Jing, and Taijiquan fundamentals, form, and parter-practice.  My primary instructors in Taijiquan have been Frank Broadhead and Sam Edwards.

I have been practicing Taijiquan and related meditation and qi-cultivation arts since the early 1990's.  I am certified in Ruyu-style Taijiquan, as well as Qigong and Acupressure, and am an ordained Daoist priest.  Old Oak is a recognized outpost of Redwood Coast Internal Arts and Ruyu Taiji School of Taiwan, and my Daoist ordination connects Old Oak to the Dragon Gate tradition based at White Cloud Temple in Beijing.

Totem

Zhuangzi used a withered old tree to describe the virtue of uselessness (wuyong,無用).  The old oak (古栎) is gnarled and ugly - no one can exploit its wood for any valuable purpose, so people leave it alone.  Therefore birds can nest in its cavities, children can play on its branches, and people can rest under its canopy as it freely fulfills its destiny.

While such uselessness may offend our compulsively-driven Western sensibilities, it represents the natural state of being, undefiled by mundane concerns.  Recovering, maintaining, and appreciating our undefiled nature is the purpose of Daoist practice.

Master Chen says: "Taijiquan is natural like a tree." Once we have the fundamentals of Taijiquan, our cultivation progresses naturally: "We settle into our root, suck in sunlight, and naturally grow upwards toward the light."

Poem

Settling into stillness

Anything arising is nooo problem

Dooon’t touch it -

It settles of itself

A withered old oak

Cold, dead ashes

Shhh -

The ground is firm

The sky is open