Visiting with Dr. Michael Saso

This week I had the great honour of visiting with Dr. Michael Saso, professor emeritus from the University of Hawai’i and expert on the practice of Daoism and Tantric Buddhism.

During one of our conversations I asked Dr. Saso if he felt that it was fair to suggest that Xiqu (Chinese Theatre), Gongfu (Chinese martial arts) and Daojiao (Daoist ritual and meditation) all take place ‘within the same mandala‘, meaning that they use the same kind of physical shapes and behaviour to structure experience in space and time. Dr. Saso’s decisive response was this:

“Daoist ritual, Taijiquan and the stage are one system. And you can quote me.”

Many thanks to this pioneering and generous researcher.

~ by Daniel Mroz on August 7, 2009.