Tag: neigong

Tao Te Ching ExplainedLeave a comment

A Good Walker Leaves No Tracks

Steve Rowe

Explanation of Tao Te Ching Part Twenty Seven: A good walker leaves no tracks;A good speaker makes no slips;A good reckoner needs no tally.A good door needs no lock,Yet no one can open it.Good binding requires no knots,Yet no one can loosen it.” To remain at one with the universe is a skill like any other. It takes practice and consistency. Once found it requires skill to maintain it. The Buddha said that once a house is built it’s important to keep the roof in good repair. “Therefore the sage takes care of all menAnd abandons no one.He takes care … Continue reading A Good Walker Leaves No Tracks

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The 5 Standing Postures

Steve Rowe

Zhan Zhuang, the 5 Standing Postures There is lower and upper yin, lower and upper yang and neutral. In my system they play an important role, they train:BreathingPostureMental awarenessFocusSensitivityIntensityLeft and right harmonyUpper and lower body harmonyHow to use these skills to move energy around the bodyHow to use emotion to colour energyDifference between yin and yang energy Being sensitive and skilful with energy means that we don’t just stand for long periods but as the energy ‘peaks’ in each position we transition to another as this is what happens all the way through the Tai Chi form and when push … Continue reading The 5 Standing Postures

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The Base Layer Of Learning

Steve Rowe

One of the things that came out on the seminar yesterday was the importance of the structure of learning, putting in the important base layers right from the start. We all advertise and discuss the importance of character training in the martial arts and yet many don’t teach how to educate and alchemise the character and only make vague references to it. We should look to the teacher and their senior students to see how the training system has worked for them. The most important base layer is emotional intelligence, as an angry or frightened martial artist is a danger … Continue reading The Base Layer Of Learning

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Tai Chi Is Simple And Easy

Steve Rowe

Tai Chi is ‘simple and easy’, it’s only one thing that we view through many different windows to increase our understanding. The first aware breath you take in neigong makes you better than you were before you took it. Your first lesson where you’re taught to ‘stand tall, breathe deep and focus your mind’ makes you better than before you attended. It makes you feel better, healthier, more happy and positive. From that point on you can only improve these skills. Always practice with an inner smile knowing that you can only get better. It takes years to ‘master’ musical … Continue reading Tai Chi Is Simple And Easy

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Fingers & Thumbs In Tai Chi

Steve Rowe

Carrying on from my posts on cupping and flattening the palms of the hands to pump the energy and the power of mudras to manipulate it on discharge I thought I’d do a post on fingers and thumbs as they manipulate both. All these posts are on my blog. The thumb controls a large part of the hand and the ‘tiger’s mouth’ (the area between thumb and forefinger) and is used extensively for trapping and guiding the opponent. The forefinger ‘points’ and directs the hand and energy also stretching to work the other part of the tiger’s mouth. The middle … Continue reading Fingers & Thumbs In Tai Chi

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Tai Chi Teachers

Steve Rowe

When someone spends ages telling us what taiji/qi/neigong/qigong isn’t, I’m waiting for them to tell me what it is. When they’re telling us that we’re all ignorant and don’t understand and only they do, my spidey senses are alerted. When we’re told that you have to spend years to understand and train it I can definitely smell snake oil. Whatever art or system you train in after your first session you’ll be better than you were before it. Then you build your skills as the days, weeks, months and years go by, exactly the same as if you were learning … Continue reading Tai Chi Teachers

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Semantic Satiation In Tai Chi

Steve Rowe

Semantic satiation is when you’ve repeated a word many times and it loses its meaning and becomes just a sound, this can also happen with tai chi techniques. You’re practising your form day after day, month after month and year after year, the form has become a moving meditation, suddenly that technique that you’ve done so many times feels wrong. This is how when your mind and movement have gone from ‘absorption’ to ‘insight’, the conditions are right for these insights to arise. Your mind is receiving messages from the body to tell you ‘this isn’t right’ and that it … Continue reading Semantic Satiation In Tai Chi

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Body Intelligence

Steve Rowe

Body IntelligenceThe more we train, the more get to realise and utilise this skill. The mindfulness aspect of training means that as we develop good posture and deep breathing: Our body calms down,Then our emotions calm down,Finally our mind calms down and becomes more aware, focused, sensitive and intense. This means that instead of trying to train subjectively and having to take instruction, as we’ve been indoctrinated to do with the desire to ‘become’ something, our new state of being is able to observe objectively to see and feel what is actually going on. This unified state of inner calm … Continue reading Body Intelligence

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Qigong In Plain English

Steve Rowe

From this morning’s training –Insights couched in analogies and plain English (my skill). Think of the ‘arches’ of the feet and the palms of the hands as like sink plungers ‘sucking and blowing’ energy when everything is connected through the body with the bows in the jointed parts storing and releasing the energy to and from them. The energy is ‘coloured’ and intensified by emotion and intention like releasing a morning stretch and shivering at the spine sending and bouncing pinballs like in a pinball machine. If you get this, our minds work in a similar way and our training … Continue reading Qigong In Plain English

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My Day’s Training Schedule

Steve Rowe

I always start my Tai Chi coaching sessions by asking the students how they’re getting on with their training programme, any questions, any problems or any comments, and it helps me to shape the day’s study. I thought over the next few days I might share some of the most common thoughts. One of the most common comments is ‘I’ve been concentrating on one particular form or part of it’. The problem is that while they are doing this the other forms and skills slide. I practice everything in the syllabus every day, in the morning I’ll meditate, do the … Continue reading My Day’s Training Schedule