Welcome to Coach Chen Ziqiang!

We look forward to hosting Chen Ziqiang next week for 5 days of seminars. Please join us for double broadsword drills, short cannon fist form, eyebrow staff form review, and spear long form instruction. Seminars start Wednesday night October 16, and conclude Sunday October 20.

Please note - all classes EXCEPT Friday night will be at the Taoist Sanctuary, either indoors for Thursday night, or outdoors for Wednesday night and the weekend.

Friday night will be at a different location - 9450 Candida Street, San Diego 92126.

See you there!

Homeward Bound

We fly back to the US tomorrow. We’ve been in Beijing since Wednesday and our group has enjoyed most of the sights and adventures found here. Between us we’ve visited temples, shops, hutongs, and precious historical sights. Some have been great bargainers, others went to the fixed price stores to avoid bargaining. We’ve had tasty food and drink and will spend our last evening on the Wangfujing snack street to sample insects on sticks. Well, some of us will.

I’ll be glad to get home to my comforts and my cat, and the internet! I certainly would have blogged more had I been able to access anything on my computer.

Next up - Kim Ivy and her Embrace the Moon group arrive in Beijing on the 3rd and will head to the village for 10 days training with our teacher GM Chen Xiaoxing. Look for her blog as well and I wish her better internet connections!

The First One is Always the Deepest

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!

A side note - the blog will likely be without pictures due to the spotty internet connections. Pictures will be posted directly to facebook for your viewing pleasure. Thanks for your understanding!

The Flight(s)

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.

I know one thing. Walking through miles of airport hallways carrying my little 20L pack reminds me that I must take very little on my Camino next year. Walking with a pack is very different than walking without one.

Almost packed!

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!

Bill and Allison

China here we come!

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.

Stay tuned to this page for the blogs!

New Beginnings

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.

Allison

Happy Holidays!

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.

We will do our traditional New Year’s Day flow on Coronado Island at 9am. Please join us at Sunset Park, at the end of Ocean Blvd.

End of an Era

Back in 1996, Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang visited San Francisco to teach a workshop. Bill and I went - he was well known, and Bill met him in the late 80s during a Taste of China event, so we were pretty excited to train with him. Unfortunately, due to personal reasons, Bill had to return to San Diego without doing the seminar, so it was just me and my first experience with this level of a taiji teacher. It was an amazing workshop, but the thing I remember most is the way he opened the bathroom door with a fajing! I tried to mimic it and the door didn't even move. I learned a lot about taiji at that workshop (besides how to open a bathroom door). That workshop created some amazing opportunities for us. The following year we went to Denver to attend his seminar, then at our invitation, Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang came the San Diego the following year, and he, his brother Grandmaster Chen Xiaoxing, and their family have been traveling to San Diego and the US to teach us every year since then. When Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang stopped coming to the US, Grandmaster Chen Xiaoxing became our primary teacher, and he has been incredibly generous with us, advancing our form and our practice to a degree that it has carried over into how we conduct ourselves as we go through life. 

This year is the final year of Grandmaster Chen Xiaoxing's travels outside of China. He has been coming to teach us for over a decade, and his style of teaching has remained clear, concise, and true to the art that his family created. We've supplemented his visits here with our visits to China, taking groups of students with us almost every year over the last 13 years. Grandmaster Chen Xiaoxing's final seminar in San Diego earlier this month was no different than all of the others - he offers amazing corrections and insights into the internal aspects of the form, and is so generous with his teachings to students of all levels. Our last flow together of the laojia yilu was very poignant, as the realization that he wouldn't be back set in. The Chen family has contributed much to my own evolution as a human being over these many years, and I am so grateful for all they have shared with us. The lessons in the alley, the standing corrections for over an hour at a time, the discussions on the history of their art, teaching us how to make noodles and squash soup, and most importantly, the teachings of how to behave - all of it has been so dear. Bill and I will continue to go to China to study with them as often as we can, and we will continue to take our students so that they can see and feel the roots of our art in the place it was created. 

The 20th generation is their gift to all of us. We will continue to benefit from this group of amazing teachers for many years to come, and hopefully we will all do our part to teach the 21st generation the valuable lessons that taijiquan brings, not just about martial arts, but about life and how to live it. 

Zaijian for now, Grandmaster Chen Xiaoxing! See you in China in July 2019! 

2018 - Are You Ready?

Where did the time go? It seems like I was just welcoming in 2017, and here we are, another year gone. 

2017 was a wild year. Our country is undergoing major upheavals and turmoil, and it's so important for us to stay grounded by maintaining our practices of taiji and qi gong. This spring offers lots of opportunities for learning new ways to strengthen and stay healthy. Ken Cohen continues his winter workshop series with classes on Bear Frolic, Psychology of Qi Gong, and instruction in the Yi Jin Jing. Jan Silberstorff returns in January to teach seated meditation and form, and Grandmaster Chen Xiaoxing embarks on his FINAL USA TOUR in March! 

2018 will see us move from the Year of the Fire Rooster to the Year of the Earth Dog. Here is what one website says about this upcoming year: 

Many voices around the world rise to highlight the importance of the universal values of dialogue and solidarity, which are characteristic values of the Chinese zodiac sign of the Dog. Selfishness, greed and ignorance being a major source of inequalities on Earth, only a social and cultural impulse, at the individual and collective level, can give a new hope to the millions of people in the world who are still suffering from neglect, indifference and the rejection from their community.

Interesting... 

Happy New Year to everyone and good practice to all! 

Allison