Juice: Radical Taiji Energetics

Overall very useful! Explains some of the feelings I’ve had in cultivation and others I can’t do/sense yet. So I relate to his descriptions and can follow them like a map to go further. Has a great sense of snarky humor, spends a lot of time explaining why other frameworks get lost in mechanics and other errors…sometimes spends too long here, but people probably need to hear it to empty their cups. When he gets down to it, he gives a lot of clear analogies and descriptions that I find very helpful to help me progress or as a sort of check and checklist if I’m wondering about my progress. Highly recommended if you’re interested in the actual neigong-powered neijia approach.

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 adviceIn 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 expertsThe 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.

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.

Scott has an unusual and often controversial perspective, multiple decades of training with high level teachers. Exploring and unpacking many assumptions and preconceptions along the way.Now whether you agree or not, Scott is the real deal when it comes to this depth of energy practice. He speaks directly from experience drawing only from classics to support his teaching, not to parrot them for the sake of it.I disagree with him, only in the sense, that while for Scott this energy work is the real Taiji, I simply view it as Daoist neigong. Now of course, what I mean is not the excessively ritualised or elaborate practices that some throw around (something I believe Scott is familar with). Scott's preference is to practice this neigong within Taiji. A preference, it appears, that echoes his grand-teacher who went to great lengths in modifying his form to achieve just this end.For those interested in reading about this kind of neigong (within a taiji framework or not), and want to cut through to the heart of the matter, I highly recommend this book.For those "structural" bio-mechanicaly only minded people, as Scott himself says, this book ain't for you. You'll probably find it annoying at best, and at worst, well...lets not not go there.

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.I think in my case my head should have been forced under the water to put me out of my misery.Around a decade ago my teacher's wife,who was a student of the late Sun Jianyun,daughter of Sun Lutang,told me about the work that is presented in this book but it went in one ear and out of the other.Having been a longtime student of karate and Yiquan I came to the conclusion that Sun style Taiji was a variant of Yiquan due to Sun Lutang having the same Xingyi teacher as Wang Xiangzhai.Very logical.That is until you realise that Yiquan went mechanical and ended up as something completely different to what Wang Xiangzhai had practiced.The fact that the Sun form is almost impossible to "shili-ise" might have told me something.Over the years my teacher's wife has constantly told me its all about relaxation and qi and nothing to do with bio-mechanics,in fact she has told me I am easy to push because I am too tense.She just finds my tension and uses it against me.All this is down to me becoming an alignment freak and forgetting about relaxation.I just wish this book had been around ten years ago as it would have saved me years of blindly wandering around looking for something that wasn't there. As the above poster says,this stuff seems to work straight out of the box.The "missing basic" switches the qi on in an instant and sensations can be felt all over the body.I have been aware of qi for the last 25 years and have trained with several qigong masters but have never experienced anything like this before for such little input.So far all I have done is the missing basic and my form practice and tried to get rid of as much tension as possible but its brought the form alive and made it a pleasure to perform.Early days and I will give an update in a year's time. This book is very honest in that Scott dosen't make any outlandish claims of Taiji being a superior fighting art or even a fighting art at all.He dosen't parrot the so-called heath benefits as he can't produce any evidence to support such a claim.What he offers is a users manual for you to experience the same as he has experienced himself.Scott has the advantage of being able to read "old Chinese" and is able to translate it into terminology a westerner will understand.Sun Jianyun told my teacher that she felt it would be extremely difficult to translate some of her father's work into another language as we haven't got words to desribe these concepts.Scott did an excellent job of his translation of Sun Lutang's key essay and that alone is worth the price of the book.Give it a go as it certainly won't bore you.

The book is written in a refreshing down to earth, conversational style.The author, somewhat annoyingly, sets out to avoid the use of complex Chinese terminology and then replaces it with his own just as inscrutable terminology.Despite this, it's a very good book and well worth a read if you are interested in the internal martial arts.I think this book may actually become a future classic as there are some surprisingly fine definitions set out quite clearly here. I look forward to part 2

If you only buy one book on T'ai Chi then let it be Juice. In a very real sense it is all you need to to fulfill your potential as an internal energy practitioner. Everything contained in Scott Meredith's subsequent books and videos is contained, at least in the essentials, in Juice. The ARC training process, Cat Step protocol, the importance of the daling points, Peng energy, Sword work, Push Hands, Sagawa Aiki power....it's all here.That's not to say that the extrapolations and clarifications of the later works are unnecessary. It would indeed be a rare individual who could self-cultivate the practice implicit in Juice to its fullest extent without further guidance from the author. However, the basic internal energy development practice of Juice i.e. the ARC training process, can, over time, transmute raw ch'i into spirit power, if performed conscientiously and daily.

This book does not aim to provide illustrated step-by-step instructions. Instead, it presents an entirely new aspect of martial arts training; namely, relaxation and the awareness of your own body that comes with it. Even if you don't believe in qi / ki / kundalini / all that new age stuff, the material in this book provides a good basis for mind training and somatic education. It isn't specific to any style of Taiji, in fact it probably isn't specific to any martial art, and many of these ideas could be adapted to any art that allows introspection.The material is presented in order of increasing detail and complexity rather than sequentially. So there is apparent repetition, but actually each reptition reveals more detail and refinement than the previous. Because that's how you learn physical skills.The style is lively, humourous and irreverent, unconventionally coherent and lucid. Some people have found this annoying - they probably take themselves too seriously and should just relax.