From the topic archives:
Taoist Master Liu Hung Chieh and Bruce Frantzis in the 1980's
Last week I was interviewed by China Radio International (CRI) about my experiences in China in the mid 1980′s. Please enjoy:
Born and raised in the USA, Bruce Frantzis spent a total of 11 years in China in the 70s and 80s. He was one of the few foreigners studying martial arts in this …
english.cri.cn/7146/2011/12/
Stay tuned for a few more blog posts from China.
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Bruce Frantzis in the Tai Chi Single Whip Posture
Tai chi can be used as a powerful form of Taoist moving meditation, which starts with balancing the emotions—that is, the emotional energy body. Tai chi can also be practiced to acquire martial arts skill and as a health system.
The latter is what you might see people doing in the park. Although tai chi can also be practiced as meditation, almost all forms widely available are NOT directly connected with a meditation tradition. So if you practice tai chi, you will want to be aware of these distinctions.
Since the Wu Style Tai Chi Instructor Training is coming soon, I thought it would be useful to talk about tai chi and how it connects with emotional well being and specifically the Taoist meditation tradition.
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Hi folks,
I am now on the road and already in Europe. I’ll be teaching soon and look forward to seeing everyone, especially for the Wu Style Instructor Training, something I have not done for about 10 years.
If you can’t make the whole training I invite you to come for a week or a weekend event. It will be fun and we have a great group attending.
If you are a student of Energy Arts, qigong or tai chi, you probably already realize that one of the fundamental principles is these practices are based on moving energy through the meridian lines of the body. With qigong practices like Dragon and Tiger Medical Qigong you learn to actually feel the chi or energy move through your body. Read More
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Black Hole Simulation – CRON
I can speak from my experience about what the traditional approach is and the eclectic way I went about it, and the essential difference between an eclectic traditional approach and the approach of the dabbler, who just knows a bit of this and a bit of that.
The first issue is: why become eclectic? In some sense you become eclectic so that you can gain a really specific perspective on something.
You may want to do tai chi, but as an eclectic, you may want to do a tai chi specifically for fighting. For example, I did Praying Mantis and 8 Drunken Immortals. Doing these showed me some martial aspects of tai chi I needed to pay attention to rather than ignore. But I went deeply into them. I didn’t just skim the surface with them. Read More
Share on FacebookIn this archive video from over 22 years ago I talk about the health benefits of tai chi, qigong and the internal martial arts.
The message has not changed over the years – although my hair has, some say for the better.
Please enjoy, like and share,
Bruce
Click here to learn about the upcoming Wu Style Short Form Tai Chi Instructor Training in England this summer.
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Bruce teaching Tai Chi in Hawaii
How do you go from Tai Chi student to Tai Chi teacher?
The transition from being a tai chi practitioner to a tai chi teacher or certified instructor can take lots of time and practice. Anything that has any depth usually does.
Add to that the esoteric or spiritual aspect of tai chi, and there are a number of really important considerations that may not figure into the picture with other subjects. When you are teaching something that helps people go inward there are always things that come up both for you and the student.
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Tai Chi and Traditional Chinese Medicine traditionally were connected and used together to treat patients in China.
From the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine you can say there are two levels of healing injury, illness and diseases. The first involves hands-on energetic healing work, which can get rather complex with the thousands of meridian lines on the human body. The second involves specific qigong or tai chi exercises that can be taught and learned which often are sufficient to heal a health issue.
But the question is: Can tai chi really heal specific health issues rather than just maintain a good standard of general health and enhanced longevity? Also, how can Tai Chi evolve into a health and healing art in the West?
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Very often as you learn tai chi chuan or qigong, you may feel as though you have reached a plateau. When this experience happens there often is a sense that practice is boring. The same stuff keeps on happening.
We all want to have tai chi practice breakthroughs moving to higher levels of sensitivity and awareness, but it is important to respect and even embrace the plateaus. Read More
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