Bagua Movements 2
By Lee Burkins I have had the good fortune of practicing a discipline of martial art continuously since 1962 beginning with wrestling, then karate. In 1974 I began Kung Fu and “chi” (energy) practices and in 1977 I started the study of Tai Ji. Since then,...
Bagua Movements 1
By Lee Burkins Words from the Tao Te Ching speak of the space within the walls of a vessel as being useful. The human body is like a vessel and the space within our body is therefore useful. Our practice of the Water method of Taoist internal arts centers on...
The Tao of Sex: Feeling Your Life-force Energy (Part 1 of 3)
Making love is like cooking a three-course meal. Ideally, you want to make sure all the needed cooking utensils and ingredients are accounted for and working in the kitchen. Everything is present. First comes the appetizers, or foreplay, which can become a full meal...Why Buddhism and Hinduism Are Well Known, but Taoism Is Not
All branches of Buddhism and Hinduism came out of India, regardless of whether they ended up in Tibet, Southeast Asia or even Africa. Both religions carried the Indian perspectives on reincarnation and the idea that relationships between the individual and the...
Practicing Tai Chi
Filmed in Crete, Greece 2010 during the Longevity Breathing Instructor Training. *To view clip in high quality, start playing the video and then change the 360p setting in the bottom right to 720p* In July of 2011 I held a Wu Style Tai Chi Short Form Instructor...Psychic Vampires
‘Psychic Vampire’ is a term that is dis-affectionately used by many. If you are around a psychic vampire, they will suck your energy dry. When you leave the presence of a psychic vampire, you may feel weak and drained. How does a psychic vampire work and...
Bagua Circle Walking
This primary technique of bagua zhang, or baguazhang, also trains the mind and body to accept change, which is a useful skill in a time when the speed of change is so rapid that stress with accompanying physical tension has become the disease of the modern day....
Yang Shao Jung – Magnetic Hands
In 1977, I was given a letter of introduction to tai chi master Yang Shao Jung, who did not accept students without a recommendation. Yang was the eldest son of Yang Cheng Fu, great-grandson of the original Yang Lu Chan. His school, located in his walk-up flat in the...Kenichi Sawai – Spirit of Martial Arts
A member of the Shibuya tai chi school introduced me to Kenichi Sawai’s hsing-i group, who were fanatics about developing chi through standing practices. Sawai had studied for 10 years in China with Wang Hsiang Zai, founder of the I Chuan School of hsing-i. At the...Huang Hsi I – Therapeutic Chi
The solidly built Huang Hsi I was about the same height as the average American man, but tall for a native Taiwanese. His strength and abundant chi—natural and trained—combined with his huge, immensely sensitive hands, made him a superb healer in Chinese qigong (chi...Cheng Man-ching – Master of Tai Chi
One of the people at the aikido school I attended in New York after high school hours was a judo teacher named Lou Klinesmith. Knowing of my passion for the fighting arts, Lou asked me one day if I had any interest in finding out about a new kind of “soft” punch....Wang Shu Jin – Master of Chi
In the summer of 1968, I traveled to Taiwan from Japan in search of the internal arts bagua master Wang Shu Jin, who was widely considered to be one of the best empty-hand fighters in Asia. I tracked down Wang’s class, which met at the amphitheater shell in the...Hung I Hsiang – Internal Arts Master
When I studied with the late Hung I Hsiang, he was in his fifties. He spoke with a gravelly voice that sometimes conveyed a bit of gruffness, but in actuality, Hung was an intelligent, perceptive, well educated and articulate man. Watching him practice bagua zhang,...Morihei Ueshiba – Aikido Master
I studied with O-Sensei Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of aikido, during my undergraduate days in Japan. My research has indicated that O-Sensei’s aikido was in a primary way directly influenced by bagua zhang. My first in-depth, extended experience with a top-level...Liu Hung Chieh – Taoist Lineage Master
Possibilities of an Art Realized My last teacher in China, Liu Hung Chieh, was a master of bagua, tai chi, hsing-i and Taoist meditation. In addition, he was a master calligrapher and a classical Chinese scholar who had a complete knowledge of traditional Chinese...View Our Best-Selling Programs
