Still Mountain T'ai Chi and Chi Kung celebrate five years of classes at the Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church of the Northside of Pittsburgh with Free August 5th Event

Post Date:July 06, 2010 | PermaLink | Comment

Venerable Shih Tao-Fa, an ordained Buddhist Priest, has been teaching people from the Northside how to relieve stress, improve overall fitness, and center their bodies and minds through the gentle art of T’ai Chi and Qigong. These ancient Chinese forms of exercise blend physical movement with deep meditative breathing in order to boost energy, cultivate physical and emotional balance, and instill a sense of spiritual and physical well-being. During the last five years, T’ai Chi classes have met in the basement of Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church or in the park across the street on Thursday evenings.

    “The classes began,” Ven. Shih Tao-Fa explains, “as an 8 week seminar on Taoism and Buddhism, and included some T’ai Chi, which is known as ‘moving meditation.’ When the seminar finished, people wanted to learn more T’ai Chi, and so the class has continued for the last five years.”

    In honor of this fifth year anniversary in August, Ven. Tao-Fa and Allegheny Church will open up classes to the Northside community at large. As Ven. Tao-Fa explains, “We would like others to be able to experience the rewards of T’ai Chi and Qigong.” Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church in conjunction with Still Mountain T’ai Chi will be holding a free event on Thursday, August 5th, at 8:00 PM at the Church.

    The free session is a unique opportunity for people to learn T’ai Chi from a true T’ai Chi Master and Buddhist Priest. Ven. Shih Tao-Fa has trained with some of the world’s most foremost and respected teachers, and has been featured in numerous magazines and newspaper articles. His T’ai Chi classes will be the focus of the Health and Fitness Section of Pittsburgh Magazine’s 2010 Annual City Guide.

    As Anita Prentiss explains, “Since I have started taking T'ai Chi 5 years ago, I have experienced less stress and greater balance. I have a feeling of being centered, peaceful and productive in my every day life.   Ven. Tao-Fa’s teaching style is patient, thorough, and fun! Any time I get the chance, I encourage people to take T'ai Chi. The investment of time and money is absolutely worth it.”

    The August 5th event is free and open to the public, although advance registration would be appreciated. For further information or to register, call 412-480-9177, email dwc8@comcast.net, or visit www.stillmountaintaichi.com .

The Power of the Breath: Healing the Mind with T'ai Chi and Qigong

Post Date:June 30, 2010 | PermaLink | 1 Comment(s)

T’ai Chi and Qigong have been used for thousands of years to heal the diseases of both body and mind. According to the tenets of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the body is an interrelated and interconnected system, and good health is the result of the harmony of the whole. Any imbalance within one part of the body manifests as pain, discomfort, or disease. Within such a system, the mind, too, plays a vital role in the health of the individual. T’ai Chi and Qigong are founded upon the medical principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine and are designed to catalyze the balance and, consequently, health of the practitioner by focusing upon both body and mind.
    The relationship between the health of the body and that of the mind is readily apparent in how emotions, stress, and anxiety impact physical health. The immune system, for example, is compromised and weakened by grief; stress and anger elevate blood pressure; and anxiety creates digestive problems. Moreover, any disease or pain creates mental anguish and stress as well, further compounding the problem in an ongoing loop of body/mind illness. Given this understanding, Traditional Chinese Medicine has used the healing properties of T’ai Chi and Qigong to recover the harmony of body and mind and restore complete health through specifically designed exercises, breathing techniques, and guided visualizations that realign the body and mind.
    The use of T’ai Chi and Qigong for diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, cancer, and the like is well-documented, but the mental health benefits of these practices are often overlooked. Yet, countless people for thousands of years have turned to T’ai Chi and Qigong to successfully treat mental diseases such as anxiety, depression, bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia, autism, and other mental disorders. More importantly, T’ai Chi is an extremely effective strategy for bolstering mental health and for correcting the physical symptoms and side-effects that so frequently accompany mental issues as well as from prescribed pharmaceuticals.
   The secret to the effectiveness of T’ai Chi and Qigong is the emphasis upon the breath, which restores the balance between the mind, emotions, and the physical body. Traditional Chinese Medical theory regards each person as having two minds: Yi (the logical mind, or what is known in the west as the Brain) and Xin (the emotional mind, which is located in the heart). These two organs are separated from each other physically, but are bridged by the breath. When a person breathes softly and slowly, Xin (the heart) relaxes and generates serotonin (a neurotransmitter that enhances mood), which generates a sense of calm in the Yi (Brain).   Such focused breathing establishes the connection between the emotional mind and the logical mind, thereby seeking a harmonization where the mind stops “racing,” the emotions are brought under control, and the physical body relaxes.    The immediate benefits are profound, but these techniques also reprogram the neurological response system over an extended period, which grants the practitioner the ability to better control ones mental state.    Under proper guidance, the breath can be harnessed to facilitate the healing of body and mind, and T’ai Chi and Chi Kung offers a valuable approach to such “breath healing.”
    One such famous technique is called “Lama Breathing”—a reference to its use in Buddhist Monasteries in Northern China by monks and their teachers, called “Lamas.” To perform this exercise, assume a comfortable seated position. Cover the right nostril with the thumb of the right hand and inhale through the left nostril. Next, cover the left nostril with the middle finger of the right hand and exhale through the right nostril. Then inhale through the right nostril, close the right nostril, and exhale through the left nostril. Repeat the exercise through at least ten breath cycles, and with the mind focusing upon the physical qualities of the breaths themselves, which should be natural, soft, deep, and slow.
    The technique of Lama Breathing bridges the two “minds”—the heart and the brain—and centers the practitioner. This same technique is the mainstay of T’ai Chi and Qigong, and it is the “secret” of regaining the balance of body and mind and achieving what the ancient Taoist referred to as the sacred state of “calm stability”—or what we know as being healthy, grounded, and feeling well. To learn these techniques is to harness the power of the breath in order to cure diseases as well as to preserve and maintain health.

Treating and Preventing Cancer with T'ai Chi and Chi Kung (qigong)

Post Date:June 01, 2010 | PermaLink | Comment

Qigong Cancer Workshop to be held at the Unitarian Universalist Church of the South Hills, Saturday, June 12th.

Ven. Shih Tao-Fa, an ordained Ch’an (Zen) Priest) and leader of Mountain Wind Zen Meditation Center, will lead “Preventing and Treating Cancer with T’ai Chi and Qigong” on Saturday, June 12th, from 10:00-11:00 A.M. Ven. Tao-Fa, who is highly trained in Qigong (or Chi Kung), will teach three forms that are used throughout hospitals in China and the West for the prevention and treatment of cancer.

The workshop will cover three easy to learn forms of healing exercises: Guoyin Wind Walking, Taoist Wind Breathing, and Soaring Crane Playing with the Source of all Qi. These forms are not only valuable for treating cancer, they are excellent ways of maintaining overall health and well-being. The exercises can be performed by anyone regardless of fitness level or overall health.

“These forms of exercises,” Ven. Tao-Fa explains, “have been used for thousands of years to maintain the health of the body and mind. With the rise in cancer in China and the West, many Qigong masters have turned their attention to creating exercises that stimulate the circulation and help the body prevent the formation of tumors and help the body heal from cancer.” Numerous Western medical studies document the benefits of Qigong and T’ai Chi for cancer treatment.
Ven. Shih Tao-Fa learned Soaring Crane from Master Dr. Daniel Lee, who trained under Master Zhao Jin-Xiang, the creator of Soaring Crane—the most famous and widely used form of Cancer Qigong in China. In addition, Ven. Shih Tao-Fa has studied medical and therapeutic Qigong with Master Helen Wu and Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming, one of the most famous teachers in North America.

The workshop is co-sponsored by Mountain Wind Zen Meditation Center and Still Mountain T’ai Chi and is offered as part of Mountain Wind’s ongoing efforts to extend compassion and help to all sentient beings. Donations to Mountain Wind will be graciously accepted for the workshop.

For more information, please contact Still Mountain T’ai Chi at 412-480-9177 or dwc8@comcast.net. Information about the medical benefits of qigong is available at www.stillmountaintaichi.com

Equanimity, Straight Up, Please

Post Date:April 27, 2010 | PermaLink | Comment

Lately, the quest for unconditional happiness keeps popping up as an appropriate and necessary goal for our attention and energy. Various workshops, seminars, classes, discussion groups, and other types of events promise to divulge the techniques for discovering the source of happiness. From the overabundance of these workshops and the like, I can only surmise that people desperately want nothing more than to be happy.

There certainly isn’t anything wrong with being happy, and everyone deserves not to be inundated by the suffering that permeates this world. But I feel compelled to offer a caveat about this wide-ranging market for happiness and the diverse workshops, seminars, and classes that this need has spawned: the techniques that dominate these workshops and the supposed results may only propose a quick-fix kind of approach that may do more harm than good. For example, one workshop that purports to teach a secret Taoist methodology describes the resulting experience as a “mild orgasm” (Thank goodness, it isn’t a “big orgasm” or nothing else would get done!); another claims that one hour of this technique is more valuable than one-hundred years of meditation. Many of these techniques claim to be from authentic spiritual lineages—taught in secret, until now but with an (understandably) hefty price tag! These are “secret” techniques, after all, and the market demands no less of a price.

“Bliss” should not be confused with the real core of Taoism—the cultivation of the calm stability of body and mind, which stands in opposition to a bliss buzz. The Book of Balance and Harmony, an anthology of writings compiled by a 13th century Taoist Mater of the School of Complete Reality, warns against mistaking such activities for real essence:

    Toiling frantically at religious exercises,
    They struggle madly to circulate vitality and energy;
    Counting their breaths and massaging themselves,
    They vainly aim for pleasant sensations.

One might ask, What is wrong with “pleasant sensations”? Nothing at all, but only if we recognize them as temporary things within the continuum of our experience.   If the sensation becomes the goal, though, then all that is being cultivated is an addiction to the “pleasant.” In other words, we become bliss junkies always looking for our next happy fix. The underlying and irrefutable fact is that nothing is permanent—pleasant experiences included—and to be preoccupied with bliss means that you are fixating upon stringing one sensation after another in a never ending stream of narcissistically driven superficial happiness.

More problematic, though, is that such attempts to generate happiness over and over mask the very real suffering of this world—both for others and for oneself. The experienced “bliss” does not provide the tools to address the root of suffering but rather covers the symptom (unhappiness) with an analgesic (Bliss) without treating the underlying disease (or dis-ease).    To focus upon having “happy” experiences (i.e., “mild orgasms”) over and over diverts energy from interrogating the root cause of ones unhappiness—generating a thin layer of “I-feel-good-right-now” so why bother with “why-I-am-not-happy-in-the-first-place.”

Instead of such temporary fixes, we would be better off returning to the crux of Taoist practice. Instead of patchwork remedies that are watered-down and packaged for immediate relief, we would benefit by following the sage advice to “Turn the attention inward to illumine within.” If we can look at our own “inner design,” then we will

    Dissolve accumulated borders
    Clarifying the mind,
    Be free of addictive habituation.

The goal is to not be the caught up in the inevitable cycles of happiness and suffering, thereby moving beyond the need for fixes. As the Dhammapada, a collection of sayings attributed to the historical Buddha, reads:

    The wise walk on cling to nothing.
    They are neither elated by happiness
    Nor cast down by sorrow.

While some read such advice to “cling to nothing” as apathy, in reality, it is to let go of all illusory attachments in order to be in this moment without any obstructions. To reside in equanimity and arrive at the experience as described in a carving over the lintel of a Taoist hermitage,

    The recluse’s heart is a placid lake unruffled by the winds of circumstance.

To be “unruffled” in all circumstances—to be free from the roller-coaster of happiness and sorrow and drink deeply from the wells of equanimity—surely trumps a temporary shot of “Bliss.”

Healing Cancer with T'ai Chi and Chi Kung

Post Date:April 02, 2010 | PermaLink | Comment

    Tree branches clog the paths at Boyce Park—wreckage from the blast of February snow—slowing hikers to a crawl. The same problem plagues the creek that runs through the park. Fallen branches had severely slowed the flow of the current, and all of the detritus—trash, scum, and branches of all sizes—continues to accumulate creating even more blockage.
    Such scenes are extremely insightful illustrations of the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) perspective of cancer. The circulation of the body resembles a series of connecting paths (called meridians and channels), and under normal, healthy conditions, the entire system is clear and movement is easy to sustain. But if there is a blockage, it is like the tree across a path or stream: circulation is either impeded or stopped entirely, which distresses the balance of the body and can manifest as a tumor or a cyst.
    This theory parallels Western science’s understanding of the circulatory system, which delivers the necessary oxygen and nutrients to the body’s cells while simultaneously removing toxins and waste products. Any blockage increases the potential for damage to the organs and cells of the body. For example, a blocked artery increases the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke.
    Qigong and T’ai Chi are designed to correct and maintain the circulation of the body through a series of movements that use the muscles and deep diaphragmatic breathing as pumps. The movement coupled with breath stimulates the channels and organs through a series of bending, stretching, and internal massage. This principle is the gist of all medical Qigong as well as the core of such famous cancer sets as Soaring Crane Qigong (developed by Master Zhao Jin-Xiang) and the Anti-Cancer Qigong Walk (developed by Master Guo-Lin)—both of which have been used alongside traditional chemo and radiation therapy in Chinese hospitals for many years.
    “Bending the Bow,” a move commonly used in Breast and Lung Cancer treatment, may help to illustrate these principles. To do the exercise, begin with the feet shoulder width apart in either a sitting or standing position, and reach the hands palms out and extended away from the body at shoulder height. Inhale as the hands are drawn back toward the shoulders to form loose fists; then exhale as the hands return to the starting position. The movement of the arms forward and backwards expands and contracts the chest and lungs (bending and stretching). The breath in conjunction with the arms creates an internal pressure—a “massage”—that increases the circulation to the lungs and breasts. To target a specific spot, the angle of the arms and hands are altered in order to focus the move. “Bending the Bow” also massages a key lymph node located approximately one inch above the nipple—a common site for cysts. By increasing the circulation of the lymph, the potential for the formation of a cyst is minimized, or in terms of treatment, these exercises spark the healing process.
    Nevertheless, people should not forgo Western medical treatment for cancer, but as numerous medical studies document, Qigong and T’ai Chi are powerful adjuncts that facilitate the effectiveness of chemotherapy and radiation and minimize the side-effects of the treatments. Many hospitals in the Western Pennsylvania region recognize Qigong and T’ai Chi as valuable preventatives against disease and as catalysts for the healing process. T’ai Chi and Qigong are the foundations of complete physical, mental, and emotional health and well-being.   The balance and harmony of mind, body, and spirit that these exercises provide helps to stave off disease while providing the individual the means to continue to heal him or her self.

Dr. David Clippinger, Director of Still Mountain T’ai Chi and Chi Kung, LLC, frequently teaches Cancer and other medical Qigong forms through workshops and private consultations and has presented at the National Ovarian Cancer Symposium, UPMC Cancer Caring Center, Gilda’s Club, MaGee Hospital and other facilities. The next Cancer workshop is June 12th, and more information is available at www.stillmountaintaichi.com or directly at dwc8@comcast.net or 412-480-9177.

Awakenings: The Vernal Equinox

Post Date:March 19, 2010 | PermaLink | Comment

The birds were singing brightly this morning at 6:30, and as the dawn crept over the tree tops, the darkness was broken by a bustling of energy. Everything was awakening. Spring arrives tomorrow, the 20th of March, at 1:32 P.M., and the vernal equinox marks the shift from the yin of winter to the yang of spring.
    My own energy has had a noticeable lift as the week has gone on, and I have begun my annual transition from concentrating upon mostly meditative Chi Kung (qigong) internal practices to more vibrant ones such as 5 Animals Sport Chi Kung (Wu Qin Xi) in order to vitalize Chi. More, it is also a time to turn toward other “external” internal arts such as T’ai Chi weapons forms in order to refine the Chi and revitalize the meridians and channels of the body.
    As mentioned in my previous post (“To Be a Tiger: Breathe Deep and Find the Root of the Earth”), the end of winter is a period of regeneration and the storage of Chi for the upcoming year. The results of such regeneration are all around us now: the crocuses, which were buried under two feet of snow two weeks ago, are in bloom. The lesson is that we need to constantly prepare ourselves to respond at the appropriate time in the appropriate ways too.
    Our Chi is our lifeline to the Tao—the natural order of the universe. The vibrancy of our Chi is the window upon our own inner design. Too often we expend our energy upon worthless endeavors and inappropriate emotions such as anger and desire. To complicate matters even more, when attention (which is itself Chi) is given to anger and desire, further fuel is given to those emotions, thereby exacerbating suffering, which, in turn perpetuates a vicious circle of more anger, more greed, and more and more suffering. As Lao Tzu writes in the 13th chapter of the Tao Te Ching,

    The reason we have a lot of trouble
    Is that we have selves.
    If we had no selves,
    What troubles would we have?

It is the idea of an autonomous self—as if we are separate from the Tao—that creates suffering.
    The return of Spring is a reminder of the eternal return of life, of which we are a part. It should be a reminder that we too must return to what is “natural”—to be like the birds that sign and the flowers that bloom. True to their nature and not striving to be more than their own being. If we too would simply be, we would bring ourselves into balance, harmony, and equanimity. We too would discover our own inner design and would cease pushing against the natural harmony of the world. We too would awaken.

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