I think it's the ease and speed at which Sifu Waller does it. It's like a magician with a sleight of hand but obviously with potentially deadly consequences. It's amazing to watch and utterly awe inspiring. (Karen)
In meditation, set-backs are continual, on-going and expected. You just start again. And again and again. The trick is to keep going. Do the same with dieting...
A good approach to dieting is to treat it as you would a meditation exercise. In meditation, the mind wanders continually and you bring it back to the 'anchor' of the breath. In dieting, we fail to make progress and then get twisted out of shape. People make such a big deal out of set-backs.
Some qigong teachers expect students to hold static
qigong postures for lengthy periods of time; even up to an hour.
This may be a challenge but the side-effect might easily be
varicose veins, massive amounts of
muscular tension and a decrease in higher level
mobility.
Once the student has learned the last weapons form they should cease standing qigong altogether. Moving qigong exercises are not an impediment but standing will hinder higher levels of mobility with form.
There is simply no need to stand for an extended duration since much
greater benefits can be gained through whole-body movement. Neigong replaces qigong as the primary source of power.
Helping people can be tricky... the problem is that people are often
unwilling to help themselves. We had a student a while back who had all
sorts of health problems and was entirely unsuited to martial practice. She was a health student and had much to work on.
Yet, the lady kept on
signing up for boot camp and martial workshops. We kept saying no.
Working with Sifu Waller is excellent, we really enjoy it and it is
so interesting to see how the form and foundation work develops into the martial
work. It's interesting that the more you learn the more everything makes sense!
I felt great after the class and couldn't actually sleep as I was going over the
things we had learnt in my head! It was very empowering to be able to complete
the same exercises as the larger males and not feel at a disadvantage. My height
came in quite useful in some of them! I was surprised how little force was
required. It's a great group of people to work with.
(Amelia)
Monday
It was around the beginning of the industrial revolution that the idea that human beings were like machines came into being. The body was seen as being like a clockwork toy, capable of being taken apart, parts replaced and then put back together again. Although this perspective has produced powerful life saving procedures, this view also limits our awareness of the wonders of the human body and life itself.