On a Sunday afternoon in late March, martial artist B.K. Frantzis is teaching an advanced workshop on The Five Elements in Taoism. The workshop has been going on all weekend in the large, open Feldenkrais studio on 6th and Bancroft streets in West Berkeley. Sunlight pours into the large room through skylights and glass blocks as Frantzis delineates for his students the sometimes subtle differences between the elements. The five elements of Chinese medicine and Taoist culture are air, water,earth, metal and fire. In the Sunday afternoon session, Frantzis, who advertises his method as "Mastery without mystery," segues easily from fire to earth.

The main characteristic of earth, he says, is that it is stable. This is why earthquakes are so profoundly disturbing to humans. In a tremblor, the element of earth, which we deeply understand to be still and unmoving, trembles and shakes. The shock is so great that it bypasses our cerebral functions and rocks us at the core level of our being. This is an experience I have had myself during Loma Prieta, and so I sit up and pay attention. When one encounters real truth, I have found, it tends to resonate with our own personal experience or with internal convictions we have developed after contemplating that experience. To use a metaphor from another space and time, these intimations of shared reality ring with the sound of silver on the bar.

I shouldn't be surprised. Frantzis has come highly recommended to me, by people whose opinions I respect, over a long period of time. He's been teaching in Berkeley for the past decade, though his studio and home are based in Marin. For one so young _ he will turn 53 in April _ Frantzis has amassed a remarkable series of accomplishments. He is an acknowledged master of Tai Chi, Ba Gua, Shing Yi, Chi Gung/Qigong, Taoist meditation, and Chinese healing practices. He has written four books and taught workshops and classes all over the world. He estimates that over the three decades he has been teaching, 10,000 students have passed through his classes. Then there is the extended family of students of students. In this particular weekend workshop there are about fifty participants, ranging in age from 25 to 70. During the breaks, they stretch and practice _ circle walking in the Ba Gua style, executing high kicks, moving slowly and deliberately in the balletic motions of Tai Chi.

One of Frantzis's students characterizes the whole as "practice related to the cultivation of internal energy." Frantzis specializes in the internal martial arts. These utilize the life energy known as chi, pronounced chee, like the Navajo detective in Tony Hillerman's books. Acupuncturists use points along the body's meridians to move chi around, improving health by releasing blocks to energy flow and balancing the body for preventive health care. Frantzis stresses three areas in his teaching: longevity, healing and meditation. "Tai chi is the Chinese national health exercise," he says, pointing out that it is practiced by 200 million people. Half the people who do Tai Chi begin after the age of 50. There is much in Tai Chi _ and in Frantzis's teaching _ to benefit aging baby boomers, who are in danger of overwhelming the nation's health care systems as their bodies begin to decline.

Originally published in The Oakland Tribune. Reprinted by permission of author, Susan Lydon.

Cityscape column for Sunday March 31, 2001