CLASSES

Movement Wisdom run a number of Tai Chi and QiGong Classes every week in Leeds and Otley: -

To book your place call 07788 634057 or e-mail jason@better-body.co.uk

TaiChi is the ancient Chinese system of physical health and self defence. Records show that different variations of TaiChi have been hugely popular for achieving life long health and protection in China for thousands of years and many are still immensely popular today.  In the West we are just learning about the many health benefits of this ancient practice.  

Deeper investigation shows the fine details of authentic TaiChi are in tune with some of the most modern scientific principles of human health and function being discovered today with the use of modern techniques like MRI scans and clinical trials. 

Because China was a feudal system and fighting was an everyday occurrence, the secrecy and selective teaching of martial training techniques created many forms of TaiChi with varying degrees of depth and application. Therefore today we have a vast range of TaiChi styles which attempt to address different aspects of the complete range of benefits available from training. 

Tai Chi has become a worldwide phenomenon and most Westerners will recognise the slow-motion style routines that groups of people practice together every morning in parks around the world, particularly in China.  However, authentic Tai Chi has 4 levels of practice, of which the apparently slow movements are just one. 

TaiChi should also include all the health benefits of QiGong practice as well as integrating the body’s own innate ability to defend itself for survival.  Each successive generation of TaiChi teachers added their own experiences on the battlefield to the TaiChi form, refining it and perfecting it. 

NeiJia TaiJi Quan is an art with a long and colourful history, boasting some very highly respected teachers of Shaolin ancestry in China.

NeiJia (internal school) TaiJi (great ultimate) Quan (fist) is pronounced 'Niyshyar Tyeshee Chuwen.'   PhD Research in  the library at Shaolin Temple by 31st generation layman monk Shi DeLon (pictured top in yellow and in the photo above, second left) shows It to be an original internal system of training with roots reaching back at least 2500 years, before the founding of Shaolin Temple.

In the format that existed before even Shaolin Temple, a monk named Cha'n Zhang Fu created Tai Chi!  At the time it was known as 'Shaolin Rou Quan' (noodle hand) according to knowledge passed on by the late Abbot Shi XuXie (pictured left, above with ShiFu Shi DeLon, Shi DeChen and Shi XuWen)

The principle of the training was to move as though pushing, pulling and stretching raw noodles without breaking them.  The student learned when to be hard, when to be soft, when to be fast and when to be slow.  As it developed into two person drills it became known as Rou Shou and the person you were training with became your noodle!

Observation shows us that many of the Chen's TaiJi movements are extremely similar to older Shaolin movements and forms.  In addition Chens village is just a short journey from Shaolin Temple and Chen's TaiJi is just 300 years old by comparison. It would seem logical therefore that the Chen ancestors learned at least some RouQuan from Shaolin Temple.

Qi (Chi, Chee) is an ancient Chinese term meaning ‘that which does’. It refers to anything that creates a change in anything else. That could be light, heat, cold, sound, vibration, oxygen, air, electricity, magnetism etc. 

Gong (Kung, Gung) is Chinese for any skill learned by a person over a long period of time 

Qi-Gong therefore literally means the learned skill to create change using different mediums and is an energy healing practice with an unbroken clinical record of 6000 years in Chinese medicine and is immensely popular today. 
 

When practiced by a trained and experienced practitioner, Shaolin QiGong is a very effective preventative and self healing therapy for maintaining the health of the body.  The Shaolin 8 silk brocades QiGong exercises are designed to stimulate the endocrine system and boost the health of the internal organs meaning a longer, happier and more active life for the practitioner.

Shaolin QiGong is also an effective therapy for diseases and illnesses because the QiGong healer boosts the defensive energy of the person being treated, guiding their Qi to clear old blockages.  The Shaolin Laymonks' case studies of Cancer, MS and other treatments in the UK and abroad show remarkable results  www.shaolin.org.uk/en/chikung/.

Many people pursue QiGong as a medical profession in China.  Indeed it is Jason's Teacher ShiDeLon who is pioneering the establishment of Shaolin QiGong as a medical science through his PhD research.

QiGong is also practiced as a spiritual path of connectedness with one's self or as a component of martial arts practice.

This unusual art sees the ‘medicine’ taken for illnesses as just the stimuli to promote change and NOT the actual healing agent.  As these stimuli enter the bloodstream, chemical reactions are triggered which boost the ‘WaiQi’ or defensive response of the immune system. This causes the metabolism to accelerate and work to restore the Ying-Yang balance of the disturbed life force. The body and mind are stimulated until a healthy balance is restored. 

The Shaolin Qi-Gong energy healing method is based on the concept that its mainly the efforts of the patient’s own mind and ‘WaiQi’ defensive energy stimulating the release of hormones that restores them to health. 

Qi energy is the stimulus used in this healing process and the skill lies in accumulating, circulating, and working with Qi energies within the students own body. 

 

Jason Dean started training in 1993. He began by studying traditional Southern Chinese physical culture including the Hung Kuen and Chow Gar Mantis as well as hard and soft QiGong training.  All of this was included as part of the syllabus of the Steelwire Mantis System at the TEMPLE SCHOOL of KungFu in London. His teacher ShiFu Shi DeLon is a 31st Generation Shaolin Laymonk. 

Jason later began to learn the long term disciplines of Shaolin Qi Gong & NeiJia Tai Chi Quan under ShiFu Shi DeLon. Jason became a ‘Family Member’ at the end of 1994 and an ‘Indoor Student’ some years later. In 2005 he was given the great honour of being accepted as a Shaolin Laymonk under Sifu Shi DeLon and was given the Shaolin name Shi Xing Lik - which means "great power inside". 

After being made an official Shaolin student of Sifu Shi DeLon, Jason has continued to learn Chinese Tui Na & Wai Qi emissions (Qi Gong healing). Shi Xing Lik continues to study and teach NeiJia TaiChi Quan & Shaolin Qi Gong under the expert tutelage of ShiFu Shi DeLon. 

Classes in NeiJia TaiChi Quan are held in Moortown, Leeds and Otley.

For more information about the theories and practices of TaiChi and info on our classes contact Jason

email jason@better-body.co.uk with the subject TAICHI

or

call Jason 07788634057 for an informal chat.