TAI CHI FOR HEALTH / CHI KUNG FOR HEALTH NEWSLETTER #11
AUG. 9 QIGONG FOR 1ST RESPONDERS LIVESTREAM; AUG. 11 TAI CHI FOR HEALTH CLASS #2
“Calmness (meditation) and wisdom are like a lamp and its light.” — Hui Neng, 6th Patriarch of Chinese Buddhism and founder of the Ch’an (Zen) School of Sudden Enlightmen
QIGONG FOR HEALTH FOR 1ST RESPONDERS
Our twentieth Livestream session is set for this Sunday from 4pm to 6pm Eastern Time (U.S. and Canada), with 30 minutes of discussion and Q&A immediately following. Each class immerses you in—not one, but—two authentic and powerful ancient Taoist Qigong systems that will energize and rejuvenate your: Taoist Elixir Method Qigong created in Tang Dynasty and Flying Phoenix Celestial Healing Qigong (“Fei Feng San Gung”), created in 1644 by the famous Ehrmei Mountain Taoist, Feng Dao Deh (Feng Do Duk in Cantonese).
Joining the Livestream Session
To learn these two extraordinarily transformative Qigong arts that are both easy-to-do and profoundly restorative holistic health regimens, and join a lively worldwide community of students dedicated to health, personal growth, self-empowerment, inner peace and outer peace, sign up for the next Sunday session:
The Zoom Meeting ID is: 851 0702 8800
Registration URL:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEsd-6orDMiGtRlXxHFrAjdQSAMKLBrVQsG
FEE: $40 per class; $280 / 8-class series; or $480 / 16-class series
• Please send tuition via Paypal to zenbearinc@gmail.com (before 1:00 PM on August 9) —or send an email to zenbearinc@gmail.com asking to be sent a Paypal money request that you can use any credit or debit card to pay.) You will then be sent the Meeting Password by 2pm on Sunday.
• All participants must register in advance for this meeting at the above URL.
Our Sunday Qigong Class Agenda
A. Warm-up: We begin every class with this easy and healthful basic Qigong routine called “the Silkweaver’s Exercise”, which you can learn on your own by practicing to this Facebook video that I made in Santa Monica in 2016:
https://www.facebook.com/236579434951/videos/10154646296514952/
If you do this exercise as homework and memorize all or part of this choreography, you’ll hit the deck “running” at each Sunday or Wednesday class because you will attain deeper levels of relaxation, mind-body integration, physical comfort, emotional calm, and mental concentration/jhanic absorption during our warm-up.
B. After warming up, we practice 50 minutes of the Basic Tao Tan 31 Meditations, a complete system of Chinese yoga that is easily learned, is easy to practice, and will serve you for a lifetime. The TTP-31 consists of 15 standing moving meditations and 16 seated meditations, all of them involving movements except three. I start beginners on the “TTP Short Form Power Yoga” consisting of the first four standing Meditations followed by the third of the 16 seated meditations (aka, No.18). This is a classical practice, not a recent advent or abbreviation—and my daily morning routine that I did everyday for four years from 1976 to 1980. I still cannot think of a better means to wake up and organize one’s in energies for the day.
Sometimes we will do 10 or 12 of the standing meditations and 2 to 5 of the seated meditations. At any rate, new meditations are added each week until we cover all of the 31 Basic Meditations of Tao Tan Pai in about 12 classes. But this easy practice can be started by beginners in any class.
• Eight of the Tao Tan Pai Basic 31 Meditations (“TTP-31”) are seen on this video, including the all-essential first of the 31 Meditations known as “Circling Palms”, which is traditionally practiced by doing four sets of 8 repetitions:
*A fact of Qigong that I will emphasize this week and reiterate every week: Just like one can never practice enough of “Wave Hands Like Clouds” (an outward circling pattern done in the bow stance) in Tai Chi, one can never practice enough of “Circling Palms” (an inward circling pattern) in Taoist Elixir Method Qigong, with one’s eyes continually focused on the fingertips of the extended arm as it sweeps 180 degrees to the other side.
C. After our practice of the Tao Tan Pai “Short Form Power Yoga”—which is easy to do and good for all ages— we take our excellent body mechanics, mind-body integration, newly cultivated “shen” energy (developed form the mental and visual concentration on movements synchronized with breath cycle) to use as a strong foundation for our second hour’s practice of “Flying Phoenix Celestial Healing Qigong”. This video clip shows what one of the basic cornerstone Flying Phoenix Qigong standing moving meditations, “Bending the Bows”, looks like:
Both the practice of the Basic TTP-31 Meditations and the Flying Phoenix Qigong involve standing and seated, moving and sedentary meditations. Both are complete and powerful health-enhancing and consciousness-transforming systems of Taoist hygienics in and of themselves. And as I explained in earlier issues and in th Flying Phoenix Chi Kung discussion thread on www.thedaobums.com (started in Nov. 2009 by businessman Lloyd McClelland of Orlando, FL), ever since I began learning Flying Phoenix Celestial Healing Qigong in 1991, I’ve marveled over its energizing and rejuvenating effects that continue well beyond the end of each practice session. As one contributor to the FPCK daobums.com thread posted about 7 or 8 years ago, he was riding his bike about 12 hours after he had practiced FP Qigong when suddenly the tangibly sublime circulation of FP Qigong’s healing Qi suddenly set on upon him.
This restorative process has been corroborated numerous Qigong students over the years. Here is a recent account given more recently by my student Rori Kanter, who described her healing experience that set one after she got home after taking her very first 2-hour lesson in Flying Phoenix Qigong in a free class that I gave on April 28, 2019 during World Tai Chi Qigong Day weekend here in Lenox:
Six months later on November 4, Rori gave this amazing report of her annual physical check-up by her primary physician:
As I’ve quoted in my email invitations to the Livestream course, my friend Dr. Yetsa Tuakli gave me this professional assessment of Flying Phoenix Qigong last July after one two-hour lesson:
"Flying Phoenix Qigong practice significantly elevates parasympathetic tone. 90 minutes of practice of this Qigong is restorative in real time and over time afterwards."
- Yetsa A. Tuakli-Wosornu, M.D., M.P.H., IOC Dip. Sp. Med. Assistant Clinical Professor, Yale School of Public Health Department of Chronic Disease Epidemiology
But beyond this fact that Flying Phoenix Qigong induces a healing event in the practitioner that continues long after the practice of the Qigong has ceased and can also induce a healing event several hours after the practice has concluded, I discovered six years ago—after practicing Flying Phoenix Qigong for 23 years and the Tao Tan Pai Qigong for 38 years—that the Tao Tan Pai Qigong if practiced prior to practicing the Flying Phoenix Qigong, acts as powerful foundational catalyst or “accelerant” that enhances the restorative effects of the Flying Phoenix Qigong and prolongs “normal” duration of the energizing, rejuvenating, and self-healing events activated by the latter. Hence the format of every class in this series is one hour of Taoist Elixir Method Qigong followed by an hour of Flying Phoenix Qigong.
NEW TAI CHI CHUAN CLASS #2 ON AUGUST 11
The second class of my new Tai Chi For Health weekly course will be Livestreamed next Tuesday, August 11, from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm EST at Eastover Estate in Lenox, MA —with physical distancing and masks required of attendees taking the class live.
Graceful in movement, slow in tempo, relaxed in fluid natural postures, Tai Chi Chuan is an ancient Chinese martial art practiced by millions throughout the world as a moving meditation for health, longevity, and self-defense. Regular practice of Tai Chi forms imparts many health benefits: improved circulation, respiration, metabolism, bone and muscle strength, posture, balance, flexibility, neuro-muscular coordination, immunity, and heightened awareness.
“Whoever practices Tai Chi Chuan regularly will gain the pliability of a child,
the vitality of a lumberjack, and the wisdom of a sage.”
– Ancient Chinese Adage
Class Agenda
In this ongoing weekly class, I will be teaching the popular 60-posture Yang Style Tai Chi form (pre-choreographed routine) created by my teacher, Grandmaster William C.C. Chen. You will learn the essential postures and body mechanics of Tai Chi Chuan that will give absolute beginners a solid foundation from which to further explore the art, while enabling experienced Tai Chi players of all levels and from all styles to advance their practice.
Each class begins with 35-40 minutes of classical Tai Chi warm-up and conditioning exercises that I have distilled from a vast repertoire of training methods acquired over the past 46 years from several traditions: Yang Tai Chi, Chen Tai Chi (Silk-reeling Exercises), Liu He Ba Fa (3 internal exercises), the “Silk-weaver’s Exercise” (not to be confused with “The 8 Brocades”), and Qing Dynasty Imperial Guard Exercises (8). The Yang style Tai Chi conditioning exercises are three essential exercises emphasized by my first Tai Chi teacher and classmate of William Chen’s under Prof. Cheng Man-Ching, the late General Abraham Liu: (A) “Wave Hands Like Clouds” done in bow-stances and in “ma-bu”; (B) The 90º-pivoting “Play Guitar/Lifting Hands” exercise that perfects the sit stance or cat stance; (C) the alternating “Snake Creeps Down” exercise that is so excellent for stretching, posture, balance, and circulation. (These three essential exercises are also taught in the first 45 minutes of both of my Tai Chi For Health dvds (all-time best-selling instructional DVDs in the English language since their release in 1989 on VHS cassette:)
http://www.taichimania.com/taichi_catalog.html
After each warm-up module, you will receive detailed, step-by-step instruction and guided practice in the 60-posture Form. After a couple of classes, students will appreciate how these conditioning exercises make learning the Form so much easier and more efficient. You will also be able to “connect the dots” and understand how each of the classical warm-up exercises supports Form practice and also reveals to a certain degree the martial function of each Tai Chi posture. Once the physical aspects of the Form have been well-practiced, we will begin exploring the mental dimensions of form practice, for one of the goals of practicing any Tai Chi form is to ultimately practice the entire routine as one movement and one thought.
GM William Chen created the 60-part Form by adding 23 postures from the 108 Long Form to the 37-posture Short Form of his teacher, Prof. Cheng Man-Ching. I first learned the Cheng Man-Ching short form and the 108-posture Yang Long Form from Master Chen’s classmate, General Abraham Liu, from 1980 to 1992 in Los Angeles, and had my Short Form further refined by attending 12 consecutive week-long summer retreats given by the late Master Benjamin Lo, another student of Prof. Cheng. Those are the two forms taught on my Tai Chi For Health Yang Short Form and TCFH Long Form DVDs, which I produced way back in 1989 and was originally distributed on VHS cassette (in the millions) and then on DVD from 2004 to this day.
JOINING THE TAI CHI FOR HEALTH LIVESTREAM
If you are a Berkshires resident, you may attend my Tai Chi For Health class in person if you observe physical distancing and wear a mask.
If you are participating via Livestream,
The Zoom Meeting ID is: 814 5335 5621
Registration URL:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUpcuqrqz4sGNVv7Pf4UoF1hAWfpzpd4Pw0
FEE: $40 per class; $280 / 8-class series; or $480 / 16-class series
• Please send tuition via Paypal to zenbearinc@gmail.com (well before 5:00 PM on August 11) —or send an email to zenbearinc@gmail.com asking to be sent a Paypal money request that you can use any credit or debit card to pay.) You will then be sent the Meeting Password by 4pm on Tuesday.
• All participants must register in advance for this meeting at the above URL.
INTERMEDIATE-LEVEL QIGONG & BASIC KUNG FU CLASS ON WEDNESDAYS
Next Wednesday, August 12, will be the sixth intermediate Qigong/Basic Kung Fu class of this weekly (from 7:00p.m. to 9:00p.m. EST). This course teaches intermediate and advanced Qigong arts that will also include four specially selected basic Kung-fu forms from three styles of martial arts: Tao Tan Pai (2), Ehrmei Mountain White Tiger (1), and Mok Gar (1):
PREREQUISITE FOR JOINING INTERMEDIATE CLASS:
1. Proficiency in Flying Phoenix Long Form Standing Meditation with eyes closed (“Flying Phoenix Heavenly Healing Chi Meditation” as taught on Volume 4 of the Chi Kung For Health dvd series).
2. Proficiency in all of the Taoist Elixir Method (Tao Tan Pai) Basic 31 Meditations and having an established practice of the TTP Short Form Power Yoga—i.e., as acquired through attendance at two 3-day TTP Qigong workshop at Eastover over past 3 years, plus 3 months of weekly community classes.
Joining the Wednesday Livestream Course
To experience these two easy-to-do and profoundly restorative holistic health regimens, and join a lively worldwide community of students dedicated to health, personal growth, self-empowerment, inner peace and world peace, sign up for the next session:
The Zoom Meeting ID is: 835 2614 5019
Registration URL:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcode-pqj4qG92EwOe2Kx3WhWPykD2e1Vd-
FEE: $80 / class or $575 / 8-class series
• Please send tuition via Paypal to zenbearinc@gmail.com (before 1:00 PM on August 12) to receive the ZoomMeeting Password by 5pm EST on Wednesday. (Or send an email to zenbearinc@gmail.com asking to be sent a Paypal money request that you can use any credit or debit card to pay.)
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QIGONG SYLLABUS:
1. Tao Tan Pai Basic 31 Meditations -- we will cover a portion of TTP-31 every class so that after 3 months, you will have memorized the entire system. 8 of the Basic TTP-31 are seen in this video:
2. TTP Shen Exercises – 5 standing meditations that extend psychic awareness (4 of them are stationary; 1 involves movement).
3. TTP Six Stars -- the 2nd most powerful yoga in the TTP system, according to the late Grandmaster Share K. Lew.
4. TTP Pre-Sleep Yoga – A 5-part Qigong exercise done in the supine position (4 involve upper body movements; 1 is a static posture that also happens to be identical to one precisely described in Carlos Castaneda’s third book, Journey to Ixtlan.
5. Flying Phoenix Long Form Standing Med. (Vol.4) –The capstone exercise of the Ehrmei Mountain Flying Phoenix Qigong (“Ehrmeishan Fei Feng San Gung”) system. This advanced form, once learned and memorized, subsumes the practice of all the preceding 7 standing FP Qigong meditations, but not any of the seated 24 seated meditations. Learning it requires the same mental concentration and body memorization as learning a classical Tai Chi Chuan short form.
6. Advanced Flying Phoenix Qigong -- 9 standing meditations. This is Exercise No.9, which incorporates a few movements from the preceding 8 meditations:
7. Preparatory Form of The 8 Sections of Energy CombinedKung Fu system (posted at the top of this issue) – an extremely rare system of internal kung fu that my teacher of Flying Phoenix Qigong, GM Doo Wai, learned from the abbot of the Goddess of Mercy (Kuanyin) Buddhist Temple in Macau in the 1960’s in a trade for some of his Ehrmei Mountain Bok fu Pai (White Tiger style) Kung Fu. This art, in the words of GM Doo Wai, “is more rare than the DoDo Bird.”—because the martial energy that this art cultivates transmits through organic material (i.e., carbon-based) such as cotton and wood, and can enter any living living creature that is in contact with that organic material. Future issues will feature videos of my demonstration of some of the 8 Sections.
8. Advanced FP Monk Serves Wine seated Meditations
9. Selections from 10,000 Buddhas Ascend to Heaven Qigong, a system of 54 meditations conceived of and organized into 3 sets of 18 meditations. Each subset of 18 meditations cultivates a unique martial energy unlike any other martial art or Qigong system in ever created or in existence. Some workshop students at Eastover over the past three years have gotten a a taste of the 10,000 Buddhas’ art. “Wan Fuo”, or 10,000 Buddhas” happens to be the name of the tallest peak in the mountains surrounding Ehrmeishan. That alone should convince anyone doing due diligence before starting Qigong that this art is authentic and unadulterated.
10. Feng Dao Deh’s 10 San Gung Seated Meditations -- a profoundly powerful and absolutely gorgeous set of seated meditations that are done, interestingly, not in half-lotus position but simple cross-legged position. Prerequisite: proficiency in entire basic level of FP Qigong (all the material in my Chi Kung For Health DVD series). For those working on this set on their own, I will give remedial lessons and corrections as needed.
BASIC KUNG FU SYLLABUS:
1. Tao Tan Pai Cane Form, which many of you already know. We shall further perfect this cane/umbrella form and breakdown applications. Most of this form is seen in the last few minutes of the Youtube video posted above under “Qigong Agenda”.
2. Tao Tan Pai Monkey Form (or Crane or Snake Form; or all 3, as time permits.)
3. The Ehrmei Mountain Bok Fu Pai (White Tiger) Kung Fu form called: "The Eagle Claw Ten Hook Attack Form", an extensive form that's a cousin to the Ehrmei Mountain Bak Mei Kung Fu, which is historically linked with Bak Mei Kung Fu due to the collaboration between my teacher’s father and Bak Mei Master Chun Lai Cheung. This video shows GM demonstrating the same salutation and key elements found in the Eagle Claw 10 Hook Attack Form:
4. The 4-Corner Mok Gar "Browns" Form. (Splashing Hands). shown here. This Form consists of 10 Brown fighting techniques. (Don't be too wow'd or intimidated by the demo in this video; this Form is learned slowly, systematically, one technique at a time; then you gradually train for speed and power, distance, and accuracy. And, btw, I have trained women in this form--quite a few in the 1980's, actually. The "Browns" are learned one technique at a time linearly. Each technique is practiced at different cadences--Then at the very end, after all 10 have been learned, we string it together into this 4-corner form. The Browns and the 4-Corner form are quite fun to do because of its rhythmic coordination of hands driven by the shuffles (footwork) that are unique to Mok-Gar. Mok-Gar is known for its signature “snake hands and “rat step”.
5. Starting at 2:50 on this video below, the "Browns" 1 thru 5 are broken down by Sifu James McNeil, who was a peer and friend with my senior classmate (Da-Sihing) in Tao Tan Pai during the late 70's and 80's, the ven. John Davidson. Master McNeil powers his Mok Gar with internal energy from Hsing-I, which he learned from Master Xi Hung Xi.
**These 4 Kung Fu forms are taught in this intermediate class because they are essential prerequisites for learning more advanced TTP Qigong beyond the Six Stars and more advanced Bok Fu Pai Nei Kung beyond Advanced Flying Phoenix Qigong. Their practice collectively provide a solid kung fu foundation is required in order to derive maximum benefits from the Tao Tan Pai Six Stars and other advanced advanced internal arts such as Bok Fu Pai’s 10,000 Buddhas Ascend to Heaven Meditations and Feng Dao Deh’s 10 San Gung Meditations.
VIDEO PICK OF THE WEEK
A sultry and soulful love song that appeals to younger hip hop generations
Their spontaneous and animated reactions to hearing Phil Collins’ voice for the first time and in his best song is just precious…and demonstrates the unifying power of music.
I also just learned new gestures of appreciation: one index finger; two fingers from the eyelids flung forward means something.
Their “Yeah, okay” in unison at 2:55 is just too cute.
But it’s the drum smash at (4:55) that gets these youngsters giving their props. LOL!
SONG PICK OF THE WEEK - and contemporary English music lesson 101.
FOOL’S GOLD — BY THE STONE ROSES is one of my favorite songs of the late 80’s and early 90’s for its cool ambience created by its ethereal guitar, pulsing but mellow bass line, and “drum circle” rhythm. Fool’s Gold was a flagship hit tune of the Madchester” movement out of Manchester, England, which saw emergence of an early wave of alternative rock that had elements of acid house, rave music, and 1960s pop and psychedelia—and a big hit in the States. The label “Madchester” was popularised by the British music press in the early 1990s, and its most famous groups were the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, and the Charlatans. I first saw this scene live at the advice of Michael Wadleigh at a couple of huge “acid houses” in the UK where kids were doing mostly MDMA (not acid) at these large raves, dancing in mass to electronic dance music. In Manchester, Ground Zero for this music was the Haçienda nightclub, which was co-owned by members of New Order. Relatively harmless as it is compared acid and other psychedelics, I didn’t care for the widespread MDMA drug fuel in general (for I know the careful, limited use of MDMA in psychotherapy). But these huge masses of young people (just slightly younger than me) dancing coolly had a certain fun energy to it. Critics called defined it as distinctive musical ethos and called it the “Second Summer of Love.” Not even close, in my book.
But this is a great song and that was TSR’s biggest commercial success—with its simple and powerful message almost wholly contained in the song title. It condemns greed and capitalism with verses inspired by the John Huston’s classic film, “Treasure of Sierra Madre” starring Humphrey Bogart. Th lyrics also cleverly reference Nancy Sinatra’s 60’s hit, “These Boots Are Made For Walking” and the Marquis de Sade.
Gold road's sure a long road
Winds on through the hills for fifteen days
The pack on my back is aching
The straps seem to cut me like a knife
Gold road's sure a long road
Winds on through the hills for fifteen days
The pack on my back is aching
The straps seem to cut me like a knife
I'm no clown, I won't back down, don't need you to tell me what's going down
Down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down
Down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down
I'm standing alone, I'm watching you all, I'm seeing you sinking
I'm standing alone, you're weighing the gold, I'm watching you sinking
Fool's gold
These boots weren't made for walking
The marquis de sade never made no boots like these
Gold's just around the corner
Breakdown's coming up round the bend
Sometimes you have to try to get along dear
I know the truth and I know what you're thinking
Down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down
I'm standing alone, I'm watching you all, I'm seeing you sinking
I'm standing alone, you're weighing the gold, I'm watching you sinking
Fool's gold
ART PICK OF THE WEEK
—is perhaps the most famous modern ballet wordwide called “In the Middle Somewhat Elevated, performed by my penpal Sylvie Guillem. This extremely difficult and precarious work was built upon Sylvie G. by American choreographer William Forsythe in 1986. Commissioned by Rudolph Nureyev and Sylvie Guillem for the Paris Opera Ballet, it was completed in 1987. Not only is this piece the high-water mark for all female ballet dancers going non-classical, but it showcases Sylvie Guillem’s almost peerless dance-athleticism and grace.
**I happen to love this piece because it has the rhythm, tempo, and high-altitude attacks of a Kung Fu form!!!***
mitakuye oyasin,
(Lakota prayer that means “To all my relations” or “All are related”, or, as I learned it when I did a several years of sweat lodges and medicine wheels in the early 1980’s given by a Lakota community in So. California led by Don Perrote: “Help and Health to all my Brothers and Sisters”)
Sincerely,
Terry Dunn
“Moving meditation is a hundred—a thousand—times more beneficial than meditation in repose.” — ancient Taoist adage