Posts
One of
the things I've done since attending a Master Guo Jun (Chan/Zen) retreat at the
Hermitage on Denman Island is to change the format of the tai chi class. There is still the two person practice of push hands but
for teaching the form, I've started a 'counting the breath/counting the movement' practice. So rather than 'single whip’, the name of the form transforms to a
mindful routine of 1012-1013-1014-1015, the number sequence evident if all the
movements were numbered from the first movement of raising the arms in the first form and where each movement is a movement breakdown of the
term 'single whip'.
And rather than teach the left side then the right side
form, I now teach a sequence movement to the left, back to center, then a
mirror movement sequence to the right. It is kind of fun to practice…and
extremely disconcerting when the thousand-and fortieth movement on the right does is not the same as the thousand-and-forty-first movement as the initial left side
movement. Hmmm? What movement did I add? Where about in the sequence did I
lose my mindfulness? Also the breathing attached to the movement is a
return to earlier teachers' methods in tai chi where the breath and the movement are synchronized.
Now the breath, the movement and the mind will be sequenced.
The
principle that now underpins the form will now be in Master Guo Jun’s words, “relax,
return and reconcile”.
In
added weeks, as a complement to tai chi form and push hands, there will be more specific lessons in relaxation techniques. Still too many of us are
chest breathers rather than belly breathers; too many of us are carrying the
physical/emotional barriers of previous moments and still all of us need to
reflect and then act upon the connection between our body, our mind and the practice
of tai chi.
How do
we move from the conceptual demand to “JUST RELAX” to a real embodied relaxed
body and mind, and after much, much, much more practice, the resting state, a state of profound relaxation described by both Tibetan and Chan Buddhists?
Well,
that’s why we’re here at Lewis Park, to just practice.
So Welcome. And you can check out a Chan Master Guo Jun Fashi talk at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlAdShz6XbU&feature=relmfu
