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Knight of 1000 eyes
Michael Lyons


"With great hutzpah and temerity Mr. Lyons seems to have written an original commentary on the I Ching. With this book he surrounds Taoism Lin Yu-tang, Dept of History, Columbia University

He has developed a theroetical basis for solo theatre, and that basis is tai chi. "—Lary Florian Tolkite, Actor, San Francisco


Knight of 1000 eyes

The Knight of 1000 eyes, is about extending the range of human perception through movement, philosophical inquiry and the imagination. The story is about a gardener who, needing to defend his patch from thieves, teaches himself Tai Chi. In the process, he comes to experience Chi and we watch his heady western mind coming to grips with these energies coursing through the universe and manifesting through insights, realizations, and perceptual extensions.

The book reflects the 3 phases to cultivating Chi.
1. Fixed frame: the scramble to deal with the overwhelming onslaught of detail in just trying to remember the steps,
2. Lively frame: the emergence of chi and grace in the movement and fighting of everyday life, through analysis of space time and force, exploring the chi in the kua for its own joy and
3. Changing frame: stepping into an ancient world of energies and archetypes whose landscape is the I Ching.

The main character Walker takes on a name for himself --Yum Chi -- when he gets into the Form. Alone he has to let the Form be his tutor. Getting into the Form grows into the feeling of having the self and the Self aligned. The Form is synonymous with the synchronic. The dual personality of the story, Walker and Yum Chi is about moving back and forth across the barrier from the diachronic to the synchronic. He scrambles to make some sense out of his feelings and studies exotic movement philosophies and ends up writing a new commentary on the I Ching. He develops a series of solo theatre pieces which are impelled by semantic seed sentences that insight the user into the participation of identity.

The book promotes a fine relaxed body pressence as he learns to do things the easy way.

Michael Lyons is a freelance writer of fiction, technical manuals and theatre performance in San Francisco. He received his B.A.in Natural Philosophy from the University of Texas, Austin. He is the author of the "little house on the prairie trilogy" --they are Cultivating the Texas Twister Hybrid, The Secret of the Cicadas' Song, and Knight of 1000 eyes, also published by HiT MoteL Press.


Dec 98
254 pp.    5.5 x 8.5
ISBN 0-9655842-2-4     Paper    $25.00