Taiji Quan Workshops in Sweden

Hi!

Universal Taiji Quan School Sweden are holding two week end workshops:

Workshop I: Push-hands for students practicing at least one third of the form.

Date: Apri 18-19 l Stockholm Sweden

Workshop II: Form workshop for beginners and those who wants to practice the first half of the form. Intoduction in push-hands is included.

Date: April 25-26 april Sundsvall Sweden

Form: Professor Cheng Man Ching simplifierd Taiji Quan 37 postures (The short Yang form)

For more information and application please contact Taiji Quan teacher Kjell Flodgren:

E-mail:info@wuwei.se

Tel: +46-(0)8-653 04 60

Information in Swedish: www.wuwei.se

About teaching Taiji Quan!

Some days ago I published some of my reflexions about teaching Taiji Quan at : “tccforum”, a Taiji Quan forum for people studying in the tradition of Professor Cheng Man Ching.

My writing was inspired by an lecture on YouTube by a fellow practitioner and a colleague, Tom Krapu. I guess not every one can access tccforum so here you have my reflexions about teaching Taiji Quan!

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THE MIND SET OF A TAIJI QUAN TEACHER

Thank you Tom for your You Tube video “I have no history”!

I think this is a great video for every teacher in any profession or circumstance. For those of you who have not seen this video, please look at it before you read my text:
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdAIap0r5Xw

Every teacher wants to make an impact but if there is a self serving purpose involved in the teaching I also believe that the impact is being reduced significantly.

“Knowing ignorance is strength, ignoring knowledge is sickness, but the one who is sick of sickness is not sick”. This line from Tao The Ching, to me, points out the importance of a constructive mind set within every one of us and of course within the teacher.

Many times I’ve met teachers who really did not digest the teachings being given to them, to the extent that they themselves have “impact but no history”. Instead many teachers seams to be stuck within a self serving framework.

What is the “suchness” of a good teacher and what can I do to become a good teacher?

The Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh once said: “Sometimes people think to much and sometimes the thinking is not so useful”. One might change one word and a new sentence is born: “Sometimes people talk to much and sometimes the talking is not so useful”.

Of course the teacher should have studied diligently for a renown teacher determined to convey Taiji Quan the way that it was taught to him/her.

Looking for a teacher my teacher Ben Lo advises people to ask a classical question to any teacher they might consider choosing: “Who is your teacher´s teacher”. If you have a steady lineage to great teachers then he/she might be good. Still you might be mistaken!

Of course the teacher certainly must invite himself/herself to teach in the best way possible, in humbleness, and also invite herself/himself to take the practice and teachings to a even higher level. Being a student of Ben Lo’s I believe that practicing, in itself, is essential.

The midnight sun in the archipelago of Luleå Sweden

When I saw Tom’s You Tube video “I have have no history” I really felt the connection between one’s own practice and the way of constructive teaching described by Tom, having impact but no history.

How can you avoid winding up in a self serving way of teaching?

I believe one piece of the answer is to practice a lot not trying to achieve any ting but inviting an open mind and a broadened perspective upon what you are actually doing.

I believe that all practicing must rely upon experiencing and realizing the essence of a subject, like Taiji Quan, from within instead of working to much with creating constructs in the mind.

The teacher´s mission, I believe, is to show the student the fastest way to progress like Ben Lo once put it, not take the student on a d-tour.

Talking to much, practicing less, I believe, is a d-tour. Having a “to good” self esteem is another example. Many other examples are of course available.

Getting older the memory is weakened for every one of us. Practicing and applying the basic Taiji Quan principles in every day living is the best way I know to remember and reinforce the essential message of Taiji Quan and of course a basis for being able to teach in a constructive way.

Practicing Taiji Quan with a firm focus upon the basic principles is nothing fancy or special  but hard work and a constructive way of improving both perception and action.

I myself have been working with pain patients, as a clinical psychologist, for the last twenty years, trying to apply the basic Taiji Quan principles in my work.

I have tried to be creative and thus I have tried to make adjusted exercises based upon basic Taiji Quan’s principles for my patients. I try to apply the principles myself and with my patients in practice and in every day living, standing, moving/ walking, walking the stairs, sitting and so on.

For example focusing on letting go of your body weight into the ground, a collaboration with gravity, paves the road towards relaxation, the most important basic principle. More and more you will then be able to focus on every aspect of yourself in a listening, gentle and constructive way.

I think paying attention to basic principles also is the best focus possible in teaching, whatever you are teaching.

I also believe that the teacher needs to invite himself/herself to be a student of his/her student. If this is not the case I believe that the teacher is not a good teacher regardless of age, level and so on. One can call this position an invitation to openness.

I also believe that teachers need to invite themselves to “have no history” to make the best of their teachings – to have an impact.

© Kjell Flodgren

The story of the Training School Teacher

Once upon a time there was a…… no this is a real story, a story from life it self, although sometimes I wondered myself.

I guess everybody practising Taiji Quan has read or heard the line from the Classics “Be still as a mountain, move like a great river”.

The year was 1980 I believe. I was working as a Psychologist with mentally retarded people, all ages, in a little town, Sollefteå, in the middle parts of Sweden (se picture below).

I was rather new at this job not knowing the teachers at this Training School that well. A Training School, here in Sweden, is a School for the severest mentally retarded/handicapped children.

Sollefteå City and the Ångermanälven (älv = river) Ångermanland Sweden

It was lunch time. Being hungry I asked the male teacher where to eat. He responded that we could eat in the dining hall of the school. Being a vegetarian I was a little bit hesitant but the teacher persuaded me that the staff surely would be able to offer me some food of my taste.

I knew this teacher as a rather quite, creative and a very nice person and we started walking towards the dining hall across the school yard. We? Suddenly I found my self lagging behind. I was behind and the distance seamed to be growing all the time. I had to struggle to keep up with his pace and while doing so I found myself observing him closely. It almost looked like he was “eating the ground” on his way to the dining hall.

The teacher was a rather tall guy and looking at him walking gave me the impression that nothing, coming in his way, could stop him. I saw the firm contact of his feet to the ground. It gave the impression that his legs carried his upper body effortlessly and at the same time his walking radiated a pronounced power. As I remember he always looked calm, collected and relaxed, an impression he always gave no matter what he was doing. The children loved their teacher.

At the time I had this experience I did not now what to make of it. Many times during the years I noticed that I am still contemplating this memory. Now I know that this experience have influenced me greatly. Without knowing why his walking was that striking at the time, I now believe that it emphasised the importance of grounding, an aspect of importance for every one of us, all the time, in our lives.

“Be still as a mountain, move like a great river”.

© Kjell Flodgren All rights reserved

The beginning of my Taiji Quan story

This is my own Taiji Quan story in a condensed version:

I started to practice Taiji Quan 1985 with Ulf, a colleague of mine. When I was younger I was into athletics of all kinds. I can say that I almost was addicted to movements of all kinds, high jumping, foot ball, running, heavy weight lifting and so on.

After studies in Psychology at the University i Umeå, Sweden, I was asked by a friend of mine, Kent, to go with him to a Taiji Quan workshop during one week. I did not know almost anything about Taiji Quan and lacking money I hesitated for some time but finally I decided to go.

During and after the workshop I became like a thirsty man looking for water in the desert. I “learnt” the form quickly and went on attending classes and workshops with a lot of domestic and foreign teachers .

My drive to learn Taiji Quan was really intense but still there were something that did not go together for me in the practice. In a strange way I felt that many instructions did not give me the guidance I felt I needed. The fokus upon self defence teknics were there already when I still was struggling to stand relaxed in the upright position. Of course in this kind of situation many people, I myself too, started to blame myself for the “failure”. I felt like a questionmark.

In the year 1989 me and my friend Göran, both members of a Zen Association, decided to try to invite somebody with longer and more profound experience of Taiji Quan practices to teach us. Göran had a previous experience from Benjamin Pang Jeng Lo’s teachings, when he was visiting the US during 1970, so we decided to try to invite Ben Lo to teach a workshop in Sweden. The Zen Association was positive and the workshop was held in October 1989. After this workshop we invited Ben to lead two workshops in Sweden every year for several years.

For me this workshop really was the start of my deep interest in Taiji Quan. His teachings were physically and mentally demanding, focused and precise. The focus was at Taiji Quan’s basic principles and he wanted us to practice diligently to be able to enjoy the benefits of the practice, and so I did.

After that workshop with Ben Lo the confusion was even bigger but my determination even stronger. Working a lot with Physiotherapists with pain management I noticed that the principles of Taiji Quan really were applicable, or should I say the principles that were conveyed to me/us by Ben Lo.

Group picture at Ben Lo workshop in Ossendecht, The Nederlands 2006

© Kjell Flodgren

Taiji Quan and the applications of its fundamental principles in everyday living

Thank’s for popping by!

I just came home from a lunch with a Taiji Quan friend of mine from Belgium. The sun was shining here in Stockholm and the wind indicated an approaching shift in weather. We sat talking for hours around our Taiji Quan practice, teachings, applications of the Taiji principles in everyday living and of course some “small talk too“. A very nice moment in life! Being part of the Taiji Quan society feels like having friends all over the planet.

I myself have been studying Taiji Quan diligently for 22 years now and I know I will go on for the rest of my life. Why? I think I haven´t figured it out. The only thing I can say right now is that it has proved to be one of the most constructive thing to give priority to.

I use the principles always while walking, standing and in whatever I do all around the clock. Of course I also practice the form and some push-hands too.

In my position as a Psychologist at a Pain Clinic here in Stockholm I also use Taiji Quan training with my patients, not in the formal sense as practicing the form, but I am inviting them to use the Taiji Quan principles all the time in every day living with great results.

During the years of practice I, more and more, have noticed how well the Taiji principles really go together with many psychological theories. In fact, using Taiji Quan principles are many times the best way to help people to follow psychological principles improving their coping capabilities and so on.

Having enjoyed Ben Lo’s teachings for many years now I like to express my gratefulness to him. For me he is not just a great practitioner and a teacher, he also is a very nice human being of high standards. I really benefited from his teaching i practice, on a personal level and also my work as a pain psychologist has developed a lot.

Talking about prevention of illness I found that The Taiji Principles can affect both bodily, psychologically, relational and existential aspects of our life.

I hope to be able to share some of my experiences and observations of the practice of Taiji Quan and it´s applications in life. I hope we all can share and discuss for the benefit of living a good life.

Welcome to take part!

Mr Kjell Flodgren
Universal Taiji Quan School Sweden, S:t Eriksgatan 48, 112 34 Stockholm, Sweden

info@wuwei.se
+46-(0)8-653 04 60

The Lainio River in Kangos Norrbotten Sweden

© Kjell Flodgren