Warming Up for Tai Chi
I remember being at school in the 80’s and for the first minute or so of our PE lesson we’d do the warm up. It was a case of the teacher shouting something along the lines of, “Okay boys, touch your toes… now you’re good to go!” I would hope …
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Everyone Should Practice Qigong
I believe that everyone should do qigong. Young, old, and everyone in between. It’s the perfect activity and here I offer three all encompassing reasons why: Mind “You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realise this and you will find strength” Marcus Aurelius, Meditations. Whilst social …
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Three Treasures
In my late teens I spent a few months working in a book warehouse, saving up to go away on another travelling adventure. I wasn’t interested in much else at that age, other than books, so compared to some other mind numbing temporary jobs I had grafted away at in …
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On Emptiness
Emptiness Emptiness is a core theme throughout the Tao Te Ching, it is the eternal and inexhaustible wellspring from which everything is derived. In Taoism, emptiness (Wuji) is represented by a circle. From Wuji the Taiji is derived and the polarities of Yin and Yang come into being. …
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Martial Arts for Stress, Balance, and Happiness
During the 15 years that I had a career in the corporate world, I was often asked how I was able to not display signs of stress when everything seemed to be going wrong – as it very often does when you work in IT! My standard answer was, …
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Eight Pieces of Brocade Qigong
One of the oldest and most famous of all qigong sequences is ‘Ba Duan Jin’, or ‘Eight Pieces of Brocade’, also known as ‘Eight Treasures’. Visit parks across China in the mornings and you’ll see individuals or groups practicing a variation of the form which has been passed down and …
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Martial Qigong
Welcome to another edition of the weekly White Crane Online blog. Over the past few weeks we have been exploring topics in and around the theme of Taoism. Last week I introduced the core concept of Qi (if you missed it, you might want to read it here first) and …
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Qi
Teacher: ‘Well done today everyone, great class! Does anyone have any questions?’ Student: ‘Yes, I was wondering, what is Qi?’ Teacher: ‘Good question. Have you seen Star Wars?’ Student: ‘Yes.’ Teacher: ‘It’s The Force.’ Being a man, and tai chi instructor, of a certain age there are two cultural …
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The 5 Elements
The previous two blog posts in this Taoism series have explained the concepts of Wuji, and Yin-Yang. Respectively the unseen, unfathomable void from which all existence springs (Wuji), and the duality of natural phenomena which gives it its definition (Yin-Yang). Our next step in our journey of understanding Chinese thought …
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