T’ai Chi Ch’uan

Teachers: John P. Milton & Bill Smith

A few notes on T’ai Chi Ch’uan from John:
T’ai Chi Ch’uan is an ancient, highly beneficial movement system from China. The numbers of benefits ascribed to it are quite amazing, yet in my own experience of over thirty years cultivating T’ai Chi Ch’uan ­ I have found all these extraordinary benefits to be true. To list just some of these benefits -
It is unexcelled for its ability to:

• Maintain high levels of health in all your organ systems,
• To increase your life energy (Qi),
• To develop your flexibility and endurance,
• To maintain and even increase your bone density ­ especially in the pelvis and legs,
• To reduce your stress and build your capacity to relax even when under attack,
• To accomplish from beginners to advanced levels of meditation in movement,
• To experience the joy of deep Oneness with Nature and Mother Earth,
• To develop the ability to deeply ground you in Mother Earth,
• And to eventually build an extraordinary capacity for self-defense without needing to harm others.

Also, it is a great joy to do it and you always feel wonderful afterwards.

Overall, I would like to share with you that the study and cultivation of T’ai Chi has been one of the most beneficial lineage practices I have ever received. For this same reason, I feel deeply compelled to give back as much of these gifts as possible, in whatever way I can. For many years (starting in 1980) I created and ran the Golden Flower School of T’ai Chi and Meditation in Arizona and Colorado. One of my best senior students, William Smith, is doing a wonderful job of actively carrying on the Golden Flower School in Florida and Colorado. Bill is also active in working with the Way of Nature Fellowship as both an excellent T’ai Chi and Qi Gong teacher.

I have included teaching the T’ai Chi form as an essential part of the Four Year Advanced Awareness Training process. I also teach the form progressively in segments during two to nine day T’ai Chi Ch’uan Intensives that are periodically scheduled, upon request, around North America and abroad.I have included teaching the T’ai Chi form as an essential part of the Four Year Advanced Awareness Training process. I also teach the form progressively in segments during two to nine day T’ai Chi Ch’uan Intensives that are periodically scheduled, upon request, around North America and abroad.

T’ai Chi Principles
John P. Milton
June 25, 2001
The benefits to practicing T’ai Chi Chuan on a regular, daily basis are incredible. But it must also be emphasized that these benefits can only come from consistent, regular cultivation over many years, combined with inner perseverance not to give up, and with the skilled teaching of a good teacher.

1. Relax and sink
2. Keep the mind in the tantien
3. Synchronous movement. All parts of the body move together like a string of pearls ­ so that when one part moves, all parts move, even if at different rates
4. Separate the weight in the legs. Clearly differentiate yin and yang. No “double weighting.”
5. Fair Lady’s hand and wrist
6. Become aware of the Bubbling Well point- sending down roots and feeling Mother Earth’s energy flowing up, filling the leg, and establishing a relationship with Mother Earth. This allows heaven Chi to flow down through body into earth and earth Chi to flow up through body to meet heaven. The earth connection fills the kidneys with Chi.
7. Body is supported from heaven by the spirit rising up through the bai hui point
8. Where the mind goes, the Chi follows
9. Breathe with lower abdomen
10. Tongue rests on upper palate
11. Eyes look out, slightly down at 50 degrees or level, wide open, soft, weighted mostly toward the outer peripheral vision.
12. Pelvis moves like a horizontal wheel, the hub is in the tantien
13. Feel connection between the right and left palms, particularly in the lao gung points
14. Chi function is opposite between palms. The nature of that depends on the weighting of the legs. When right leg is 70% yang, left palm is 30% yang; when left leg is 70% yin, right palm is 30% yin. Likewise, when right leg is 100% full (yang), the left palm is 100% empty (yin).
15. Head, spine, torso and pelvis move as one. This upper body meditation posture holds the meditative quality during movement.
16. Sink your Chi to tantien (center your awareness in the tantien)
17. Breathe fine, long, soft, smooth, even, calm, and slow.
18. Nourish Chi without forcing, wasting or harm
19. Arouse the Chi
20. Let the Chi stick to your back
21. Let the Chi gather in the spine
22. Over a long time of correct cultivation, the Chi sinks into the marrow of the bones and is stored there
23. Hui Yin point is at the perineum. The Hui Yin must be aligned with the Bai Hui (the crown point) for the spirit to raise to heaven
24. Diaphragm is the bow string for release of the Chi
25. Blood chi ­ inside, Atmospheric chi ­ outside; combine to form Yuan chi ­ spirit Chi
26. Don’t “clunk” when shifting weight from one foot into the other
27. Visualize and “feel” large and small circles extending out from arms and shoulders; the arms lie along one part of two larger “invisible” circles
28. Move with circular, flowing movements
29. The safest place to store the Chi is initially in the lower tantien, so keep your awareness resting there. Chi gathered and cultivated can also be stored in the 5 yin organs: liver, heart, spleen/pancreas, lungs and kidneys. It can also be stored in the marrow of the bones, Also, once the Chi has safely filled the lower tantien it can fill the middle tantien and then finally the upper tantien
30. Three faults:
    a) Perseverance (lack of)
    b) Greed (Too much knowledge gets in the way)
    c) Impatience
31. Fearlessness about:
    a) Bitter Work
    b) Investing in Loss
    c) Ferocity (No fear of Death)
32. Softness penetrates hardness.
33. Nothing can harm you once you have lost sense of self.

T’ai Chi, Meditation & the Shamanic Way
Teacher: John P. Milton
John developed this body of teachings to focus on helping you develop a powerful interconnectedness between inner and outer Nature. To accomplish this, John utilizes teaching tracking and stalking skills blended with instruction in the principles of T’ai Chi Chuan flow to open the practice of meditative movement. In addition, John shares practices that he has created over the years, combined with helpful exercises from other traditions. In particular, John utilizes the following key cultivation practices in this training:

• Dyadic (two-person) practices of eye-to eye meditation
• T’ai Chi “yin/yang” partnered “sensing hands”
• Meditations with the elements and beings of Nature
• Practices of cultivating/refining our perceptions
• Learning to follow perceptions, emotions and thoughts back to the Source within

A major goal of this training is to help you cultivate tools for growing into a more profound relationship with Nature, with others and to help you realize your innermost Essence. The ecology of the outer environment will be linked to the ecology of your inner landscape.

In addition to the specific practices mentioned above, you explore a variety of ancient sacred shamanic traditions that honor humanity’s connectedness with the earth. In particular, you experience the practices of shamanic journeying and the invocation of totem plants, animals and natural elemental forces.

To powerfully deepen this unique integration of T’ai Chi, Mediation and Shamanism - John also guides you into the world of vision questing and Sacred Passage, some of the oldest, most powerful, and universal spiritual practices on Earth. While practicing together in beautiful natural sanctuaries, you will also interweave moments of deep, silent communion together with periods of alone (AllOne) time. Throughout our time together, the Great Union of human nature and Great Nature will be cultivated as the fundamental ground out of which all healthy relationships arise. We will learn why vision questing lies at the very heart of the shamanic way.