All About Animals discussion

Looking for answers to a question or just need to discuss a problem in private, then contact one of these moderator's if you need us.

Our mod's are:

Barb Foley
Stewart McFarlane

I guess I will go first...My name is Barb and I created this group All About Animals. When I first started it I was looking for a group on Goodread's that had a wider range of possibilities to read about animals, birds, reptiles, and sea-life. I didn't find one and started this one. It has grown for sure. And, hoping it keeps growing.

I'm from PA. I have two dogs we adopted from the animal shelter. One is a puggle, part pug/beagle, and the other one is a rat terrier/jack russell mix. The puggle is 3 yrs. old name Rufus. And, the other one is 11 yrs. old named Tucker. I have a few photos of them in the photo section.

Finally I got around to doing this profile for the group. Actually I cheated a little & just modified my Goodreads & Amazon Author Profile.

STEWART McFARLANE IS A WELL-KNOWN SCHOLAR of Chinese Religions and Buddhism, and a teacher of Chinese Martial Arts. He was Director of Asian Studies at Liverpool Hope University until his retirement in 2004. He is the author of many books on T'ai chi ch'uan and Buddhism, and recent a collection of stories about his life with animals:
Of Mice and Zen. Animal Encounters in the Life of a Wandering Buddhist

TRAINING IN WING CHUN

He first trained in Wing Chun kung Fu as a student, with Hong Kong students in 73-74 at the height of Bruce Lee’s fame, and the Wing Chun/Jeet kune Do craze. After finishing his degree, he joined the Soto Zen community (Order of Buddhist Contemplatives) at Throssel Hole Priory in Northumberland.

THE BRUCE LEE CONNECTION

In 1975, he was studying Chinese at Durham University one of his Chinese teachers was Rose Li, a very good Yang style t’ai chi teacher. He trained with her from 1975-77. When he started lecturing at Lancaster University, he trained in Wing Chun under Sam Kwok, his teacher Yip Chun & eventually with Lo Man Kam in Taiwan. (Yip Chun is Yip Man’s son, Lo Man Kam is Yip Man’s nephew, Yip Man was Bruce Lee’s Wing Chun teacher in Hong Kong.)

PROTECTING THE DALAI LAMA

In 1995, he was asked to form a security team of martial artists and conflict resolution specialists to help provide the security protection for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, which they did from 1996 to 2004 whenever he visited the UK.

BBC DOCUMENTARY

In 1997 he made SHADOW BOXING ON THE PATH TO NIRVANA, a 4-part documentary on the spiritual dimensions of Martial Arts produced by the BBC WORLD SERVICE, travelled extensively for that and had the chance to train with some of the world’s leading martial artists such as Dan Inosanto (Bruce Lee’s friend & colleague, JKD & Philippine martial arts), Stephen Hayes (Ninjutsu), Mary Heiny (Aikido), Bob Frager (Aikido), Lily Lau (Kung Fu), Jimmy Wong (Tai ji), Master Shih Yen Tzu of the Henan Shaolin Temple, and a number of very good Chinese T’ai ji masters in Malaysia.

LIVING WITH ELEPHANTS

Now living in Thailand, he finds that the climate and regular contact with elephants are highly therapeutic.He also rescues and trains dogs. As a result, he now has his own pack of eight (dogs not elephants). He speaks and reads Thai and is now a regular contributor as a lecturer at the Siam Society in Bangkok and a number of research and cultural centres in Thailand.