Rotten Wood Qigong - Movement, Meditation, and Metaphysics

06/12/2026

“Balance training.”

The NHS recommends doing it at least twice a week.

06/10/2026

If it is true that there’s a general, cross-cultural tendency of people to walk in a counter-clockwise direction, that’s surprising to me, given all the clockwise circumambulation of temples in Asia, with the right side of the body turned inward toward the sacred space. I can think of possible ways of explaining it—but, still, it is a weird and unexpected . . . turn of events.

From Spain to Japan, experiments have repeatedly shown a left-turn bias, but exact mechanic ‘is still an open question’

05/27/2026

I'm thrilled to announce that my book is officially out in the world today!

"A Philosophy of Mindful Movement: Tai Chi, Qigong, Yoga, and the Kinesthetic Imagination" (Routledge, 2026).

I'm extraordinarily grateful to the many, many people who helped make this book possible. I especially want to thank all my qigong, taiji, and yoga teachers who have given me so very much and without whom I could not have written this thing.

Available now Amazon: https://a.co/d/05MHKgIx

And also directly from Routledge (20% off with code 26AFLY1): www.routledge.com/9781032778037

Here's the description from Routledge:

This novel volume examines Chinese and Indian mindful movements (such as tai chi, qigong, Daoist meditation, and hatha yoga) to demonstrate how the contemplative practices of the body and mind can amount to a form of transformative philosophy through ways of thinking, knowing, and doing.

The book explains how these body practices use kinesthetic imagination, repetition, and slowness to bring about cognitive and epistemic changes in how we experience ourselves and the world. The chapters look in-depth at the details of these practices, drawing analogies with everyday experiences such as singing, hearing musical earworms, reading and re-reading texts, and recalling folk wisdom; the book suggests these body practices can be cognitive, epistemic, and philosophically transformative. The chapters also explore these practices in a first-person, biographical style, drawing on the author’s own experiences as a student and teacher of these practices. The descriptions take on a range of modes, from that of an insider to that of a skeptic, to those that are instructional in nature, and then to those that are more phenomenological. These various, sometimes-conflicting, descriptions raise meta-level questions about how best to understand the practices.

Focused on the study of embodied contemplative practice, this book will be of interest to scholars and postgraduates in the fields of Asian philosophy, Chinese philosophy, and the philosophy of religion more widely. Philosophers studying embodiment, embodied cognition, and religion will also find the volume of useful. Practitioners of martial arts, qigong, yoga, and meditation may benefit from the book.

05/26/2026

I guess this thing is real: “A Philosophy of Mindful Movement: Tai Chi, Qigong, Yoga, and the Kinesthetic Imagination” (Routledge, 2026).

https://a.co/d/0fKIF5fq

05/14/2026

Fascia-nating research discussed in NYT.

The detection of another circulatory system in the human body could have enormous scientific implications.

05/10/2026

Happy Mother's Day! We will *not* have our weekly Sunday evening qigong and meditation class in Tampa at Mt Song Martial Arts Academy tonight (i.e., Sunday, May 10, 2026), but here is a video class from the Rotten Wood YouTube archives to tide you over until we can practice together in person again. And go, moms!

Want more guided qigong and meditation practices? Please check out RottenWoodQigong.com.Rotten wood *can* be carved. 朽木可雕。Subscribe for more..........This ...

04/15/2026

Presenting Chapter 8 of my forthcoming book "A Philosophy of Mindful Movement: Tai Chi, Qigong, Yoga, and The Kinesthetic Imagination" (Routledge, 2026) at the Pacific APA meeting.

"A Philosophy of Mindful Movement" (Routledge, 2026): https://a.co/d/07BMTV4hHere I present a conference-paper version of portions of Chapter 8 of my forthco...

04/08/2026

“One Finger Zen” Qigong (quick and dirty version; with cow).

Forthcoming book: “A Philosophy of Mindful Movement” (Routledge, June 2026) https://a.co/d/0bEbr4DsHere I show a quick-and-dirty version of the “One Finger Z...

03/29/2026

TAMPA PEOPLE: We will *not* have our weekly Sunday evening qigong and Daoist mediation class at Mt Song Martial Arts Academy on March 29, 2026 (there is important March Madness college basketball to watch instead!), but we will be back at the regular time (i.e., 6:30 - 7:45 p.m.) for class on Sunday, April 5.

If you need your guided qigong fix in the meantime, here is something from the Rotten Wood Qigong YouTube archives that might tide you over until next Sunday:

RottenWoodQigong.comRotten wood *can* be carved. 朽木可雕。Subscribe for more..........In this video, I guide a 26-minute-long practice of using Silk Reeling Qig...