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Learn QiGong Online Free

Posted on January 4, 2024 | by Tai Chi Teacher in Ireland | Leave a Comment

So you still want to try to learn qigong online against my advice, ok I understand. I have good news, you can in fact learn basic qigong online, and you can learn it for free. You must however be very selective when you’re looking for online qigong lessons, the same rules apply to learning qigong online that apply to learning it in real life, you need a good teacher. I’ve included some video resources below to get you started.

Note: I use the spelling qigong, chi kung and qi gong interchangeably in this article so that more people can find it.

It is easier to find qigong teachers online who know more about marketing than chi kung and if you’re a total beginner it’s very difficult to spot the difference. Whats more, some of the best qigong masters who’s content is available online for free, are very difficult to find. Their videos are buried under the marketing guys.

For me it’s very easy to spot a bad qigong teacher because I have been practicing for a number of years under very good teachers. Even from a still photograph I can tell a fraudulent qigong teacher by looking at their posture and their hands and feet. If you are a beginner to qigong it’s difficult to spot the difference between a good teacher and a fraud.

One way to spot the marketing qigong teachers is by the length of their sets compared to the difficulty of the individual postures. Progressing in qigong has nothing to do with the amount forms you know. In traditional public qigong classes, you usually first learn a short, easy, set of movements to work the basic meridians. If you want to go deeper into qigong, into the alchemy practices, the movements can get very difficult fast. The advanced qigong practices that don’t have difficult physical movements have difficult breathing and focusing practices. When I first started learning marrow washing for instance, the breath cycle had to be extended so long I felt as if I would suffocate while following my teacher. Anyway to reiterate, digital marketing based qigong courses, teach you more and more movements that don’t increase in difficulty to milk students.

Learning qigong has very little to do with learning very long forms. Many of these are recent creations design to milk students into subscriptions.

Last time I checked the entire first page of search results for online qigong courses were very poor, whilst some of the best videos don’t show up in a conventional search at all. I’ve dug around a bit an found some youtube videos of masters that are very good.

Top 5 things you need to begin learning qigong online, or offline.

First, you must get familiar with the basic qigong concepts and terminology. Most of these terms have to do with anatomy, breath, mind state and energy. The below video does a good job of easing beginners to qigong into this terminology.

This video gives a good overview of chi gong terminology. The qigong teacher who made it has a lot of free chi gong lessons online and on his youtube channel.

The second thing you’ll need learning qigong practice is a breathing method.

Breath is the key that unlocks the benefits chi kung. There are many methods. If you’re learning online there is no use in studying an elaborate breath method, you just need one that syncs the breath, movement and chi. You also need one that syncs to your specific level of development. The below methods are from the monk Chan Fa who is friends with my teacher. Chan Fa has studied Taoism and “heart” Chan Buddhist methods all his life, he has achieved a very high level of skill, his students are highly skilled martial artists and practitioners, he is not known in the west and has no western students. His breathing methods are simple and direct.

Here we introduce to you two simple and effective breathing methods. One is the Five and Ten Dantian Breathing Methods. First, sit on a chair, relax your body, and place your palms in the Dantian of your lower abdomen below your navel. Close your eyes. Breathe out through your mouth and count from one to ten. At this time, you should simultaneously retract the Dantian of the lower abdomen inward and lift the anus upward. After exhaling, breathe in through your nose and count from one to five. At this time, protrude your lower abdomen forward and relax your anus. One exhalation and one inhalation is one time, and a total of ten times is one time. It’s up to you how many times you want to do it.

The second is the four-seven-eight breathing method. The method is also very simple. Sit up straight and relax. Breathe in and count from one to four. To stop breathing, count from one to seven. Then exhale and count from one to eight. This counts as one time (one breath), ten times is one time. How many times or how many times you want to practice is entirely up to you. Both of these breathing methods involve inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth. They can be practiced while sitting or lying down. The counting speed should not be too fast or too slow, just

The third thing you’ll need is a set of movements or form.

Youtube makes this part of the process easy, there are thousands of options. When learning from free video, look for footage recorded before the current qigong trend. There are a massive amount of sketchy organizations and chi kung teachers that are cashing in on this boom. When you learn from an older source, certainly pre 2000’s, the teacher will be more dedicated to the art and not just making money off of it. The older routines are simple and effective whereas many of the new ones are stretched way out to milk students for ongoing subscription feeds. If you’re learning qigong online the same rule we use for a breathing method applies to the form, it must be simple and effective. For this purpose the Ba Duan Jin qigong routine is probably the best option. It is so simple and effective it has survived in one form or another for at least 800 years. This set has a symbiotic relationship with tai chi and xing yi.

Some of the best Ba Duan Jin Qigong videos are online for free.

Yes, I know it’s not in English, but in the coming weeks I will break down the separate movements of Ba Duan Jin or 8 pieces of brocade, chi kung routine online all for free.

Zhang Guang De, the chi kung master in the above video is the creator of the Daoyin Yang Sheng Gong chi kung system and one of the best chi kung teachers of recent times. Many of his chi kung videos are online for free, however most of these cover his longer routines. If you want to learn chi kung online for free it’s not going to benefit you to learn a longer system. The Ba Duan Jin, is simple and effective, practicing it everyday will provide health benefits.

Here is the Qigong teacher Yang Jwing Ming performing the same set.

it’s a shame people pay thousands for online qigong courses when this material exists…

Dr.Jwing Ming also performs seated ba duan Jin qigong

This seated qigong set is quite nice to follow along with.

The 4 thing you need in your qigong practice is the correct mind state.

In Chinese literature, the first and last items on a list are the most important, so pay attention to this one. Depending on your former training, or lack thereof, you may have a hard time picking this last concept up online. Although it is essentially a state of keeping your focus, it has a feeling. In my experience you need to be beside a master to have this feeling transmitted properly. It is strongly related to the breathing method. In a traditional setting the mental state, especially focus and intention, of a qigong student is constantly adjusted by the teacher, but this is often given little time on the modern chi kung courses. The coach Edward Hines is particularly good at teaching the mind states in an accessible way.

The 5th thing you need in a qigong practice is a clearly defined goal.

This is also a big difference from the marketing type teachers. Below are some goals that you can find in qigong practice. First you can start off with simple goals like perfoming a certain number of breath cycles every morning, performing the set a specific number of times a week etc. After you get comfortable you need to set internal goals. All qigong teachers I have studied with make this a critical point.

Sinking Qi To the Dan Tien (this is a good goal to set after you are comfortable with the breathing and some movements, it is difficult without a teacher in real life but I believe it would be achievable in a disciplined online practice. This practice causes a deep sense of well-being and is good for everyone)
Agitating Chi in the Dan Tien (same as above)
Burning Impurities From the Mind (This is extremely difficult and can’t be learned online, this is one of the practices that causes a change to the practitioner on a very deep level. As someone who has experienced this I wouldn’t say that it would benefit people who don’t want to have practice take over a large part of their life)
Clearing Negative Energy through the Lao Gong points. (this can probably be learned online)
Holding Yi on Void (This can be learned online by those with good mental faculty, it is good for everybody. )
Opening the Large Heavenly Circle ( Although it is often taught in digital courses, there is no chance you will achieve it without a skilled teacher. This occurrence will change the internal and external circumstances in the practitioners life. Really these things are not for everybody )

The Yang 108 Tai Chi Form

Posted on February 13, 2021 | by Donegal Tai Chi Class | Leave a Comment

A third-ish generation long form the Yang style Tai Chi

Preparation & Commencement
Grasp Bird’s Tail (R)
Grasp Birds Tail (L)
Ward off Upward – Peng
Pull Back – Lu
Press Forward – Gi
Push – An
Sing Whip
Lift Hands
Stork Cools it’s Wings
Brush Knee Twist Step (L)
Play the Pipa
Brush Knee Twist Step (L)
Brush Knee Twist Step (R)
Brush Knee Twist Step (L)
Play the Pipa
Brush Knee Twist Step (L)
Chop With Fist
Step Up Parry Punch
Sealing and closing
Carry the Tiger to the Mountain
Peng, Lu, Gi, An
Diagonal Single Whip
Punch Under Elbow
Repulse Monkey (R)
Repulse Monkey (L)
Repulse Monkey (R)
Repulse Monkey (L)
Repulse Monkey (R)
Slanting Flying
Lift Hands
Stork Cools his Wings
Brush Knee Twist Step
Needle at Sea Bottom
Fan Through Back
Turn, Chop with Fist
Step Up, Parry Punch
Ward Off, Pull, Press, Push
Single Whip
Cloud Hands
Single Whip
High Pat on Horse
Separate Foot
Separate Foot (L)
Turn, Kick With Sole
Brush Knee Twist Step ( L & R)
Step Up, Parry Punch
Turn, Chop With Fist
Step Up, Parry Punch
Brush Foot (R)
Hit the Tiger (L)
Hit the Tiger (R)
Right Foot Kicks Up
Double Wind Pierce the Ears
Brush Foot (L)
Turn, Kick with Sole
Chop with fist
Step up, parry, punch
Closing up
Carry Tiger to the Mountain
Peng, Lu, Gi, An
Horizontal Single Whip
Part Wild Horses Mane (R)
Part Wild Horses Mane (L)
Part Wild Horses Mane (R)
Grasp Bird’s Tail
Peng, Lu, Gi, An
Single Whip
Fair Lady at Shuttles (1)
Fair Lady at Shuttles (2)
Fair Lady at Shuttles (3)
Fair Lady at Shuttles (4)
Grasp Bird’s Tail (L)
Peng, Lu, Gi, An
Single Whip
Cloud Hands
Single Whip
Snake Creeps Down
Golden Rooster on One Leg
Golden Rooster on One Leg
Repulse Monkey ( R & L)
Slanting Flying
Lift Hands
Stork Cools Wings
Brush Knee Twist Step (L)
Needle at Sea Bottom
Fan Through Back
White Snake Flicks Tongue
Step, Parry, Punch
Peng, Lu, Gi, An
Single Whip
Cloud Hands
Single Whip
High Pat on Horse
Cross Hands
Cross Kick
Brush Knee, Puch Down
Peng, Lu, Gi, An
Single Whip
Snake Creeps Down
Step up to Seven Stars
Retreat to Ride Tiger
The Lotus Sweep
Shoot Tiger
Chop with Fist
Step Up, Parry Punch
Closing Up
Conclusion

Power Dynamics in Chen Pan Ling Tai Chi

Posted on February 16, 2024 | by Donegal Tai Chi Class | Leave a Comment

I’ve been trying to figure out the body mechanics of our Chen Pan Ling Tai Chi for the last while. The Chen Pan Ling Tai Chi Textbook, describes these mechanics in detail, which it terms dynamics. I’ve failed to figure these out fully, but I’ve made a small bit of progress. The method below is how I started to get more ground path power into the forms using methods I believe are specific to CPL Tai Chi. If anyone has any corrections or suggestions I’d be grateful.

The unique CPL preparation form pictured above gives us the clues needed to figure out the basic method of body mechanics or dynamics for the rest of the form. Chen Pan Ling wouldn’t have put a random sequence of movement at the beginning of his life’s masterwork for show, or even just as a signature, so it must be important. Realizing this, I drilled it backward and forward in different ways for the last couple months and found that it provides some keys to unlocking CPL power dynamics.

To summarize, the simplified movement in the preparation sequence isolates the basic method of CPL power generation, which would be very difficult to figure out from a full tai chi form movement. Combined with the first circle of the hands the preparation form breaks down the building blocks of power generation in a digestible progression.

The above diagram from the book shows the preparation sequence, it is illustrated and explained in more detail than other forms in the book. Note the initial stance is a “penguin” stance, I don’t know what the actual name is, but the toes are pointed outward like a penguin. This means the inguinal creases in the hips are both open, among other things. Afterward you step forward into what is called the “natural stance” where the knees are drawn together. This stance is similar to dragon riding stance in southern styles, which sometimes point the toes inward. In tai chi the knees are more drawn together with intent than an extreme forced posture as in these southern styles. Anyway this natural stance posture indicates that both inguinal creases of the Kua are now closed. So essentially the preparation form is opening and closing the Kua on both sides, like hinges, while incorporating a simple step.

So the opening and closing of two sides of the kua like this is using what Dillon Beyer calls hinges. Different styles of tai chi emphasize different hinges, in combination, to generate power. So right off the bat, our CPL form is specifically emphasizing these two particular hinges (inguinal creases.) Why is this?

Well why do you think Ed and Laoshi’s tai chi has so much rotational movement unique in it’s circles compared to other styles? At Ed’s paris seminar I got to the training hall early and Luo was there, we were locked out and started chatting. I asked him specifically why his tai chi had so much twisting and rotation. He explained this to me. The rotation in the CPL style gives you way more options when you’re fighting. Remember that Hung Yi was taught by CPL differently than his normal students, because of his skill level he got the full fat version. Luo then demonstrated single whip with an absolutly insane amount of power, it wasn’t like the whippy/shaky fa jin you see in chen style, so the point was this rotation can also lead to linear strikes of incredible power.

At Ed’s last Brittany seminar Laoshi told me that after master Hung had learned the tai chi from CPL he kept nagging Luo that he had learn this really important tai chi form that he had just lerned this really important master. Luo repeatedly told him that he did not want to learn tai chi at that stage of his life because it was too slow. So I asked, well what made you start learning it then? “When he hit me with it” was the answer. lols. IMO our CPL tai chi is one of the only remaining styles suitable for fighting, there are a couple others, but 99% of tai chi today is nerfed. The caveat to using it like this is that it is what Luo calls an operating system or software style, that is you have to develop the fundamentals in a hardware style first. Anyway Ed is the only one in Europe who learned this tai chi from Luo properly, I digress.

Anyway if you need an illustration of what I’m referring to by opening and closing the sides of the kua go into a forward gong bu stance. Try and hold a book in the crease between your groin and inner thigh. That forward kua is now a closed hinge. Then go into rear weighted gong bu as in roll back and try and hold the book on that side, the rear hinge is now closed, note that you may need to lift the toe on the front empty foot to facilitate this on the rear weighted closing. In the opening and closing of the kua like this you can generate a strong rotational force. When you add this rotational force to other hinges it can both direct and amplify them. It’s difficult to coordinate the timing of opening and closing both sides of the kua smoothly and it takes a lot of practice.

Once I realized this opening and closing is important my form started looking a lot more like Ed’s. Even so I was still not getting consistent power with it during single push hands, so I was missing something…

Now after the preparation form the next form has you draw a circle with both hands by rotating your waist while holding sort of a Bao tai chi / shoulder width posture. In the book there is a point in the description of this form about the spine being like a straight pole that rotates on a central equilibrium. Now, if you draw this circle by rotating your spine like a straight pole from the normal shoulder width stance, you will find the rotation limited by your hips.

However if you release the hips you sill see that they open and close following the spinal rotation, you can then amplify the rotation by feeding the opening of one hinge into the closing of the other, you need to be in the natural stance for this, it doesn’t work well if the knees are not slightly uniting. That is one side will naturally open and the other will close. This is just as I noted in the preparation form, except now your spine is creating the opening and closing. I’m still unclear on how the movement is properly initiated, which is important. I have some thoughts on this I might put into another post.

If you think in terms of rotating your spine like a post with central equilibrium, in conjunction with opening and closing the inguinal creases the cpl form starts to make a lot more sense. Note the similarities in this approach to bagua mechanics but from a totally different stance. A couple other styles emphasize this method as well but once you understand the synthesis here it becomes obvious that CPL was a genius.

I recommend combining the preparation form with the below video of Ed into a drill. Note that this is tai chi for power generation, it’s different than the public health style type tai chi. It requires that you understand the basics of using the ground as leverage and that you have developed your legs from the feet up to that end. If you’re trying oppening and closing hip rotations while stacking weight onto your knees its not going to be good for them at all. There is more to all of this, but this is a good starting point. I will post more findings if anyone is interested.

Tai Chi Heavy Bag Workout

Posted on January 22, 2024 | by Tai Chi Teacher in Ireland | Leave a Comment

Although it is not a traditional tai chi training tool I’ve rather taken to using the heavy bag for practicing striking and developing power. My teacher Shifu Chao at first admonished me when I told him I was using a heavy bag. Later when he saw how I was using tai chi principals on the bag he did he not mind as much and began giving me tips to generate and increase the power of my strikes. Likewise the master Luo Dexiu told us at a seminar, train striking with a partner(including pad work) not a heavy bag.

The reasons good tai chi teachers avoid the heavy bag workout in tai chi training.

Of course the above masters are not mistaken in their dismissal of heavy bag usage in tai chi training. If a student starts training on a heavy bag before understanding tai chi body mechanics and force generation methods it’s likely to really destroy your tai chi. You will start to rely on the power generation and footwork of boxing or kick boxing. Boxing and kickboxing are all great arts, but they use totally different body mechanics than tai chi. If you have not been taught tai chi body mechanics you will be humbled by the heavy bag and you will try and compensate

The reason I started using the heavy bag as a tai chi training tool.

I have not had a tai chi push hands partner for a long time, and the heavy bag provides some substitute for one it’s resistance and movement. Also I have several boxers in my family and over the years I began to see the effectiveness of the heavy bag in power development, though it me some time to figure out how to integrate and adapt bagwork to tai chi.

Considerations in using the heavy bag in Tai Chi training.

The seven stars and three points is a core concept in tai chi that deals with the different striking areas we can use on the body. The three points are the hand, feet and head. These are used for conventional punches and kicks. The seven stars include the knee, elbow, shoulder and everything else.

Practicing only the three points on a heavy bag will make you overly-reliant on upper body power and you will get stuck at that level. The seven star methods make up a large portion of tai chi striking attacks in the form and during push hands, so you must carry this over to your heavy bag workout. Striking with the 7 stars you will keep the ground path and not rely on upper body strength as the primary source of power. Finally, you must use tai chi footwork when doing tai chi methods on the heavy bag. You must use gong bu, natural step, and whatever methods you have in your specific style of tai chi to generate the power. Do not start training tai chi striking on the heavy bag until you understand these concepts.

Example of a kung fu heavy bag workout with tai chi motifs.

Using the 7 stars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EllAPxshLxk

An example of striking with the seven stars, instead of the three points.

Example of Using the 3 points striking in Tai Chi heavy bag workout

Working on the standard tai chi parry and punch is an example of using the three points. Don’t overdo or under-do this important technique on the heavy bag.

Tai Chi Steps For Beginners

Posted on January 14, 2024 | by Tai Chi Teacher in Ireland | Leave a Comment

This is a quick post to show how to do chi steps for beginners. I was digging through old tai chi videos on Youtube and found a good one of the great Wu style Master Wang Peisheng instructing a traditional outdoor tai chi class. In one part of the video he demonstrates Gong Bu step to his students very clearly.

I’m always trying to improve my tai chi stepping so I cut out that segment of the video and put it on a loop. I thought it might help others who may be working on the simple tai chi form so I uploaded the clip with awesome cgi edits.

Gong Bu – Mountain Climbing Stance

The weight transfer in Wu Style tai chi is like felling a large tree, it uses a lot of bowing power. This gives the Wu style its distinctive leaning posture.

Gong Bu is a basic of tai chi step for beginners

Note that the transfer of weight from the full to empty leg is like the felling of a large tree, hence the style’s slight bowing posture. This is ever so slightly different from the weight transfer in our style. If you’ve ever watched Luo transfer weight in his tai chi it seems a bit complex at first. The Wu method is similar but has less moving parts so it’s a good first step.

The Chen Pan Ling posture is straighter so instead of leaning into the weight transfer you slide onto it more like you have a swing under you bum, on top of this many of the CPL steps also include what Ed calls “pushing up off the side of the pool” at the end. The Wu-ish generation methods were an ingredient in CPL tai chi and it’s public form was made to be accessible so it is a good starting point for many things.

I’m assuming this clip is basically public domain at this point.
Full video here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOCiaDfXsCk

How to learn Tai Chi online free

Posted on January 12, 2024 | by Tai Chi Teacher in Ireland | Leave a Comment

If you want to learn tai chi online free there are considerable challenges to overcome. The good news is that not only can it be done but if you’re willing to put in extra effort you can learn tai chi online free. It’s always best to learn directly from a master but these days there are just not enough tai chi classes to meet demand. With a shortage of qualified tai chi teachers and other obstacles learning tai chi online is the best and perhaps only option for a many seekers. Whether you learn tai chi online or irl, the fact is that you must learn it from a good teacher.

Learning traditional Tai Chi Online Free

There are loads of resources available if you want to learn a short beginner Tai Chi form online. This is fine if you’re into that sort of thing. This article is for folks who want a more traditional path. There is little benefit to learning one of the modern short forms over one of the traditional forms. Learning the first quarter of one of these traditional forms is more benefitial that learning the full 24 form, even though it takes about the same amount of time. An exception to this would be the Chen Man Ching 37 form, which was not created for the same reasons as the modern 24 type forms. I recommend the Chen Pan Ling 99 form or the Yang 108 form.

To learn tai chi online free requires a considerable commitment

You will need good resources here are some videos.

Chen Jing Bao a student of Chen Pan Ling – Performing the Chen Pan Ling 99 Tai Chi Form in great detail.

Another student of Chen Pan Ling Tai Chi

Chi kung exercises for beginners

Posted on January 10, 2024 | by Tai Chi Teacher in Ireland | Leave a Comment

I’m going to start putting up videos of simple chi kung exercises for beginners. Each video will be a simple chi kung posture in a flow, each posture and flow will teach a basic beginner chi kung principle.

1st Chi kung exercise for beginners

Lift Hands posture from Tai Chi.
This teaches the chi kung principle of separate and extend to the extremities.

Lift Hands Tai Chi Posture done in a chi kung expression. The concept here is separate the crown point bai hui from the sacrum, ming men or hui yin point, depending on expression.

1st question, is it better to learn chi kung online or offline?

Posted on December 25, 2023 | by Donegal Tai Chi Class | Leave a Comment

Can you learn chi kung online? In the last 5 years there has been a massive increase numbers of folks interested learning chi kung online. This surge in public awareness of online chi kung practice largely brought about by internet video and the new demand far exceeds the number of qualified chi kung teachers. A thriving industry of online chi kung courses has popped up to capitalize on this market.

Practicing chi kung in Ireland's countryside. — Practicing chi kung should be the most offline activity of your day.

This surge of interest can only be seen as a positive but is it’s possible to learn chi kung online? These online courses come in a variety of styles, quality and cost. While learning online would seem to be a convenient solution I believe it is in fact not possible for the complete beginner to learn this art solely through a digital device.

If you really want to learn chi kung online you should reinforce that with classes in your area.

Many online qi gong courses are quite in-depth and are created by adept teachers. However in my experience learning from scratch is not going to happen online. For more advanced students who already have the fundamentals, these online courses can be of help.

What exactly is it about learning chi kung that requires study in the presence of a qualified teacher in real life? The fact is that many of the fundamentals are transmitted from teacher to student in silence. You may learn the forms of movement online but qi gong movements are just the tip of the iceberg. It is unlikely you will learn sinking chi to the dan tien, holding emptiness, let alone starting the large heavenly circle to burn off impurities.

Learn chi kung online. Just don't. — *Don’t Learn Chi Kung Online*.

Even under the traditional training method of one qi gong master teaching a small group of students learning the fundamentals is difficult. Optimally you would have a weekly chi kung class with a good teacher to make progress. Every qi gong student has specific physical, spiritual and mental differences that must be addressed individually by the chi kung teacher.

The traditional method of transmitting an authentic qi gong style requires a large investment of one on one time and effort on part of the chi kung teacher and student. This method is not a profitable business model. Again, each student has specific mental and physical considerations it is not possible to be corrected in an online qi gong course, especially a canned one with no live zoom classes.

Instead of trying to learn chi kung online, use the internet find a chi kung teacher in real life.

If you’re an aspiring chi kung student the most beneficial thing going online can do for you is locating the times and locations of a chi kung classes near you. It may very well be that googling qi gong classes near me is not going to return any results in your area but don’t get discouraged. Some traditional sources of qi gong teachers are eastern monastics, internal martial artists and acupuncture doctors. Chi kung systems are often sort of a parallel curriculum in these pursuits.

Examples of online searches that will help you learn Chi Kung.

Here are some other keyword searches you can use in your quest to learn chi kung. If you can find a real master in one of the below disciplines it’s quite likely you have also just found a chi kung teacher. Because teaching chi kung requires so much commitment you may need to stick with one of these teachers for a long time before they agree to teach you. although it may take some time to build the trust required to get them to agree to teach you chi kung.

Tai Chi Teachers in my area
Xing Yi Teachers in my area
Buddhist meditation classes near me
Yi Chuan Classes near me
Ba Duan Jin Classes near me

There are also many chi kung masters who inherited the practice from their family. If a chi kung master is a layperson they are more likely to be an engineer or business business person – with very little spare time – than a stereotypical new age guru looking to charge for course.

The chi kung seminar circuit, where an experienced teacher travels giving large seminars is also an option. It is possible to learn well this way, especially if the teacher is not yet reached the point of being so famous that his seminars have scores of attendees. Seminars taught by chi kung teachers can be especially effective if the student has already learned the fundamentals.

Here are some good teachers that I know in different countries:

Chew Yeen Lawes England

Edward Hines France

Victor Chao Michigan USA

Luo Dexiu – Tawain – One of the best remaining chi kung teachers in the world, although he doesn’t teach it much.

Golden Rooster Stands On One Leg – An Important Tai Chi Posture

Posted on December 17, 2023 | by Donegal Tai Chi Class | Leave a Comment

The idea of the golden rooster posture is to keep the peng or leverage in the raised hand and then learn to move the lower body independently from that. You put your hands in a simple autopilot defense posture when you’re practicing your tai chi kicks. The peng jin or leverage can be used to hold, block, defend or pull. Of course you can do this with two hands up, such as in the seven stars posture, but golden rooster trains the basic idea. Look at the cigarette in my hand, that is where you keep the leverage.

The resting posture at the end of the form is how you learn the full posture, it feels like you’re pulling you knee into your kua. If you assume that posture and have someone place one hand on your ming men (top of sacrum) point and then push your knee up and in you will get the feel. You can get a lot of power from moving this way. The other thing is that you are constantly feeding your weight into the rear leg. Ed had a video up on Patreon of a simple back and forth tai chi leg drill that is very good with this idea, I have it saved I might put it up here if he doesn’t have a link.

The kick in the end clip is an example of usage, if you where pulling someone in with your hands they would brace the rear leg then when it’s extended fully you can keecap it. Alternatively you can hook their front leg from behind with the kicking foot first.

It’s also a very good chi kung posture but I’m not getting into that as you are looking for the applications.

Master Fa Chan’s Zen Teaching

Posted on November 26, 2023 | by Tai Chi Teacher in Ireland | Leave a Comment

As you all know, things in life are often unsatisfactory. As a Taoist, when facing these unsatisfactory things, you must know how to let go. Once you can let go, your mood will naturally feel much better. So how to let go? it’s actually really easy. As long as you know how to let go and let go, you’ll be right. Accommodation means that when faced with these unsatisfactory situations, you must accept them happily and no longer reject or resist. Even if these unsatisfactory things make you fear, uneasy, sad, unfair, and dissatisfied, you must completely obey these unsatisfactory emotions and allow them to stay in your heart. You just need to look at them and it will be fine. After a while, They will naturally disappear without a trace! If you don’t believe it, just try it yourself. remember! Thoughts are like water in your heart, allow them to flow through your heart and don’t worry about them. If you have an attitude of rejection or resistance, it will block the flow of unsatisfactory thoughts, so why bother! This surrender and letting go is really a panacea for healing the body, mind and soul, and the effect is extremely fast. I’m afraid you don’t know how to make good use of it, that would be a real pity!
Here we introduce to you two simple and effective breathing methods. One is the Five and Ten Dantian Breathing Methods. First, sit on a chair, relax your body, and place your palms in the Dantian of your lower abdomen below your navel. Close your eyes. Breathe out through your mouth and count from one to ten. At this time, you should simultaneously retract the Dantian of the lower abdomen inward and lift the anus upward. After exhaling, breathe in through your nose and count from one to five. At this time, protrude your lower abdomen forward and relax your anus. One exhalation and one inhalation is one time, and a total of ten times is one time. It’s up to you how many times you want to do it. The second is the four-seven-eight breathing method. The method is also very simple. Sit up straight and relax. Breathe in and count from one to four. To stop breathing, count from one to seven. Then exhale and count from one to eight. This counts as one time (one breath), ten times is one time. How many times or how many times you want to practice is entirely up to you. Both of these breathing methods involve inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth. They can be practiced while sitting or lying down. The counting speed should not be too fast or too slow, just about one second per second. Both of these exercises are simple but very effective. Both of these are considered deep breathing qigong, and both are rhythmic breathing methods. Regular practice can allow the brain’s brain waves to enter the alpha wave band that is both relaxing and focused. This is very helpful for physical and mental health. It can enhance the natural self-healing power, the body’s immunity, promote the secretion of the happiness hormone ─ serotonin, and even balance the autonomic nervous system, allowing you to sleep well every night. And it will make you feel refreshed during the day! You may not know it yet, but rhythmic deep breathing is actually the best natural tranquilizer. And there are 100% no side effects. People with sleep disorders, anxiety or depression should practice these two deep breathing exercises more frequently. Moreover, it will also be of great help to ordinary people or the elderly. The basic rule is to practice easily and don’t force yourself!
Calm mind and spirit, a good recipe for health and longevity.

Master Fa Chan’s Zen Talk