Three Treasures Qigong

31/10/2026

Be completely empty.
Be completely serene.
The ten thousand things rise together;
in their arising is their return.
Now they flower,
and flowering
sink homeward,
returning to their root.

The return to the root
is peace.
Peace: to accept what must be, to know what endures.
In that knowledge is wisdom.

Tao Te Ching, ch. 16, trans. Le Guin

18/10/2026

"The Chinese see Qi everywhere. It's in the air they breathe. It is the force that drives the fusion of their blood. They take it from the food they eat. They add it to their cars to make them run. They burn it to eat and stay warm in their homes. They feel it in the winds of thought that blow through their minds. And, when they follow the deepest urges of their heart, they join their Qi with the Qi of their lovers. Qi gives them life, and when they lose their Qi, they die."

18/10/2026

MOVE LIKE CLOUDS, FLOW LIKE WATER

My teacher used this phrase as we were about to begin a Taijiquan set:

Move like clouds, flow like water. (行雲流水)

I became curious about the beautiful words, and it turns out that they come from the poet Su Shi (1037–1101) in his "Letter in Reply to Judicial Commissioner Xie Minshi (答谢民师推官书)." It was written around 1100 CE after Su Shi's return from exile in Hainan.

大略如行雲流水，初無定質，但常行於所當行，常止於所不可不止，文理自然，姿態橫生。

“[Your writing] is, on the whole, like flowing clouds and running water — with no fixed form from the start, but always moving where it ought to move, and always pausing where it must pause; its logic flows naturally, abounding in varied and graceful forms.”

This summed up Su Shi's view of good prose as being natural and unforced movement rather than rigid structure. But my teacher invoked it as an ideal for Taijiquan.

Whether Taijiquan, writing, or the art of living: move like clouds, flow like water.

__________

Three Layered Waterfall
Zhang Daiqian (1899–1983)
Ink and color on paper
115 x 80cm

18/10/2026

14/10/2026

Knowing man
and staying woman,
be the riverbed of the world.
Being the world’s riverbed
of eternal unfailing power
is to go back again to be newborn.

Knowing light
and staying dark,
be a pattern to the world.
Being the world’s pattern
of eternal unerring power
is to go back again to boundlessness.

Tao Te Ching, chap. 28, trans. Le Guin

14/10/2026

If smug skeptics have ever made you doubt your practice, this article is for you. We don't need magical thinking to explain qigong and tai chi because we have a mountain of research. When trolls pop up in the comments, drop this article and watch them get quiet. Link in the comments.

12/10/2026

Twice monthly classes on Tuesdays at Foxlowe Arts Centre, Leek.

Dates to December are:

20 October
3 & 17 November
1 & 15 December

Each class runs from 10.00am to 11.30am.
I also teach two classes as part of Ashbourne & District u3a at Wyaston Village Hall the first three Thursdays of the month, from 9.30am to 11.00am and from 11.15am to 12.45pm. Details here:
https://ashbourne.u3asite.uk/u3a_groups/qigong/

The general structure for both Foxlowe and Wyaston is sitting meditation, standing meditation, stretches and specific qigong exercises; at Wyaston, I also teach Eight Silken Brocade and Zhan Zhuang on alternate sessions.

Please DM for further information!

Foxlowe - 📷 Rick Egan
Wyaston - 📷 Anne McSkimming

11/10/2026

We should remain content with slow progress.

Hexagram 10, Li, Treading (Conduct)
(On attempting to force progress)
First line.

A Guide to the I Ching, Carol Anthony

10/10/2026

Resonance

Each thing resonates at its frequency ... a person can sense subtle resonances. Being attracted to certain kinds of music, certain colours, or places are all a matter of sensing resonance ... All light and sound is frequency. The accumulated perception of those frequencies is resonance ...

We need to tune ourselves to our own frequencies and make use of them ...

When we feel "out of touch", "inharmonious", "out of sync", we are subconsciously acknowledging that there are frequencies that we are not attuned to at that moment. Likewise, when we feel a part of things, we subconsciously use the language of frequency too. We talk of "resonating" with things, feeling "in sync", and "attuned". All this means is that we understand on a subtle level that Tao is a matter of resonance, and that being at one with Tao is a matter of tuning in to the subtle vibration felt with the soul.

Deng Ming-Dao. The Lunar Tao, Day 243

08/10/2026

Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on – Eckhart Tolle