Juice: Radical Taiji Energetics

I doubt very much that I was the target audience of this book. Inner Energy is all new to me. I don't know any Taiji, and the only teachers in my area are the 'old folks home' variety. I practice a traditional Japanese sword style. This book changed everything for me. While obviously directed at the serious Taiji practioner, the principles are universal. The author takes an extremely esoteric, difficult subject (which most classical writers could only describe in the vaguest language) and goes through it step by step. His language is remarkably clear and direct. Juice taught me to pay attention to certain energies and sensations, to cultivate certain areas ... and it's completely changed all my weapons practice. Mr. Meredith has explained all of those funny tinglings and small shocks I had been feeling in my arms and legs, and showed me how to turn them into something more. Okay, a lot more. It is as if someone poured a gallon of gasoline on a smoking tiny burning leaf I hadn't even noticed. Everything went FWOOM. I can't bring myself to give this book less than five stars. Believe me, I tried. You see, sometimes the author annoyed me. His defensiveness, his endless acronyms (which made nothing any clearer), his certainty that all his readers had low-value priorities in life (such as feeling good instead of, say, character growth).... these things and more all grated on me. Sometimes I really wanted to detract a star or two for them. But the book's content is just too good for that. Well played, Mr. Meredith. You win this one. In the month since I began to read this book, I have worked on inner energy nearly every day. The progress I've made seems incredible to me. Two years ago I did not believe in Ki, Chi, Inner Energy...whatever you want to call it. Today I'm a convert, looking forward to long years of steady, patient work. Already it has changed my sword style. While Mr. Meredith does everything he can to try to be snappy and conversational, it's an information-heavy subject. There's a lot of ground to cover, most of which was entirely new to me. It reads a bit like a textbook. With the information density, that's inevitable. Still, the clarity and directness of the explanations provided are refreshing. I have pages of notes to review. I am grateful that I found this book.

"I have just enough background to be slightly dangerous, in a dinky kind of way. I'm like a cornered squirrel in your livingroom. You aren't afraid of it exactly, but you don't especially look forward to dealing with it..." - Scott Meredith - from the opening of his new book, JUICE: Radical TAIJI Energetics. Thus from the very beginning, before he even gets to the descriptions of energy, and exercises, the reader knows they are dealing with a madman. And like all the best mad men, Scott is 100 percent honest about what he writes. The treasure of this book is HOW it is written as much as WHAT is written. Unlike so many books on this topic, mr. Meredith endeavors to explain, not veil. He writes as if he is sitting across the table from the reader, telling stories - explaining - what his experience is - and how it came about. He is not the professor, or the guru, speaking obscure Rocket Surgery to a confused and hopeful accolyte - no, JUICE is far worse - It's the guy standing next to you, covered in dirt, smiling, asking "do you want this? Cuz, if you do, yoo might get a little dirty..." the read is exciting and level and what is absolute best is the vigor to EXPLAIN. There is nothing to translate or interpret. In parts, mr. Meredith has already done that for the reader. He has taken his metaphoric wire cutters and stripped bare the live wire that is TAIJI energetics and here, he tells us exactly how he did it. I guess the readers milage will vary based on the desire to learn and the faith that at the end of the form; at the end of hours of standing on one leg, wondering how burning quads will translate into that feather touch that knocks them sideways, that the outcome will be the pure, simple pleasure of coursing energy. There is no book like this - there is no book that endeavors to unlock the vague concept of "the internal arts" - in such a straighforward and detailed way. This book is not the revolution, but it points to the revolution. If you read this book, and you focus on the exercises herein, your taiji will change, that's all it promises, and that's all it delivers.

I have not read it all yet but I very much appreciate the author being honest about this being his personal experiences and he makes some very good points about Tai Chi theory and practice and where it is heading. You can lead a horse to water but . . . . I can tell you about chi but you have to feel your own chi on your own! It is perhaps a work book. It is encouraging. I will adjust my review after reading it all and utilizing some of his insights in my practice. It probably deserves a 5 star but may not be what you think it is. It is radical. As it should be. A lot of society today is being spoon fed news, ideas, thoughts, and sensory stimulation which is not even our own, but is manufactured by others. When you develop a personal practice you may eventually realize how radical it is these days to have direct experience with something that you feel coming from with in yourself, instead of habitually reciting facts and opinions downloaded to the old ego from the world wide web of well adjusted co-dependent consumers.

This book and Scott Meredith's other books have been a real upgrade for me. I've done various Qigong and Taoist Alchemy to the best of my ability (though the psycho-visual approach has yielded limited results for me, personally). Scott's exercises have jump-started my internal energy -- and as I learn to truly relax I know the experience will become more intense. Scott's teaching on the niwan point (doorway, I think of it) was like pure gold for me. And I even had an experience with it he may not mention (though I haven't yet read all his books). When I lightly focused or touched on the niwan in the center of the brain, a point (doorway) at the polar end of my body lit up immediately. Not the perineum point (huiyin) but above it about the same distance as the niwan is below the top-of-crown (baihui) point. Whatever it's called, it deep inside just like the niwan. It's in the reproductive area, and maybe it's the "Sperm Palace"; but it feels like it's MUCH more broad and inclusive, and deeper, than that specific energy. Anyway, that's just an experience of my own! Not necessarily pertinent or of any importance to others. Generally speaking, this book is invaluable for anyone studying Taiji or Qigong. It will enhance any practice. Thanks, Scott, for making this practical information available. So far I haven't encountered it anywhere else, though maybe it's somewhere out there in some form.

I should have known better by the title but since I read almost anything having to do with taijiquan, especially when others have rated it above average, I bought this book. It's all based on the classic teachings of the subject written in a more contemporary format that introduces new terms for old concepts - it gets confusing after awhile. Much of it suggests what one can expect after years of practice concentrating on energy flow - with a "maybe" caveat. Others may feel differently but it just didn't find it particularly helpful beyond what the classics teach.

My search for the "secret" of Tai Chi Chuan has taken a few decades. Haunted by the picture of Cheng Man-ch'ing effortlessly lifting someone off their feet I have been in search of an answer as to how he did that. I don't even want to think about how much money I've spent in books, videocassettes, dvd's, and courses looking for an answer. I've dressed in kimono's trying to be Japanese, I've dressed in silks trying to be Chinese. I found some satisfaction in Rick Barrett's book "Taijiquan: Through the Western Gate" but my search still continued. Scott Meredith's book "Juice" finally has ended that search, 40 years later. I mean this. Scott Meredith has performed an invaluable service to me by describing the energetic process of Tai Chi Chuan in understandable, accessible, and most importantly, usable terms. This book is a treasure house that I will read again and again. Mr. Meredith lays it all out like a banquet. A couple of caveats. This book will not teach you how do Tai Chi Chuan. You'll still need to find good instruction (and if you are lucky excellent instruction). And, the book won't do anything for you unless you practice, practice, practice. Yup, it's the old story, I'm afraid. There is no way around that. And believe me, I have tried. But this book does give clear direction. Essentially, Meredith pulls back the obfuscation inherent in the Chinese culture, at least to a Westerner like me, and with crystal clarity, humor, and a tad of the ridiculous, puts the art in reach. I have no regrets on the time it took to get here. The search had its own rewards in many ways - even the many wrong turns bringing surprising new vistas. But the long journey has given me the wisdom to know the real thing when I see it. Scott Meredith delivers.

This is probably the most useful book on energy development I've ever read... and I don't even do tai chi. As a bodyworker who's been doing qigong forms and internal energy work for years, I was delighted to find an author who accurately describes much of what I have already felt, as well as offering intriguing directions for further exploration. Although Meredith does embed the practices in his book within the tai ji forms, any energy practice can benefit from his suggestions. He offers novel ways of paying attention to energy, excellent descriptions of what to look for, a different set of points to focus on, and multiple ways to cultivate energy paths. Certainly an actual physical form will help keep you anchored in feeling the energy, but there is much benefit just from his instruction on energy itself. He writes "..the mechanism of true Taiji... functions to get your mind fully and pervasively interpenetrating your body... so that spirit energy is connected seamlessly from feet to hands." We could say he trains you to feel and enhance the energy states and surges within your energy practice. The book fascinates me largely because he describes and pursues the energetic experience in words that seamlessly meld with what I have already discovered by myself in my energy practices, far more so than I have found in any other source. The last section of the book focuses on energy deployment in push hands, and to experience this, you will have to be doing tai ji. But if you are into internal energy practices, healing or otherwise, "Juice" is totally worth the price, even if you never get as far as doing taiji push hands. Then again, you might actually find yourself inspired to learn taiji!

This book should be read by anyone who is, or considers themselves to be an intermediate or advanced Tai Chi practitioner. You may disagree with the Author's fundamental assumptions and writing style but it is important to get the perspective - there is also practical advice In most old Chinese texts on Tai Ji, there are many descriptions and references to "energy" in various forms, which runs counter to Western culture. The specific teaching of these concepts has, for the most part been lost - either deliberately not passed on by a Master or by students thinking they have mastered Tai Ji when they have only touched the surface. The Chinese "Cultural Revolution" was a big contributer to this loss. There has therefore been a search within the Tai Chi community to reverse engineer the form and find alternative explanations for the classical Tai Chi writings and interpret them in a Western context. Scott Meredith's book runs counter to this and describes Tai Ji energy explicitly and with practical suggestions, interpreting the teaching he has received and the Tai Chi classics in his own words. The book includes a translation from a work by Sun Lutang showing that Scott's experiences and recommendations are in agreement with famous internal martial arts experts The language in the book is exuberant and he deliberately creates bizarre acronyms to refer to concepts - in a casual reading this is off-putting but in a deeper reading it will make more sense. Creating his own words for a concept avoids the situation where a Chinese (or English) phrase is used in different ways by different Tai Chi teachers or that the word itself might be more than the label for a concept. I think the book's title is unfortunate - it is really a very serious and deeply considered work wrapped up in a non-traditional way of writing about Tai Ji. He also spends some time trying to counter arguments that have been made against his approach, which seems a little odd if you have not been exposed to those arguments. This was Scott's first Tai Chi book - he has written others since but he recommends this as a style neutral introduction. I see that his teaching is evolving and he is presenting more material, with additional practical methods. Since first reading this book, I have attended a seminar, and found him to be a lot calmer and down to earth in person than the writing in the book might suggest. I am not a student of his nor do I have any other reason to give a positive review, other than that I think this book is a significant contribution to the world of internal martial arts.