Welcome to the Willow Tree School of Tai Chi & Chi Kung.

Tai Chi & Chi Kung are ancient Chinese holistic exercises designed over thousands of years to enhance the quality of every day life. Although there are many different styles of Tai Chi & Chi Kung they all share common principles that clear the body and mind of blockages and illness and restore the natural balance of energy (chi).

The great American mythographer Joseph Campbell said : “If you want to help the world, the best thing you can do is teach people to live in it.” This principle of harmony with nature and the world is built into the practices of Tai Chi & Chi Kung and are gradually revealed to the student through self practice. In this way the teacher serves as a guide along the way, reinforcing principles and movements and allowing the art itself to speak to the student and teach its deepest lessons.

The ultimate ideal of these arts is to bring balance to every aspect of a persons life, to give them the resources they require to achieve their goals while maintaining peace of mind and a powerful, yet relaxed spirit.
________________________________________________________________________

“THE TRUE WAY IS TO ELIMINATE OLD AGE AND PRESERVE THE BODY.
IF ONE PRESERVES THE SPIRIT WITHIN,
HOW CAN ILLNESS FIND A WAY TO US?”
– CHI PO, CLASSIC OF INTERNAL MEDICINE.
________________________________________________________________________

Why the Willow Tree School?

The Willow Tree is soft and flexible up top and strong and rooted to the ground below, the opposite of most human bodies.

Most people have stiff necks and shoulders, tight arms, locked back muscles and tension trapped within their torso. By contrast their legs are often weak and misaligned and the common activities of walking or running involve unbalanced positions and controlled falling as the weight is thrown from leg to leg.

By taking the Willow Tree as our model we learn to sink the weight into the ground, empty the upper body, regain alignment and cultivate internal strength. We soften the limbs and correct misalignments and blockages so that the body is brought into balance and the natural chi (energy) of the body can resume it’s flow. By reversing the tendencies of strength above and weakness below to softness above and strength below we build a foundation of the lower body upon which the spine can comfortably straighten and the organs can settle and hang from the trunk of the spine.

Once natural alignment and movement is regained the energy (chi) will start to move and collect within the body, correcting many illnesses and imbalances and helping to prevent new ones from taking root.

________________________________________________________________________
“DOWN REPLACES UP. BACK REPLACES FRONT.
DEEP REPLACES SURFACE. SPIRAL REPLACES STRAIGHT”
– MASTER WANG HAO DA
________________________________________________________________________

Why Tai Chi & Chi Kung for everyday living?

Tai Chi for everyday living contains core internal exercises which are vital to Tai Chi & Chi Kung development.

Chi Kung has over 10,000 recorded school in China, each one teaching different exercises, Tai Chi also has many different style and variations.

It is possible to spend many lifetimes learning all of the outer movements of these different styles and methods. What is important though is that they all have the same principles of internal cultivation.

High level masters in the past diluted the many complex movements of the internal arts into simple practices called foundation exercises. These exercises contain all the benefits of Tai Chi and Chi Kung’s many forms and teach the principles in a simple step by step method that is easy to understand. Considered highly valuable many masters kept these methods secret, passing them only onto family members and trusted disciples. In this way only those the master thought worthy could ever unlock the principles of Tai Chi & Chi Kung and make progress in their understanding. For this reason there are countless practitioners of Tai Chi and Chi Kung who practice forms their entire life but never receive any of the principles of internal training that hold the real benefits of the arts.

The Tai Chi & Chi Kung For Everyday Living classes openly teaches these exercises as a way for students to immediately begin practicing the principles of the internal arts and receiving their benefit. The classes concentrate on sitting, standing, walking and sleeping (to integrate Tai Chi principles into everyday life) as well as special exercises which will serve as a bridge for learning the Tai Chi & Chi Kung forms.

The foundation exercises taught in this class are not just for beginners but great treasures of health and self cultivation that are well worth a lifetime of practice.

________________________________________________________________________
“BLUNT THE SHARPNESS, UNTANGLE THE KNOT,
SOFTEN THE GAZE, MERGE WITH DUST”
– LAO TZU, TAO TE CHING
________________________________________________________________________

How To Improve your quality of life with Tai Chi & Chi Kung

One Tai Chi master said that “Tai Chi follows a natural path of development, just as a baby takes nine months to grow inside the womb, Tai Chi also takes time to develop.”

The meaning of this phrase is that Tai Chi and Chi Kung can work wonders with the body and mind but that the student must be patient and have faith in the process.

A lifetime of blockages and misalignments take time to clear and reverse and we must develop consistent practice in order to return our bodies and minds to their original, natural state.

In the West it is common to seek out a “quick fix” answer to the problems that assail us. The result is that we often end up with something which addresses the symptom but never the root cause of the problem. Consequently the problem reappears a short time later, sometimes worse than before.

Tai Chi & Chi Kung offer solutions that are long lasting and profound but in order to bring this kind of change about we must learn to cultivate gradual improvement. Gradual change lasts the longest. Consider dieters who starve themselves to get a quick weight loss result. Almost all people who follow these crash diets return to their previous negative eating habits only a short time after the initial weight loss.

Whether it is correct diet or exercise, by slowing down and initiating gradual change through patient practice we make positive changes to our lives that will be long lasting and profound.
Professor Cheng Man Ching, the founder of our school likened this process to the laying down of sheets of paper. A sheet of paper is thin but by gradually laying down page after page on top of it you will eventually have a book. Health cultivation is the same, at first it seems like so little benefit has been achieved, but over a period of time, consistent practice will accumulate and a persons health will begin to blossom and grow.
________________________________________________________________________
“SWALLOW THE CHI OF HEAVEN, RECEIVE THE EARTH’S STRENGTH, LONGEVITY THROUGH SOFTNESS.” – CHENG MAN CHING
________________________________________________________________________