Sensomotoric bodywork in Taijiquan
By Dr Wilfried Schmidt
Movement limitations and pain are often regarded as normal accompaniments to the ageing process. Sensomotoric bodywork works on the principle that these are often the result of unconscious limiting movement patterns that can be made conscious and resolved through certain techniques. In a similar manner to Taijiquan, perception of the processes in one’s own body is trained and increasingly refined so that contractions can be dissolved and practitioners can find their way back to a natural way of moving.
Ethics, meditation and political engagement
By Klaus Moegling
We live in a time in which fundamental societal changes towards a more peaceful and ecolo- gical world seem necessary for the survival of the human race. Klaus Moegling explains that such political engagement needs to be connected with a process of personal maturation. Meditative paths of exercise such as Qigong and Taijiquan can make an essential contribution to these formative processes, which enable a transformation at the individual level. Clear self-perception and self-awareness open the way to recognising one’s own personality structure and to anchoring changes within the body.
Qigong in the prevention and healing of chronic illnesses and cancer (Part 1)
By Zheng Buyin
The health-promoting effect of Qigong is also being increasingly recognised in Europe, even if it is often not possible to say precisely how this effect arises. Zheng Buyin explains from the perspective of Chinese medicine how illnesses arise and how, in particular, standing exercises can help us to perceive unhealthy changes within the body at an early stage and to dissolve the blockages that cause these. In the following issue he will demonstrate how the »horse stance« and »standing like a tree« can be trained in an optimum manner.
A voyage of discovery through the Taiji form
Dingshi as a path to learning the basics of Taijiquan
By Janudin Setiawan
One characteristic of Taijiquan is the continual flow of motion. However, in the course of trai- ning it can be useful to remain a moment in the various end positions of the form movements. Here one can devote more attention to one’s own posture and improve this in line with the basic Taiji principles. This method is known as Dingshi. Janudin Setiawan explains essential aspects of this training method on the basis of the Zheng Manqing/Huang Xingxian tradition.
氣 Qì
An Asian paradox in a multi-perspective critical examination, Part 2: Qi in Taijiquan
By Peter Kuhn
In Qigong and in Taijiquan we make reference to Qi without perhaps being able to precisely explain what we mean by this. In the first part of his article, Peter Kuhn examined this phenomenon from various perspectives and questioned common translations such as ›energy‹ or ›life force‹. In the second part he looks at how the term is used in martial arts and above all in Taijiquan, and interprets Qi as an attempt to make observed processes understandable by labelling them.
Finding the roots in winter
By Katrin Blumenberg
In winter the best approach for us is to come to rest and direct our energies inwards, as nature shows us. In the third part of Katrin Blumenberg’s series in which she takes a psychosomatic-based view of the organ function spheres, she shows how collecting our energy and letting it settle can strengthen us from within and also gives us the opportunity to address deep-seated fears that are stored in the kidneys. Instead of lapsing into a winter torpor, we can remain in motion through Qigong and simultaneously experience calm. We can sense and investigate our own roots and if necessary grow new ones.