With Master Yang at Daoist temple
I’m very excited about a weekend course I’ll be giving next month at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Fitness in Lenox, MA next month.
It’s called Taijiquan Immersion and it’s for anyone who would like to really feel internal power easily and dependably and would like a short form to develop it.
For decades, I have been showing people how to get the most out a taijiquan form that they know or are studying. What is different here is that I’ll also be teaching a short, powerful form called Yang Chengfu’s Thirteen Original Postures. I learned it from Master Yang Fukui, who learned it from his granduncle, Zhai Yongwen.
Here’s a video recently recorded at the Purple Heaven Temple at Wudang Mountain in China:
For years, people have asked me to teach a form to practice the elements I share in the seminars. Most are much too long to learn in a weekend.
The “13” provides a perfect solution:
- It is short enough to cover in a weekend
- It’s large frame postures can be a physical workout
- It generates a whole bunch of qi when done slowly
What really makes this seminar special, though, is that we’re going to infuse this terrific form with the Three Essentials:
- Energetic coherence
- Central equilibrium
- Song kua
In over a quarter century of teaching, I have always tried to shorten the on-ramp to high-level gongfu by simplifying and de-mystifying the language of internal martial arts. Sure, you still have to do the work. But I have found the journey a lot more satisfying when you know what you are going for and how to get there.
Right from the start, I want people to not just be able to successfully execute the movements of a form, but to also feel their qi, their jin, and their root. Not just awakening to the energy that animates all things, but learning to use it effectively. The Three Essentials are the best way I have found to get there…FAST! You won’t master all these elements in a weekend, but you will be given a framework in which it learn and practice them.
There will also be video support. Each movement will be broken down and examined and posted to YouTube.
I hope you will join me for an exciting exploration into Chinese internal martial arts.
Register at Kripalu.
Please contact me if you have any questions. rick@nullrickbarrett.net
