Daniel Reid - Shots from the Hip: Sex, Drugs, and the Tao

Shots from the Hip

Book I

Also by Daniel Reid:

The Complete Chinese Cookbook: Over 500 Authentic Recipes from China

Exeter Books; (1982, first edition)

Chinese Herbal Medicine

Shambhala (February 12, 1987) Paperback 180 pages

The Tao of Health, Sex, and Longevity: A Modern Practical Guide to the Ancient Way

Simon & Schuster UK Ltd (July 15, 1989) Paperback 406 pages

The Complete Book of Chinese Health & Healing: Guarding the Three Treasures

Shambhala Publishing (December 5, 1994) Paperback 484 pages

Shambhala Guide to Traditional Chinese Medicine

Shambala, (1995) Paperback, 328pp

A Handbook of Chinese Healing Herbs: An Easy-to-Use Guide to

108 Chinese Medicinal Herbs and Dozens of Prepared Herbal Formulas

Shambhala Publishing 1st edition (August 1, 1995) Paperback 336 page s

A Complete Guide to Chi-Gung: The Principles and Practice of the Ancient Chinese Path to Health, Vigor, and Longevity

Shambala Publications Inc (1998) Paperback 326 pages

The Tao of Detox: The Secrets of Yang-Sheng Dao

Healing Arts Press Publishing 1 edition (October 25, 2006) Paperback 336 page s

Dragon Mountain (novel)

Tuttle Publishing (2006) Paperback 224 pages

My Journey in Mystic China: Old Pu's Travel Diary

Inner Traditions Publishing 1st edition (March 18, 2008) Hardcover: 296 page s

The Art and Alchemy of Chinese Tea

Singing Dragon; 1 edition (November 15, 2011) Hardcover 240 pages

The Essence of Chi-Gung: A Handbook of Basic Forms for Daily Practice

Shambhala Publishing 1st edition (July 10, 2012) Paperback 128 pages

Shots from the Hip: Energy, Light, and Luminous Space (book 2)

Lamplight Books (2020), 376 pages

Shots from the Hip

Book I:

Sex, Drugs, and the Tao

Daniel Reid

Lamplight Books

Mullumbimby, NSW, Australia

www.danreid.org

Copyright 2018, Daniel Reid

All rights reserved.

Cover photographs of Daniel Reid taken in Taipei, 1974

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

Shots from the Hip: Sex, Drugs, and the Tao

By Daniel Reid

electronic book

ISBN13: 978-0-6487895-2-9

For JoJo:

You made my dream come true

There are no truths,

only stories

Simon Ortiz, Acoma Pueblo poet

Preface

For years, my friends and readers have asked me to write a memoir. Some wanted to read all the juicy details of an exotic life lived on the lam in Asia; others wanted to know where and how I learned the things I have written about in my books. I always shrugged off the idea, until a close encounter with death reminded me that life is short, and I realized that if I wanted to tell my own story rather than have it told by someone else, Id better start telling it. It took me four years to recover my senses in the aftermath of my narrow escape, which left my mind in shambles. Then all of a sudden, I was back in the groove and started writing again.

In writing this memoir, I had to make a clear-cut choice. Should I include only the juicy episodes in my life and present them to the reader as a spicy smorgasbord of racy reading in which I appear more as a character in a collection of short stories than as myself in real life, leaving out the more personal strands that thread the colorful stuff together? Or should I tell the whole story and risk losing my privacy?

It wasnt an easy decision to make. All writers need to draw a line between themselves and their readers, separating their published work from their private lives. Its never possible to do this completely, even in fiction, much less in a memoir. Every word a writer writes for publication reflects a personal choice and reveals a facet of his character. Its the degree to which a writer lets the reader enter his private domain that is difficult to decide.

In the end I decided to give the reader a substantial degree of leeway to peer into my life and see the origins of the episodes that for most readers furnish the most alluring reading, not to mention the most alluring material for a publisher to publish. This meant I had to give an account of some key choices I made along the way, and to describe some events in which I had no choice at all but which had a major impact on the course my life took.

Viewed from afar, we all look pretty much the same and our flaws are not visible. But seen close up and magnified in the readers eyes on the pages of a book, the writer can feel exposed, or as we say in Chinese, chih luo luo de cheng sian, nakedly revealing his flaws.

So be it. Thats my choice, and if the sensitive personal parts in my story help just one reader make the right move at a crucial juncture in his or her own life, then I made the right choice.

Memories flow past in the sunlight of nostalgic recollection, revealing new meaning and sparkling with shifting shades of insight, but they never lose their original shape or their place in the puzzle of the author's life, always resonating with the undercurrent of feeling that speaks the truth. Some readers will ask, Did you really do all those things? I certainly did. The past is dead, but Im not, and this memoir brings my history back to life as I remember it.

In Dcadence Mandchoue, his memoirs of forty-five years of exotic life in Old Peking, Sir Edmund Backhouse, whose veracity has often been questioned by readers who would never dare nor could even imagine living the sort of life he lived, had this to say about how a memoir should be written:

Memory and imagination: the first counts as nothing without the second, which... gilds old age with the afterglow of youth.

Ive enjoyed, while writing these memoirs, gilding my own old age with the afterglow of my own youth. My purpose is two-fold: first and foremost is to entertain you, dear reader, with interesting stories about things I have done; second is to inform you about matters I regard as important in life by telling you things you might not yet know. I hope both the stories and the information I share with you here provide some insights you can use in your own life, but if not, I hope at least that you enjoy the reading.

In his old age, the writer William Burroughs, whose derring-do and outlandish tastes matched anything Backhouse, or for that matter I, ever did in life, left us with a canny piece of advice: In this life, one is well advised to play the cards one has for all they are worth.

We are each dealt a hand of cards from the master deck the day were born, and these are the only cards we have to play in this life. We get dealt a new hand in the next game, but only after death puts an end to this one. Until then, your best bet in this life is to learn the rules of the game youre in now and play the cards you have in hand for all theyre worth.

This book tells how I played mine.

Chiang Mai, Thailand

September 2, 2017

The Year of the Fire Rooster