Zhan Zhuang & Tai Chi Qigong Classes.
Zhan zhuang & tai chi qigong classes are available in Marin, California.
Tuesdays & Thursdays 8:00 am - 9:00 am, at Albert Park, in downtown San Rafael.
I am also looking for an indoor space to provide qigong classes in. If you have or know of a suitable, affordable space, I would love the recommendation for such.
$20 per class, or $80 per month. Cash.
Want to take classes but are low income? Ask me about reduced class fee option.
Classes include zhan zhuang embodied standing meditation.
And single & short tai chi qigong movement flows.
Grasping the birds tail sequence - ward off, roll back, press & push, is one core practice we use to develop & refine core tai chi principles.
No long, preset movement forms to memorize.
About the teacher -
I've been practicing zhan zhuang & tai chi qigong since 1989.
My first teacher was David Leung, in Eugene, Oregon.
My 2nd teacher was Fong Ha, in Berkeley & Marin, California.
Contact me with any questions, and to join classes.
[email protected]
Tuesdays & Thursdays 8:00 am - 9:00 am, at Albert Park, in downtown San Rafael.
I am also looking for an indoor space to provide qigong classes in. If you have or know of a suitable, affordable space, I would love the recommendation for such.
$20 per class, or $80 per month. Cash.
Want to take classes but are low income? Ask me about reduced class fee option.
Classes include zhan zhuang embodied standing meditation.
And single & short tai chi qigong movement flows.
Grasping the birds tail sequence - ward off, roll back, press & push, is one core practice we use to develop & refine core tai chi principles.
No long, preset movement forms to memorize.
About the teacher -
I've been practicing zhan zhuang & tai chi qigong since 1989.
My first teacher was David Leung, in Eugene, Oregon.
My 2nd teacher was Fong Ha, in Berkeley & Marin, California.
Contact me with any questions, and to join classes.
[email protected]
Consistent, attentive practice of Tai Chi Qigong and Zhan Zhuang embodied meditation arts promotes -
* comfortable embodiment,
* flow states of consciousness,
* immersion in the present moment,
* harmonious integration of our spiritual, mental, emotional & physical body, breathing, body mechanics & intention.
* agility,
* strong grounded foundational connection with & movement from earth through body,
* alignment,
* sensitivity to & harmonizing of naturally complimentary, yin - yang / male - female energies,
* power integration,
* calm focus,
* balance
* movement from center
* lithe, smooth movement
* calm, focused presence
* release excess tension
* grounded & whole body integration
* patience & appreciation
* reducing rushing & stress
* balance of relaxation & attentiveness in the present moment
* and other benefits.
Classes in Tai Chi Qigong & Zhan Zhuang, as I teach them, develop core principles of Tai Chi & Neigong primarily through the use of -
* Zhang Zhuang - standing meditations.
* Quiet mind, open heart embodied feeling awareness.
* "Silk reeling" exercises which refine focused smooth flow of consciousness & movement.
* Natural breathing regulation.
* Slow, mindfully embodied exploration of harmonizing yin & yang energies via singular & short sequence movement flows.
* Integrated / unified body movement.
* Related practices.
* comfortable embodiment,
* flow states of consciousness,
* immersion in the present moment,
* harmonious integration of our spiritual, mental, emotional & physical body, breathing, body mechanics & intention.
* agility,
* strong grounded foundational connection with & movement from earth through body,
* alignment,
* sensitivity to & harmonizing of naturally complimentary, yin - yang / male - female energies,
* power integration,
* calm focus,
* balance
* movement from center
* lithe, smooth movement
* calm, focused presence
* release excess tension
* grounded & whole body integration
* patience & appreciation
* reducing rushing & stress
* balance of relaxation & attentiveness in the present moment
* and other benefits.
Classes in Tai Chi Qigong & Zhan Zhuang, as I teach them, develop core principles of Tai Chi & Neigong primarily through the use of -
* Zhang Zhuang - standing meditations.
* Quiet mind, open heart embodied feeling awareness.
* "Silk reeling" exercises which refine focused smooth flow of consciousness & movement.
* Natural breathing regulation.
* Slow, mindfully embodied exploration of harmonizing yin & yang energies via singular & short sequence movement flows.
* Integrated / unified body movement.
* Related practices.
On-site zhan zhuang & tai chi qigong classes.
$90 per hour for qigong classes held on-site at your location.
An embodied meditation process to enrich quality of being.
A simple meditative process which nourishes calm, clear embodying awareness.
Standing with a balanced posture, weight distributed evenly on both feet, the natural curves in spine supporting a balanced upright & resilient alignment. Allowing the rib-cage to freely expand and relax, enabling natural deep, slow inhaling and exhaling of life sustaining air - life energy.
Honing awareness by focusing on - imagining pure white light Life energy flowing into and through your entire body. Flowing through the earth and your body, and through all space.
If mental noise arises, be unattached and continue focusing instead on kinesthetic feeling awareness of what can be described as nourishing, loving awareness. A naturally harmonious & harmonizing energy. Simultaneously deeply relaxing, and calmly vitalizing.
With this persistent feeling awareness, allow it to permeate your whole being.
Softening areas of excess tension & stress. Melting away anxiety, worry and other disharmony inducing thoughts & feelings. Transforming your embodying being into deepening pure, loving, honest feeling awareness.
Be persistently focused.
Not straining. Simply honestly, appreciatively focused here and now.
In being & doing this process, awareness of how ones choice of focus, imagination, perspectives effects our feelings & overall reality, becomes refreshingly apparent. More obvious. And thereby also more in our locus of control.
We can not, nor should we generally attempt to, control other people. But we are meant to control, to guide, to perpetually create, our own individualizing universal consciousness. Ideally in healthy, honest, loving & harmonious ways. Creating our "self". Even as we enrich our perception & union with what can be termed universal awareness, existence, Beingness, all that is, the Tao, Love, Truth, etc..
Feel your body comfortably rooting deeply with the core of the earth.
Softening hard shell of separation that may calcify around the heart region, allow the warmth of deepening appreciation for the inherent beauty, grace & Love of existence to permeate your whole embodying being. Feeling fully the fact of ones own, and humanities, unity with the goodness of Life. Let it dissolve any resistance to such, evaporating suffocating layers of dishonesty, hate, negative projections & assumptions, hypocrisy and related shadow attitudes.
The more persistently & fully we focus our embodying mind & heart with relaxed yet attentive honest, grateful presence, the more we feel & embody natural harmony, truth, love & healthy enjoyment of the simple yet profound nature of being alive. Of being humanizing spirits. Of being.
No need for anything fancy, boisterous or showy to feel & be fulfilling.
Refreshing & honing awareness of the immense richness found & expressed in calmly enjoying even what could be considered mundane.
Such as the gentle cooperation of intercostal, diaphragm and other breathing related muscles with the bony rib cage, faithfully contracting & relaxing in a life-sustaining rhythm together. Relative softness & firmness harmonizing in a mutually enriching dance together. Their loyal relating in synergy with each other likewise ripples & radiates enrichment through the rest of our being and beyond.
As too does the gravitational power of the moon circling faithful arcs around the earth, create waves of luminescent attraction reflected in the pulsing heaves & relaxing sighs of earth bound water.
Feel this deep in your cells. Allow your whole body to feel, to soak in and resonate with these qualities.
Pure clear heartful & harmonious awareness.
Allow yourself to retain & regeneratively nourish this natural feeling regard through your daily living as well.
Tai Chi Qigong & Zhan Zhuang is enriching for young, middle age and elderly adults.
A common misconception about Tai Chi qigong & zhan zhuang I've noticed many people have is that it's just for elderly people. Unfortunately that assumption deters many people from engaging these practices - ways of embodied meditation until they are nearing the end of their life.
Many people practice and teach Tai Chi in a super casual way. Just repeating long preset forms & focus on preventing falls for elderly people. There is nothing wrong with that, if that is what someone wants.
However these arts can also be practiced & taught with lower postures, longer zhan zhuang standing meditations, focused slower short movement flows to hone focus, foundational strength & principles.
Rather than repeating the same long preset forms over & over like a musician who just plays a cover of someone else's song repeatedly.
I began practicing these arts at age 17, and will continue engaging them consistently until I transition out of my body.
So for anyone from late teenage years on up in age, these arts can be positively challenging, enriching and worthwhile.
Many people practice and teach Tai Chi in a super casual way. Just repeating long preset forms & focus on preventing falls for elderly people. There is nothing wrong with that, if that is what someone wants.
However these arts can also be practiced & taught with lower postures, longer zhan zhuang standing meditations, focused slower short movement flows to hone focus, foundational strength & principles.
Rather than repeating the same long preset forms over & over like a musician who just plays a cover of someone else's song repeatedly.
I began practicing these arts at age 17, and will continue engaging them consistently until I transition out of my body.
So for anyone from late teenage years on up in age, these arts can be positively challenging, enriching and worthwhile.
" True listening is another way of bringing stillness into the relationship. When you truly listen to someone, the dimension of stillness arises and becomes an essential part of the relationship.
But true listening is a rare skill.
Usually, the greater part of a person’s attention is taken up by their thinking. At best, they may be evaluating your words or preparing the next thing to say. Or they may not be listening at all, lost in their own thoughts. "
Eckhart Tolle
Ultimately Zhan Zhuang and Tai Chi Qigong are gently nourishing ways
of experiencing & exploring our embodying consciousness.
Attuning to the quietly spacious feeling awareness of wuji - emptiness realm of being.
Cultivated & enjoyed in the stillness of zhan zhuang standing meditation.
And from this source, also experiencing & exploring the Tai Chi realms
which express and are experienced through balance & interplay of complementary aspects of being.
Cultivated & enjoyed in the movement of tai chi qigong.
Also symbolized as yin & yang. Male and female. Inner and manifest. Etc.
There is a natural energetic resonance of yin energy for beings born in female bodies.
Just as there is a natural energetic resonance of yang energy for beings born in male bodies.
Both energies are equally essential, natural and vital to harmonious existence in this world.
Both have their healthy, honest and loving expressions.
And both have their unhealthy, misleading passive aggressively & directly dishonest & unloving expressions.
And both yin & yang are enriching & complimentary with each other when mutually honest & appreciative.
Standing meditation & tai chi qigong moving practices can be beautifully nurturing and challenging.
These postures & movements are not as acrobatic in a sense as some yoga postures, calisthenics, etc.,
such as practices with one leg raised above ones head, inverted, hand standing, etc..
Yet there are unique & complimentary types of meditative, challenging & health promoting
qualities available in consistent, appreciative tai chi qigong & zhan zhuang practice.
Approaching these practices from more more than just a physical & external movement focus is important.
Engaging being & practicing consistently with an honest, appreciatively focused, quietly heartful awareness is key
to enjoying & benefiting from these seemingly simple qigong practices.
Long, pre-arranged forms or narrowly structured ideas of energy flow
through a multitude of meridian pathways
common to some systems of practice are not emphasized.
Rather, fundamental principles of harmonious embodiment,
movement, awareness and energy cultivation are explored, experienced & nurtured
through the practices of standing meditations,
aware abiding in ones' center, "silk reeling" exercises promoting smoothness of flow,
stance training & related practices.
Classes typically focus on opening into zhan zhuang for a core duration of class.
And focused exploring & deepening into one or just a few movements in order to deepen
experiential feeling embodiment of principles inherent within any movement.
Although it is an equally valid way of practicing & teaching these arts,
the classes I teach do not focus on long, prearranged forms.
While it may feel uncomfortably challenging, boring or externally simple initially
or with only minimal or irregular practice according to ones' interpretation,
spending focused time opening & relaxing into embodying wuji & tai chi principles
through zhan zhuang and single and short sequence flows allows for a deepening of presence in the present.
This also supports feeling & transforming layers of assumptions, biases & tension inducing inner noise.
Allowing us to embody honestly in the present. While open heartedly attuning to our mystical,
individuating, kindred & creatively exploratory soul & unitive consciousness.
Competitive perspectives about ones abilities, progress or "mastery" of the art in form or function
are not relevant to these arts and classes, as I practice and teach them.
To worry or compare where we believe or are told others are,
relative to ones' own being in the present moment
are distractions. It is not a competition.
The focus of these practices is simply on relaxing into &
nourishing ones' own being & life in the eternal now.
Being & relating with appreciation, love, honesty, healthy exploratory growth and harmony.
of experiencing & exploring our embodying consciousness.
Attuning to the quietly spacious feeling awareness of wuji - emptiness realm of being.
Cultivated & enjoyed in the stillness of zhan zhuang standing meditation.
And from this source, also experiencing & exploring the Tai Chi realms
which express and are experienced through balance & interplay of complementary aspects of being.
Cultivated & enjoyed in the movement of tai chi qigong.
Also symbolized as yin & yang. Male and female. Inner and manifest. Etc.
There is a natural energetic resonance of yin energy for beings born in female bodies.
Just as there is a natural energetic resonance of yang energy for beings born in male bodies.
Both energies are equally essential, natural and vital to harmonious existence in this world.
Both have their healthy, honest and loving expressions.
And both have their unhealthy, misleading passive aggressively & directly dishonest & unloving expressions.
And both yin & yang are enriching & complimentary with each other when mutually honest & appreciative.
Standing meditation & tai chi qigong moving practices can be beautifully nurturing and challenging.
These postures & movements are not as acrobatic in a sense as some yoga postures, calisthenics, etc.,
such as practices with one leg raised above ones head, inverted, hand standing, etc..
Yet there are unique & complimentary types of meditative, challenging & health promoting
qualities available in consistent, appreciative tai chi qigong & zhan zhuang practice.
Approaching these practices from more more than just a physical & external movement focus is important.
Engaging being & practicing consistently with an honest, appreciatively focused, quietly heartful awareness is key
to enjoying & benefiting from these seemingly simple qigong practices.
Long, pre-arranged forms or narrowly structured ideas of energy flow
through a multitude of meridian pathways
common to some systems of practice are not emphasized.
Rather, fundamental principles of harmonious embodiment,
movement, awareness and energy cultivation are explored, experienced & nurtured
through the practices of standing meditations,
aware abiding in ones' center, "silk reeling" exercises promoting smoothness of flow,
stance training & related practices.
Classes typically focus on opening into zhan zhuang for a core duration of class.
And focused exploring & deepening into one or just a few movements in order to deepen
experiential feeling embodiment of principles inherent within any movement.
Although it is an equally valid way of practicing & teaching these arts,
the classes I teach do not focus on long, prearranged forms.
While it may feel uncomfortably challenging, boring or externally simple initially
or with only minimal or irregular practice according to ones' interpretation,
spending focused time opening & relaxing into embodying wuji & tai chi principles
through zhan zhuang and single and short sequence flows allows for a deepening of presence in the present.
This also supports feeling & transforming layers of assumptions, biases & tension inducing inner noise.
Allowing us to embody honestly in the present. While open heartedly attuning to our mystical,
individuating, kindred & creatively exploratory soul & unitive consciousness.
Competitive perspectives about ones abilities, progress or "mastery" of the art in form or function
are not relevant to these arts and classes, as I practice and teach them.
To worry or compare where we believe or are told others are,
relative to ones' own being in the present moment
are distractions. It is not a competition.
The focus of these practices is simply on relaxing into &
nourishing ones' own being & life in the eternal now.
Being & relating with appreciation, love, honesty, healthy exploratory growth and harmony.