Dan Bien/Single Whip Posture
Posts Tagged ‘tai chi’
Free Retreat (libre retiro) June 18
In Meditation on June 5, 2011 at 2:01 amThe Little Village Buddhist Meditation Center will hold its first meditation and tai chi retreat Saturday, June 18 from 10 am- 2pm. All are welcome. No previous experience required. Join us for a day of mindful peace. Free. Donations gratefully accepted. Please silence your cell phones and other electronic devices. Also, please no perfumes or colognes. Register at our website. May all beings experience peace and happiness, Hillary
Hola amigos, La Villita Centro de Meditación Budista celebrarásu primera meditación y retiro de tai chi Sábado, 18 de junio de 10 am a 2 pm. Todos son bienvenidos. No se requiere experiencia previa. Únase a nosotros para un día de paz consciente. Libre. Donaciones aceptada con gratitud. Por favor, tu silencio los teléfonos celulares y otros dispositivos electrónicos. También, por favor, no perfumes o colonias. Inscríbase en nuestro sitio web. Que todos los seres experiencia de la paz y la felicidad, Hillary
Today! Free! First Class at Little Village Buddhist Meditation Center (Hoy en día! Gratis! Primera Clase en el Centro de Meditación Budista de La Villita )
In Tai Chi on May 27, 2011 at 4:17 pm
Hillary in 1st posture 18-form Shi ba shi
FREE! This afternoon and this evening are the first tai chi and meditation classes. We start at 4pm. All welcome. No special clothing required. Soft soled shoes are best. Donations gratefully accepted. GRATIS! Esta tarde y esta noche son las primeras clases de tai chi y meditación. Empezamos a las 16:00. Todos serán bienvenidos. No se permite ropa especial. Blando con suela de los zapatos son los mejores. Donaciones aceptada con gratitud.
One Thing Tai Chi Practice is Not (via Calm Chicago’s Blog)
In Stress reduction, Tai Chi on May 21, 2011 at 5:05 am
Since tomorrow is the new Buddhist Meditation Center opening in Little Village in Chicago it feels like a good time to bring this post back.
Why?
Because as the potential for new teaching, new students arises it’s a time to reassess how the teaching occurs. To ask, what is most important to say, to share.
If a new person asks, so what’s tai chi and why should I do it? What does a good teacher say?
I feel like Popeye. I want to say, “Eat your spinach! It’s good for you.”
So, with tai chi, we can say, tai chi has this and that benefit to you but in the end, in order to really understand, a person has to do it themselves.
Tai chi can help you reduce stress and be healthier in the body and the mind. How do these things happen? You have to do it and see for yourself.
New Buddhist Meditation Center in Little Village Chicago
In About our center on May 16, 2011 at 2:41 pmSaturday, May 21 Open House!
The center is opening to serve the families of Little Village and the surrounding communities. Our doors will be open to all. Our intention is to help people reduce their levels of stress. Our classes will help people of all ages attain better health and peace of mind.
We’ll offer classes in meditation, Yang tai chi and Ving Tsun (Wing Chun), a very effective style of Chinese Kung Fu.
For those interested in learning more about Buddhism, there will also be opportunities to learn more about that as well.
And please, tell us what you’d like to see happening at the center. We want to hear from you.
Tai Chi Weekends
In About our center, Tai Chi, Taiji on March 18, 2011 at 12:42 pmDe-Stress Your Weekend
I’m changing the schedule up to return to my original practice of reserving the mornings for my own training, so I can better serve you, the students.
As the saying goes; One door closes – another opens. Many have asked for an evening class time … So, I’m happy to announce that starting today, in celebration of Spring being nearly officially upon us …
Friday evening classes at Ping Tom Park from 6-7pm.
from park district web site
Every Friday, weather permitting. All welcome, no previous experience required. Just come in comfortable attire and soft shoes and let’s get started. $15/class.
This is a great way to end your work week and let go of the stress you’ve been toting around. Shift your gears to a lower speed and bring yourself the peace resulting from uniting the body, breath and mind. I’ll be teaching 18-form qigong, known as Shi Ba Shi and Yang 24-form tai chi (taiji).
Ping Tom is lovely – water, bamboo, cypress trees and flowers. Very very nice. So come join me. Together we can make ourselves and the world around us more peaceful one breath at a time.
Take a look at this neat article from Huffington Post about the many wonders of qigong.
And here’s another good one, about everyday benefits of tai chi. (also spelled taiji.)
The best way to find out, is of course, through your own experience. So come on out. You’ve got nothing to lose but your stress, anxiety, headaches, restlessness, agitation, worry, sleepless nights … and so much more.
And, please bring your friends. We’ll have a great time.
Hillary
Time Magazine says, “Tai Chi is the Perfect Exercise”
In Tai Chi, Taiji on March 10, 2011 at 4:02 amCheck out this terrific article from Time Magazine and share it with your friends who may be curious about what all this tai chi business is.
Here is the link to the article.
I’ll just add that the article closes with saying that younger folks might need a greater aerobic challenge than tai chi presents. Maybe. Everyone is different but there are many forms of tai chi some of which move at a pretty good clip. Even the Yang 24-form which is normally done fairly slowly, can be done fast to increase the aerobic potential. And, I can tell you doing the form over and over, nice and slow gets my heart rate up to 135 easily.
As well, for advanced students, as you move through the form slowly, chewing on the fine details and uncovering the buried treasure for mind and body, one of the things you find is the forms natural centrifugal tendencies. This allows you to develop and make the most of those on many levels.
Let me know what you think. Come on in and try it out. Got nothing to lose but your stress!
Getting Profoundly Empty at Calm Chicago
In About our center on March 6, 2011 at 2:19 amSo sweet, a student sent me this message recently after a private class where we practiced walking meditation. An exercise in which we focus on the fine points of the experience of walking. If you want to go forward you must shift the weight to one foot entirely, that leg becomes full…the other leg, ready to step forward, has become empty. The heel touches down to the floor or earth, the shifting of weight begins, filling that leg, the other becomes empty. And so on, over and over. Each step, like each breath a bit different. Arises, exists for a time, then passes away.
Thanks for the one-on-one session today. I tried to be mindful of things being empty and full–just during lunch hour–and there’s a lot, like maybe everything. Things have to be empty before they can be full, and vice versa. Wow–new concepts to consider!
I was exhilarated by her discovery. Way to go. And many thanks.
mindful of body, breath and mind.
Tai Chi, Meditation and the Lorenz Butterfly
In About our center, Tai Chi on March 3, 2011 at 10:21 pm
My philosophy for teaching,
practicing, living tai chi,
qigong and meditation
is all about being practical.
These are practices that yield immediate practical results that improve with repetition. Best of all, at least a little bit every day. Better five minutes of reallyy strong focus than 25 with the mind wandering all over. They are means to seeing reality clearly, without the fog of emotions obscuring our understanding. Through practice, and looking for ways to apply our discoveries in practice to the “daily grind” (time to change that label, eh?!), we learn accept life, moment by moment, without judgement, either positive or negative and to adapt as the stream of events presents various changes and challenges.
from yang tai chi shi ba shi qigong first posture
Taiji, qigong and meditation (sitting, standing or walking), are all ways of learning to be mindful, allowing us to do one thing at a time, peacefully. Most importantly, we reduce our stress this way and the stress of everyone around us.
Sensitive Dependency on Initial Conditions from Wikipeadia
Because all things, all beings are interdependent
and interconnected, the more we are mindful,
the more the whole world becomes more peaceful.
“We are each of us, a Lorenz Butterfly. And as such, we affect everything around us in ways we cannot possibly predict.” When we go through the world in anger, jealousy or other negative emotional states, we tend to see the world negatively, in fact creating conditions for anger and jealousy to arise. On the other hand, when we go through our day peacefully, trying to balance or actions and the things we say, the state of our own minds, in a balance of wisdom and compassion, observing without judgement, good or bad, love or hate… we can see things just at they are, and accept that.
So, in the interest of creating the greatest possible harmony, I use tai chi, qigong and meditation as ways to help individual students reduce their own stress by guiding them towards directly experiencing life as a flow of moments, thoughts, words and actions, (in effect choices we make). Those moments are endlessly arising, existing and ceasing, one after the next. The more we try to live very simply, blamelessly, letting go of each moment as it passes, whether pleasant or not pleasant or just in-between, the less stressful life becomes. Those ripples of peace, spread out from us, endlessly. Through our simple practice, we create conditions for more happiness for ourselves and others.
Form is emptiness ... emptiness is form - calligraphy in our school
Let me know what you think. I’m eager to hear.
Tell us about your study where ever you are,
your discoveries and practice.
Together we can help support each other in practice.
Everything Old is New Again
In About our center on March 2, 2011 at 7:53 pmWe’ll be returning effective immediately to our old space at:
2147 S Lumber St Suite 504 (free parking! near red line and busess)
Call or email me for the access code before your first visit.
Nice to be back with Sifu Matt (my husband) and sharing the space for our various teachings.
There will also be adjustments to the schedule in consideration of my new routine with Storycatchers Theatre.
Now that spring is nearly here, we’ll also soon be holding all tai chi and qigong classes in Ping Tom Park, with its lovely aromatic cypresses, water and pagoda.
Ping Tom Park Pagoda
It’s very easy to find and a clearly identifiable landmark … So, come join us! New schedule coming soon. Happy Spring everyone. I hope the new changes will serve to support your practice. Thank you for stopping by.
