Tai Chi

Over the centuries Masters have developed a number of different ways to manipulate our body's natural energies. Paul Cavel, founder of Tao Arts in London, has studied most of them throughout his long career. Editor of the monthly Tao journal Inner Quest and Energy Arts Senior Instructor Cavel integrates the I Ching, Lao Tzu's Water Meditation and the Five Element Theory to bring his teaching to a whole new level. He also teaches qigong, Tai Chi, yoga, tui na energy healing and bagua. ...

Feng Zhiqiang was a famous Tai Chi Master from Beijing who was a major influence on my teacher Bruce Frantzis. Master Feng did some teaching in the West as well and we are fortunate to have access to a transcript of a 2001 workshop he taught in the Bay Area (thanks to the folks at SilkReeler.com for making this transcript available and thanks to Igor for sending it my way!). Here he is in 1986 performing a Chen Style Form: ...

As we move from summer into the fall we find a subconscious need to clear away all of the negative energies that we have been building up throughout the year. The best way to accomplish this is by learning how to sink the chi and this is very important because the chi can become stagnant during the winter months. When the chi gets blocked our energy is prevented from flowing throughout the body. One of the first things to follow this problem is the beginnings of depression. ...

One of the most satisfying things about running this site is when you guys reach out and ask questions about Qigong and Tai Chi. Today, I wanted to share with you 3 of the most common ones I get about starting up a qigong practice (and if you have a different one, something I’ve missed, let me hear about it!). Hopefully, these questions will line up with something you’ve been thinking about in your practice too (again, let me know in the comments!). ...

Join Tai Chi Master-Instructor Don Ethan Miller in a ground-breaking new program to increase your physical stability and overall well-being: The Tai Chi Way to Better Balance DVD. Each exercise and key Tai Chi concept is explained in detail and organized in a safe, easy-to-follow progression of levels. By practicing the 3 Levels of Tai Chi Balance Training, you will soon embody the Tai Chi principles of Rooting, Central Equilibrium, and Yin-Yang Balance, through such ancient exercises as: ...

Join Tai Chi Master-Instructor Don Ethan Miller in a ground-breaking new program to increase your physical stability and overall well-being: The Tai Chi Way to Better Balance DVD and eBook Set. Each exercise and key Tai Chi concept is explained in detail and organized in a safe, easy-to-follow progression of levels. By practicing the 3 Levels of Tai Chi Balance Training, you will soon embody the Tai Chi principles of Rooting, Central Equilibrium, and Yin-Yang Balance, through such ancient exercises as: ...

The name “tai chi” has become fairly well known in the United States and the ar t is being used by the western medical community for the treatment of a number of different conditions. The fact is however that the art of tai chi was developed from an older art called qigong. While there are a number of different styles of qigong the focus of all of them is to focus the body’s natural energies. Unfortunately many people confuse the tai chi term “chi” with the qigong term “qi”, thinking that they both mean energy. The fact is however that it is qi that means energy: Chi means “ultimate” not energy. Qigong is the parent of tai chi and it is from qigong that we learn to regulate and control our body’s natural energies for healing and strength. ...

Tai Chi is becoming ever more popular in the West but the Art itself has some catching up to do. The best books on the subject are written in Chineses and the number of recognized “Masters” that are from the West can be literally counted on one hand. The only Grand Masters are China and it is extremely rare for a Westerner to be invited to study with them. But if the Art is to be truly understood, if Westerners are to get the most from tai chi, this cultural gap must be bridged. Westerners, especially Americans, look at things like life, time and the Universe in sometimes ver different ways. ...

People, even new students, look at the practice of qigong in many different ways. In Asia for instance the system is view the practices from both a spiritual and a scientific level. Monks in China experimented regularly, using control groups, to develop routines that affected different parts of the body by manipulating chi in different ways. This experimentation led to the development of different styles of tai chi and different routines for qigong. There are a number of different things that you can do to plan your qigong before you begin your session. ...

I was thrilled to receive such a positive response to my last post on Standing Qigong. And it wasn’t just support, even though I confessed that now I have to climb back up the mountain on the way to 2-hour sessions again. You guys asked really great questions about standing qigong. Instead of answering them in the comments of the last post, I decided to turn the questions into a post of their own. So here we go! ...