Taoist Sanctuary

Jan Silberstorff is with us this weekend. Jan is a brilliant scholar of Chinese martial history and the art of taijiquan, and brings a rare quality and thoughtfulness to his teachings. Our seminar is focused on the principles of Chen style taijiquan, using the “road map” of the Taiji diagram to explain the movement patterns

Part of our discussion revolved around the evolution of both the art of taijiquan and the methods of teaching, The taijiquan of today is becoming different than that of the previous generations, and contemporary teachers are advancing their own style and purpose for their practice, which greatly impacts what they pass on to the next generations. This evolution is normal, but it is critical that the essence of the art not be left out of this evolution. if the original principles are not fully understood, followed and taught, there is risk that the future taijiquan will no longer be the original art of the creators and ancestors. How can we, as current teachers and students, prevent this loss? Wu de, or martial virtue, describes the relationship between a teacher and student. Sometimes it’s mistakenly interpreted as how the student should serve the teacher. This would be seen with the student who helps prepare the school for classes and makes sure the teacher’s teacup is always full. Actually, wu de is better understood as a way to preserve the principles of taijiquan. In order to pass on the teachings of the art, there must be a strong and long lasting relationship between teacher and student. The student needs to be taught the art as a whole entity, and time is needed to integrate the principles and develop the skill so that the student can later pass on the art to their own students. The relationship should not be about how the student treats the teacher, but instead should be about respecting the principles and tenets of the Chen family art of taijiquan, and committing to a relationship that will foster the understanding and seeding of the art.

First, a few announcements!

The Sanctuary will be closed between December 24 and December 31 for the holidays. On New Year’s Day we will gather at 9am for our traditional NYD flow on Coronado Island at 100 Ocean Drive. Please join us! All are welcome.

We just finished another wonderful seminar with David Gaffney and Davidine Sim. These two skilled teachers and practitioners of Chen style taijiquan delivered a valuable 5 days of classes on the practical theory of taijiquan, push hands, and the practice of several forms including erlu, yilu and spear.

David and Davidine have a way of distilling this complicated art down to the most efficient and effective methods of moving. There is no wasted effort, and each move is martially motivated. Like the lessons of our teacher Grandmaster Chen Xiaoxing, the primary tenets of relaxation and alignment are emphasized by David and Davidine. Preparing correctly for each move, then moving from the dantian ensures the best chance for expressing the true nature of the Chen family art.

David and Davidine’s lecture covered information in their latest book, Masters and Methods. Because of their relationships with many of the primary members of the Chen family, they have been able to document stories and thoughts of the Chen style masters who are the last living masters of their generation. Chen style is changing. The younger generations are bringing a different flavor to the forms, perhaps because the genesis of their form comes from a different world as that of their forefathers. It’s so important to be able to carry forward the circumstances of the birth of this art, and David and Davidine have done their part to bring this information to all of us. Now it’s up to us to continue passing it on to the next generations of our own students.

I hope that everyone has a happy holiday season! We hope to see you on January 1st, 2020 at 100 Ocean Drive on Coronado Island, 9am, and then at the Taoist Sanctuary for our winter term.

Jan Silberstorff will be teaching January 23-26 on the Taoist philosophy, laojia yilu, push hands and seated meditation.

Ken Cohen has several classes scheduled in January and March on the Tao Te Ching and Yi Quan Qi Gong.

Bill is doing a February series on Chuang Tzu and Taoist Philosophy.

Stefan Berwick will return in June 2020 to teach long pole and sword techniques.

And I will be walking the Camino de Santiago from mid-April until the end of May, taking 40 days to complete the 500 mile pilgrimage from Saint Jean Pied de Port, France to Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

We just completed a wonderful 5 day workshop with Coach Chen Ziqiang, chief instructor at the Chenjiagou village school. We’ve studied weapons with Coach Chen for several years now, and each workshop brings more refinement and new levels of understanding.

His main focus is always to learn and master the basics, because the forms are nothing more than different applications of these basics. We worked on double broadsword, eyebrow staff, and spear. A common theme - keep the weapon close to the body. The further away you push your weapon, the less strength available to use. Another common theme - the more complex the movement, the more difficult it becomes to retain that basic tenet.

Our workshop was composed of students of all levels, with several teachers in the group. Coach Chen adjusted his teaching style for each student, and was able to offer each of us our own challenges. I came away with lots of nuggets of information and deeper ways to understand the forms I practice. I also leave these workshops with the realization that taijiquan is so deep, so layered, and so complex that it will give me many more years of work to do, even with the 25+ years that I have already practiced.

More great teachers are coming this winter! David Gaffney and Davidine Sim will be here in early December, and Jan Silberstorff will come in late January. Don’t miss these opportunities to study with some of the greatest taijiquan practitioners of our generation! Find more details here.

We had quite the treat this morning! There is a big national competition in town at the stadium. It’s not a taiji competition, but the opening ceremony featured taiji demonstrations from the local schools. Our teacher GM Chen Xiaoxing led a group of 50 players in a beautiful performance of Chen style taiji, doing a demo form that combines elements of laojia and xinjia, and yilu and erlu. We marched to the stadium with the performers, which ended up being sort of like a second line march. People were taking pictures of us all and grabbing stealth shots next to our teacher. The performance was amazing and made us all really proud to be a part of this school. After the demo, we returned to the school for our usual morning class. 

We were asked to have lunch with our teacher and his sons and daughter and all of the performers at a local restaurant. It was celebratory as this was apparently a big demonstration opportunity. There was lots of toasting and alcohol and some interesting food, then it was nap time. 

Class is in a room with fans today. The mail hall is too hot. The temperature today got up to 101. We are all feeling it - drinking lots of water and being given watermelon by our teacher on all the breaks. Training is good - our joints and muscles are all supple and loose. 

Day one is done! We are working our way through Laojia yilu with Grandmaster Chen Xiaoxing. The format is familiar. He shows us the moves, flows with us a few times, takes questions, then we practice. I love his demonstrations. He demonstrates four times allowing us to focus on different things each time. I watch his dan tian, his hands, his chest, his eyes. I also love to watch him correct students. He sees everything and sometimes he uses his hands and his breath to guide people through the movements. When you are being corrected in this manner, there is no need for a translator. It’s all completely clear. If only we could do it ourselves!

The heat is relentless and I am struggling. I’ve never done well in the heat and here is no exception. The highs projected for the rest of our trip will top 100 degrees. The Wednesday breezes were a fond memory yesterday. It was still and humid. We were indoors - not sure which is better, in or out. With no breeze it didn’t matter. The kids were outside doing their workouts all day - running, jumping, sparring. They are better adapted than me, apparently. We decided to do the 30 minute standing only in the morning because people are pretty wiped out after, leaving little energy for the form. Between the heat of the day and the heat generated from the standing… we could have fried some eggs. The irony is that at night we are cold under the air conditioning. At least there is that!

Good morning from Chenjiagou!

We arrived in the village after a nice drive out of Zhengzhou, through the countryside, and across the Yellow River. A big change - all along the way there are signs showing the way to “Chenjiagou, Birthplace of Taijiquan”. We navigated our way to our dorms at Chen Ziqiang’s school with a little help from a scooter escort and a talented bus driver who backed through an alley only taking out a small branch of a tree. We got all checked in, tested the AC and got on the wifi (priorities!). We got our WeChat group organized for group comms and headed for lunch.

Most of our meals will be in Chen Ziqiang’s school. The food is excellent. There are lots of choices, fresh vegetables nicely spiced and flavored, rice, and everything is plentiful and filling. After lunch we walked to the main school where we will do our training. We visited with Grandmaster Chen Xiaoxing and had a warm welcome with tea and apples. We arranged our curriculum and schedule then it was off to afternoon training!

Let me say here that we really got a break with the weather yesterday. It was in the 80s, breezy and overcast with occasional drizzle. The school isn’t air conditioned, and the occasional breezes that came through the windows were most welcome. We started right away with 30 minutes of standing followed by 30 minutes of reeling silk. The standing was different for me this time. I vibrated and shook and sweated like never before, and I guess I was releasing all of the years of work tension, truly feeling my retirement. I never had any pain or muscle cramps, but never stopped shaking the whole 30 minutes. I didn’t see the others but during the break heard of similar experiences. Something about the qi here…

The corrections by Grandmaster CXX are always amazing. He has the ability to show you a depth you can’t achieve on your own, and for that we keep coming back. He is so generous, clear and unrelenting when he’s teaching - such a valuable experience. Being so fully in one’s body is not something available to most of us during our every day lives, and being able to stand like this, on the ground of the Chen family ancestors, mingling our qi with theirs, is an experience I will always treasure.

Bill and I were interviewed by a Wenxian television station during the latter part of the training. We were taken to the museum and temple grounds by CZQ’s younger son who acted as our translator. He just graduated from high school last month so this was a chance for him to practice his English. The interviewer asked us questions about how we got into Taijiquan, our daily practice, how it’s affected our lives, and information about our school. They filmed us doing some taiji in front of the statues and the museum. I don’t know if we will see this interview, but it was fun to participate!

After training, we were treated to a wonderful dinner with CZQ along with the Argentines who are also here training. We all piled into two large tuktuk vehicles and sped down the road at 2-3 mph to the outdoor restaurant. We had great food, beer, soda and orange juice under the stars (artificial stars strung up above us but still.). We were showered and in bed by 9pm.

I am honored to be here training with Grandmaster Chen Xiaoxing. Someday these masters will be gone, and we are so lucky to have had these opportunities to study with them over the last 20 years. I will soak it all in over the next few days!

We made it to Zhengzhou! The flights are longer, the airport walks more endless, the planes smaller each year I take this trip. The thought creeps quickly into my inner dialogue - “...not coming back...”. The first 6 hours on the plane are the hardest, the time I’m sleeping, paradoxically. I worry about a DVT so even through my Ambien haze I move my feet, do ankle pumps, change my position. Then, there is the first cup of coffee around 7am my time, 10pm China time. Slowly things improve, especially after that delicious bowl of noodles at the Beijing airport, and a great dinner in Zhengzhou.

We collected our group all along the way. We are complete now, a group of 12. Some had challenges along the way, but there has never been a China trip without challenges! It’s part of the deal. Tomorrow we’re heading for Chenjiagou after our ritual breakfast at the Sofitel, and in the afternoon we’ll start our training. I’m really looking forward to settling into some deep Laojia Yilu with Chen Xiaoxing.

Bill and I are leaving tomorrow evening for China. Classes will continue as usual with the following exception:

Saturday morning broadsword class 9:30am will not meet until I return on August 03

Otherwise the most excellent substitute teachers will hold down the fort! We’ll be posting as we are able, so check the blog here and on facebook!

In 9 days, we will be winging our way to Chenjiagou to study with our teacher, Grandmaster Chen Xiaoxing. This is always a pilgrimage of sorts. We will arrive in Zhengzhou on the 16 with significant jet lag, and will recover from this with one night in a luxury hotel before going to the village for our training. I’m already looking forward to the breakfast buffet that will boost us up for the rigorous training!

We are taking 10 students with us. Some have been with us before and some have never been to China at all. We’re doing 6 days in the village then some tourist activities, including the Longmen Grottos, the Great Wall, Olympic Park, the 798 Art District, and the silk factory.

Bill and I recently taught a master class on weight shifting in the form. The principle of “sinking” into one side before shifting to the other side was the emphasis of the lesson. Correct transitions between moves are more difficult than settling into the correct posture. In the beginning classes, postures are emphasized so that students can learn alignment and active relaxation in a stance. Hands on adjustments can help the student achieve this. When moving between postures, the student is often unable to maintain the principles and the strength and power are lost. This is a more advanced skill.

The key to correct movement is to be correct before moving. Slow practice helps the student to carry the principles through the transitions. Focusing on leveling the hips, pushing and pulling from the feet, and engaging the hamstrings all facilitate staying strong while changing the weight.

I love taiji as a metaphor for life. I am about to make a big “weight shift” for myself. Before I retire, I am doing a great deal of preparation to make sure that I am stable before this change. I need to be stable mentally, financially, and physically so that I don’t lose my alignment during my shift. Sometimes people who retire lose their way, and have trouble finding meaning in life after their career is finished. I am taking the lessons I’ve learned from my decades of taiji practice, and applying them to this life change. All of life’s lessons can be found in the principles of the form, according to our teacher Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang. As I move into this next phase, I will be aligned and relaxed, and I will then be able to find correctness in my next posture.

I will begin offering private lessons at the Taoist Sanctuary starting in August. I am excited to return to teaching and sharing my understanding of this amazing art that has shaped my life.

We at the Taoist Sanctuary would like to wish everyone happy holidays and a safe New Year! We will be closed from December 24th - January 1st, and will return to classes on January 2nd.

There's good news and there's bad news. Over the last year, my taiji practice has decreased significantly. By that I mean I spend less time doing forms. That's the bad news. The good news? Taiji has given me such wonderful tools for living my life that I am able to continuously apply these lessons to all sorts of situations, even when I'm not actually practicing forms. 

My job takes a lot of my time and energy. On some days, the work is so demanding that I just want to go home and decompress in a quiet people-free environment. At the beginning of these days, I typically think "oh, I'll go to class tonight!". As the day goes on, that thought recedes into the back of my mind, replaced with "boy I can't wait to go home and put my feet up". I could go to class anyway, but honestly, I know myself well enough to know what I need, when I need it, and my way of recharging is to rest quietly. I am happy when I take the time during lunch to go through the forms - those times are precious to me. I am sad some days about these circumstances, but it is what it is, for now. It won't always be this way and I look forward to returning to regular evening classes. 

What I have found is that I think about taiji a lot anyway. I think about centering, deflecting, yielding, looking for openings, flowing through rocks like water. Everything I do uses taiji principles. These principles have served me well over the years. I will never forget one of the most important things Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang said to me - "Taijiquan teaches me how to behave". 

I'm not suggesting you don't go to class. You should go to class when you can, and practice when you can. If you don't have as much time to practice as you would like, think about the principles and how to use them in your daily life. And if you practice forms a lot, and don't understand what I'm talking about in this blog, spend some time thinking about the principles that your teacher is teaching you, and open the door to a new way to behave. 

2016 was an event filled year, was it not? I think most everyone is hopeful for a year of rest after all of the excitement. Everything cycles, what goes up comes down, what goes down comes up. The one constant in our lives can be our practice. Use your taiji and qi gong to get grounded, to get back into your body, and to practice moving with intention. 

We have some great seminars coming up this winter! Stephan Berwick will be here at the end of January, Ken Cohen returns for a series of seminars on Taoism and Qi Gong, and Grandmaster Chen Xiaoxing will be here in March. Bill Helm is also doing a seminar on Traditional Chinese Medicine and Taijiquan in February. 

This summer in August we will be heading to Germany for a Taiji camp with Grandmaster Chen Xiaoxing and Master Chen Ziqiang. Send us a message if you are interested in this amazing opportunity in the German countryside. 

Finally, thanks for your patience while we transitioned our website to a new venue - Squarespace! Let us know if you find a missing link and we will get it fixed.