It looks like Energy Arts is releasing another set of The Tai Chi Mastery Program. This is a short message to those of you who have the program sitting on your bookshelf, collecting dust, or still pristinely packaged: Let’s open it up and get to work! Now, if you’re not familiar with this program, take a look at this: That’s a lot of DVDs! What’s Inside The Tai Chi Mastery Program?
After teaching thousands of people of all ages and physical abilities over the last eight years, it is clear to me that there is one technique in Tai Chi that is more powerful than all others. My main teacher, Bruce Frantzis, introduced me to this technique and taught me how to use all its variations, under different conditions. He has encouraged all his instructors to pass along this technique because it is practically a lost art.
As part of the Tai Chi Mastery Program, Bruce Frantzis recently published a report called “The Eight Principles of Tai Chi Chuan.” The report is full of detail about stages of training 8 different energies of Tai Chi, laid out in clear and straightforward language. But I always have a problem with writing like this…. On the one hand, it is invaluable for anyone who wants to understand the bigger context of their Tai Chi practice.
Movement can be a powerful tool for creating a calm mind, but only when you follow some very specific rules. Tai Chi was designed with these specific movement rules because the goal is to take you from tense to relaxed and from relaxed to vital and strong. When my Tai Chi teacher, Bruce Frantzis explains the learning progression for Tai Chi, he makes it clear that when your primary focus is on the mind, and your goal is to calm your mind, you must follow this progression.
When you really find the groove with your Tai Chi practice, it’s like listening to a piece of music. The rhythms, riffs, and notes phase in and out, sometimes blending, and sometimes really standing out on their own, and even though there’s a lot going on, you can soak it all in at once. Can you practice Tai Chi the same way? This isn’t just an analogy, there’s a major lesson buried in here.
From the outside, standing qigong can look calm, peaceful and meditative. On the inside, if you don’t ask yourself these 3 essential questions, standing can be grueling. Your muscles ache, you tremble and sweat, and in burning discomfort you strain to see how much longer you must endure. It doesn’t have to be torture, though, if you adopt the right mindset as you practice.
Over the years, I have learned many different standing qigong techniques from my teacher Bruce Frantzis, but when I practice what he’s taught about mindset and attitude in standing qigong, I’ve had some of my biggest breakthroughs.
The eyes are the gateway to your nervous system. This is a theme that my teacher Bruce Frantzis weaves into many different Tai Chi and qigong teachings that he gives. Relaxing the nervous system is one of the central goals of Tai Chi practice. With a relaxed nervous system you are more aware of your reactions, thoughts, emotions, and really, your entire internal environment. One of the best ways to begin to tune into the state of your nervous system is by learning to feel your eyes.
When you relax into the turning of the waist and feel how it connects to the legs, you begin a process of rooting while moving that creates a dynamic and springy stability. Kind of a paradox, right? You feel like a giant spring, anchored to the floor even though you’re moving around, that is constantly being wound up and then released. The key to cultivating this connection is how you relax through your turning, so let’s start off by getting clear on what we mean when we say relaxation.
