Lineage: …Yang Cheng Fu…Cheng Man Ching… Huang Sheng Shyan…Patrick Kelly….
Our training is designed to effect permanent positive changes in the body and mind that are brought into our every day life.
Through learning to perceive the internal sensations of the body, awareness arises of habitual unnecessary tension. Relaxation and alignment allow free, smooth, flowing ease of movement to develop.
Tai Chi focuses on the internal sensations of: the joint movements, the muscle states, heat, pressure and naturally occurring forces to provide information on the internal condition of our body.
Through the use of concentration on the breath, and quietly focused awareness and intention, the mind is drawn into a deepened more settled state.
The profound benefit of this practice is reflected in our daily life as we become aware that we are responding to all aspects of our life, even unexpected circumstances and stresses, with greater calm, acceptance and equanimity.
5 Loosening Exercises of Master Huang Sheng Shyan
The choreography of the loosening exercises is uncomplicated.
Repetition of these basic movements with the focus on the internal sensations in the body, form the basis of a comprehensive deepening of practice and understanding.
Moving the mind through the body develops intention.
Listening in the right place, at the right time, with a specific focus, develops and refines intention and awareness.
Each exercise trains different aspects of movement: lifting, sinking, turning, spirals and circles, and explores the key concepts inherent in releasing, aligning, substantiality, insubstantiality, timing, pressures and forces.
37 Movement Cheng Man Ching Short Form
Having learned the more complex and dynamic choreography of the form, we begin to apply the internal awareness of sensation developed in the 5 Loosening Exercises. We also learn how changes in the muscles move the body through every posture of the form
We continue the exploration into how the intention develops, and how natural stability and fluidity arise from letting go into a deep relaxation.
108 Movement Yang Cheng Fu Long Form
This longer form enables the awareness to sink to a level that allows access to the most subtle internal sensations of relaxation, pressure and stretch.
In this calm, quiet, deeply relaxed and focused state; we can find the conditions that allow true yielding, and encourage the development of Tai Chi relaxed elastic force.
Governed by the deep mind intention, and energy flow, the body’s movement becomes completely tension-free and natural.
Partner Work – Grounding exercise – Set Pattern Pushing Hands.
Having identified and become familiar with the internal sensations of movement, muscle changes, forces, pressure and mind intention in our own body, we are only now able to perceive them in a partner.
The more we learn to relax, and access the deeper body and mind states in each aspect of the practice, the greater the skill and sensitivity of our perception.
Working with another, through specific, repetitive, but varied movements, gives us the opportunity to develop and refine these skills and sensitivities to our partner’s internal changes, and explore how we should time our changes in response.
We train a number of specific applications in each Set Pattern Pushing Hands, these focus our concentration on the listening processes of touch, connect, merge and follow.
Partner work gives the opportunity for interesting and important insights, to successfully apply what we have trained and learned in the Loosening Exercises and the Forms, and to bring this deeper awareness and sensitivity creatively into our daily life.
Meditation
Meditation begins with the focus on the internal sensations in the body, and encourages the superficial mind to become still. The 8 Paths Meditation directs and circulates energy through a network of meridians in the body. This encourages the energy to spread evenly through the body, and the mind to deepen. To lead the mind deeper again, the focus extends into the energy field in and around the body.
Meditation leads us to access a deeper mind state: finding and utilising this in Tai Chi provides a clear model and experience which we then use to inform our every day life.