TERRY DUNN'S TAI CHI FOR HEALTH / QIGONG FOR HEALTH NEWSLETTER #38 (MERCURY GOES DIRECT EDITION!)
QIGONG FOR HEALTH FOR 1ST RESPONDERS (SUNDAYS 4PM-6PM, TAI CHI CHUAN (THURSDAYS 5PM-7PM); INTERMED. TAO TAN PAI QIGONG & KUNG FU (WED. 5PM-7PM)
WEEKLY COMMUNITY CLASSES (Zoom-able)
I. QIGONG FOR HEALTH FOR 1st RESPONDERS: FLYING PHOENIX QIGONG ON SUNDAYS
Classes No. 103, 104, 105, 106 = June 5, 12, 19, 26
Our 103rd Livestream of Qigong For Health For First-Responders is set for this Sunday, June 5 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 two (not one, but two) authentic and powerful ancient Taoist monastic systems of Qigong that impart tangible and visible health benefits repeatable verifiable health benefits.
(1) Taoist Elixir Method (“Tao Tan Pai”) Qigong - Each class begins with a half-hour practice of the Tao Tan Pai Short Form Power Yoga, a classical distillation of the Tao Tan Pai Basic 31 Meditations.
(2) Flying Phoenix Heavenly Healing Qi Meditations(“Fei Feng San Gung”) imparts tangible energizing and rejuvenating effects—and deep meditative states of consciousness— in surprisingly swift manner—within 30 to 45 minutes of practicing any combination of the 8 basic standing meditations or 24 seated meditations. The allostatic (restorative) effects of FP Qigong practice continues long after one’s practice has ceased.
"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
The Flying Phoenix Qigong was created in 1644 by the famous Taoist, Feng Dao Deh (Feng Do Duk in Cantonese) of Ehrmeishan. The video above shows my impromptu demonstration of the “Flying Phoenix Heavenly Healing Chi Meditation,” which is the capstone exercise of this vast Qigong system that bears the same name (“Fei Feng San Gung” in Chinese). Once this moving meditation is memorized, its practice--done with the eyes closed--subsumes the practice of the preceding 7 standing meditations of the system (taught on Volumes 1 and 3 of the DVD series). Its regular daily practice maintains peak immunity and ensures continuous cultivation of a tangible reserve in the boy of the Flying Phoenix Healing Qi.
“Moonbeam Splashes On The Water” (below) is the second most advanced Flying Phoenix Qigong meditation, next to the capstone meditation.
**SEE THE POSTSCRIPT FOR TESTIMONIALS ON VIDEO ABOUT THE HEALING AND REJUVENATING EFFICACY OF FLYING PHOENIX QIGONG.**
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: 828 1622 1377
Registration URL:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYldu-qrDopHdPmWX5jNr_K8HBFiFLN5Ahg
FEE: $40 per class; $280 / 8-class series; or $500 / 16-class series
• Please send tuition via Paypal (to zenbearinc@gmail.com) or via Zelle (to terencepdunn@gmail.com) before 1:00 PM on the day of he class) —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..
• All participants must register in advance for this meeting at the above URL.
• Berkshires students who are fully vaccinated are welcome to attend this class in person (with physical distancing, of course).
II. INTERMEDIATE QIGONG & BASIC KUNG FU
Classes No. 76, 77, 78, 79 = December 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
December 1 will be the 76th intermediate-level Qigong & Basic Kung Fu class of this ongoing weekly series (from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. EST). This course concentrates on the intermediate and advanced levels of the two rare and powerful Kung Fu/Qigong system— Tao Tan Pai (Taoist Elixir Method”) Nei Kung created in the Tang Dynasty and Ehrmei Mountain White Tiger Kung Fu, created in 1644 by Taoist monk Feng Dao Deh, and which includes Flying Phoenix Celestial Healing Qigong, the medical qigong system and health safety “net” of Bok Fu Pai.
Prerequisites for joining the Intermediate class have recently been adjusted—please note:
1. Proficiency in all of the Flying Phoenix standing Qigong exercises up to and including “Moonbeam Splashes On Water” moving meditation—i.e., proficiency in performing all the meditative exercises in Volumes 1, 2 and 3 of Chi Kung For Health DVD series. —i.e. you should have “Moonbeam Splashes On Water” moving meditation memorized and be able to do it and its breath conrol sequence from memory and with the eyes closed.
2. Proficiency in the Tao Tan Pai Short Form Power Yoga (e.g., Exercises #1, #2, #3, #4, and #18 of the Tao Tan Pai 31 Basic Meditations)—and familiarity with the overall sequence of TTP 31 Basic Meditations—as acquired through attendance of two 3-day TTP Qigong workshops at Eastover Estate over past 3 years, or 3 months of weekly community classes.
Class Agenda:
1. Warm up with the Tao Tan Pai Cane Form
2. Instruction in the basic Tao Tan Pai Monkey, Crane, Snake, Tiger, or Dragon forms.
3. Refinement of “Moonbeam Splashes On Water” (2nd most advanced Flying Phoenix moving meditation)
4. Refinement of “Flying Phoenix Heavenly Healing Qi Meditation”, aka, the Long Form Standing Meditation (on Volume 4 of CKFH).
** NOTE: Instruction in the following advanced arts (#5 - #10) is available only to students whom I have been certified as instructors in Flying Phoenix Qigong and/or Taoist Elixir Method Basic 31 Meditations:
5. Practice of “Monk Serves Wine”, advanced seated FP Mediations (#9 - #24)
6. Introduction to Advanced Flying Phoenix Qigong (9 standing moving meditations)
7. Instruction in the Bok Fu Pai “Eagle Claw Ten Hook Attack Form”.
8. Instruction in the preparatory exercise of 8 Sections of Energy Combined Kung Fu
9. Introduction in “The 10,000 Buddhas Ascend To Heaven” Meditations
10. San-shou (free sparring) and how to use the Mok-Gar “Browns” techniques effectively.
JOINING THE INTERMEDIATE COURSE LIVESTREAM: Wednesdays 6pm - 8pm
To experience these two rare and powerful and restorative holistic health traditions and join a lively worldwide community of students dedicated to health, longevity, self-empowerment, spiritual growth, inner peace and world peace, sign up for the next session:
The Zoom Meeting ID is: 896 0406 3723
Registration URL:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0rd-2oqDgtGNeRiIIHgc8ijH6zV8wml26d
FEE: $60/ class or $440 / 8-class series or $800/16-class series
• Please send tuition via Paypal to zenbearinc@gmail.com or via Zelle to terencedunn@gmail.com (well before 4:00 PM on each day of class) to receive the ZoomMeeting Password by 5pm EST.
III. TAI CHI FOR HEALTH class teaches the 60-posture Yang Style Short Form, 108-posture Long Form and Tai Chi Sword Form of Grandmaster William C.C. Chen—plus Push-hands and Form Applications for the street.
New series will be starting in July. Time and place to be announced.
IV. Music Pick of the Month –
Faure Requiem in D minor, Op. 48 – composed by Gabriel Fauré between 1887 and 1890.
Regardless of your religious preferences, this 7-part requiem mass, a choral-orchestral setting of the shortened Catholic Mass for the Dead in Latin, is one of the most beautiful works of music in human history, in my humble opinion.
In memory of the 19 children and two adults murdered at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX on Tuesday, May 24 by an 18-year old evilly twisted gunman—and in memory of all innocents in America who have suffered cruel deaths by others’ use of unregulated firearms.
Fauré was a Cathar, a Gnostic movement in Christianity between the 12th and 14th century that thrived in northern Italy and southwestern France. Thus his mass is a sublime celebration of the transformative power of death and transmigration of the eternal soul in contrast to the conventional gloom and doom Catholic masses throughout history that tend towards exaggerating their followers’ fear of death.
"Everything I managed to entertain by way of religious illusion I put into my Requiem, which moreover is dominated from beginning to end by a very human feeling of faith in eternal rest."
mitakuye oyasin,
(Lakota prayer that means “To all my relations” or “All are related”, or “Help and Health to all my Brothers and Sisters” )
Sifu Terry Dunn
P.S. Sunday “Qigong For Health For First Responders” 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 Youtube video that I excerpted from one of my accredited Medical Qigong I course for Emperor’s College of TOM:
**If you practice to this video this as homework and memorize the Silkweaver’s Exercise choreography, you’ll hit the deck “running” in all of my weekly classes and be able to attain deeper levels of relaxation, mind-body integration, physical comfort, emotional calm, and mental concentration during each class.
B. After warming up with the Silkweaver’s Exercise, we practice 50 minutes of the Basic Tao Tan Pai 31 Meditations (“TTP-31” for short), which in and of itself is a complete system of Yoga, compared to what has been taught in Yoga classes throughout the western world. We start off by learning a distillation of this series of 31 called the “Tao Tan Pai Short Form Power Yoga” consisting of the first four standing Meditations followed by the third of the 16 seated meditations (aka, Meditation No.18). This is a classical practice, not a recent advent or abbreviation—which I practiced daily every morning during my first four years of kung fu training—from 1976 to 1980. It is one of the most reliable and effective self-empowering yogic practices to elevate and organize one’s energies, and to instantly concentrate Qi flow to the hands.
We practice 4 to 15 of the standing meditations and 2 to 5 of the seated meditations in each class. By adding new meditations each week, we cover all of the 31 Basic Meditations of Tao Tan Pai in about 12 classes. This easy and yet profoundly healthful and transformative practice can be started by beginners in any class.
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 the Flying Phoenix Chi Kung discussion thread on www.thedaobums.com (started in Nov. 2009 by businessman and qigong practitioner 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 years ago, he was riding his bike about 12 hours after he had practiced FP Qigong when suddenly the tangibly sublime, deep, circulation of FP Qigong’s healing Qi suddenly enveloped him and kept him alight for several hours.
This restorative process has been corroborated by scores of Qigong students year after year after year… Here is a spontaneous testimonial given by my dear friend and student Rori Kanter, who described her healing experience that set on 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 at Eastover Estate in Lenox, MA (click the blue ”Watch on Vimeo” button:
• Six months later on November 4, Rori gave this amazing report of her annual physical check-up by her primary physician:
Tao Tan Pai Qigong catalyzes Flying Phoenix Qigong, deeply enhancing and prolonging the healing effects of the latter.
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 seven 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 Sunday series is one hour of Taoist Elixir Method Qigong followed by an hour of Flying Phoenix Qigong.
• These two reviews came in after each had taken my first “Qigong For Health for First Responders” class on March 29, 2020 consisting of one-hour of TTP Basic 31 Meditations followed by one hour of Flying Phoenix Qigong:
I felt a surge of tangible sensations coursing through my entire body, streams of subtle vibrations and tingling with a particular focus in the chest and head areas. Unlike the typical calming, relaxing, and sometimes sedative effects that I usually experience from FP, this pattern of energy was more invigorating, enlivening, and longer-lasting. I was alert and full of energy with an underlying sense of ease and contentment. Its effects were still mildly present three hours after the session ended, and most surprisingly, after a heavy meal, something I haven't quite experienced before even having attended a dozen intensive workshops. Although we only practiced basic exercises from each system, my experience mimicked ones I’ve had practicing advanced meditations from TTP and FP separately in longer sessions. I can only attribute these effects to the thoughtful, specific, and unique combination of TTP and FP that was offered.
--Spencer Lawrence, Jersey City, NJ
I’ve studied with Sifu Terry Dunn for 3 1/2 years at Eastover and any place else I could get the chance. The major focus of that study had been Flying Phoenix Qigong and related Bak Fu Pai arts. I’ve taken a couple of workshops in Tao Tan Pai but never gave it any thought, devotion or practice. Recently I’ve partaken in Sifu Dunn’s Sunday class “Tao Tan Pai + Flying Phoenix Qigong for Peak Immunity...” It consists of one hour of Tao Tan Pai followed another hour of Flying Phoenix. For the last 12 weeks I’ve faithfully practiced TTP daily with profound results. My lung capacity has greatly increased; my inhalation and exhalation are longer and deeper now (something useful In this time of pandemic). I’ve noticed, too, that my heart rate has slowed down by 5 beats per minute.
As to the synergistic relationship of these two seemingly unrelated disciplines, I’ll mention a few. Tao Tan Pai is the perfect warmup for Flying Phoenix Qigong. It loosens both the body and mind. It deepens the relaxation response putting one in an altered state much sooner. This state of relaxation is so deep that by the end of Sunday’s class I can barely keep my eyes open. This is especially true of the Monk Serves Wine series of exercises. My personal practice will forevermore start with TTP and end with Flying Phoenix.
--Tony Arcuri, Queens, NY
Numerous similar testimonials have been received via email, Zoom, Skype, and phone messages expressing thanks, elation, and joy over the demonstrable and verifiable synergy between Tao Tan Pai Qigong and Flying Phoenix Qigong.
• See you on Sundays to explore the profound holistic health benefits of these two remarkable Qigong systems.•