Dear Subscriber,
Two seminars are being planned for this year in New Jersey. One is going to be held at the First Presbyterian Church in Alexandria. It will be about Taijiquan DaoRen, the short form based on the movements of the Traditional Yang Family fist form. The other seminar is still being assembled and will be sponsored by the Hunterdon Medical Center. More about this later.
I will be quite busy during my sojourn in my country next year/2014. INAM (Integrative Medicine for Alternative Healthcare), the NGO that sponsored many of my seminars since 1998, is organizing seminars between August 21 and Sept 19, 2014. A short seminar for blind masseurs and masseuses has been scheduled for December 30 and 31 this year during my Christmas visit.
Included in the schedule in 2014 are these subjects:
Chi Nei Tsang internal organs massage
DragonWell Qigong
Xing Shen Zhuang Fa
Zhan Zhuang/Qigong Foundations and Taijiquan DaoRen
8 Extraordinary Vessels
Sword of Protection and Empowerment Qigong
6 Healing Sounds and 3 Breaths
Buddhist and Daoist Qigong
We will work with different groups: “stressed women,” “street kids” who live in shelters, blind bodyworkers, therapists and acupuncturists. Each group will have its own seminar. This will be a big challenge for everybody involved.
The Zhan Zhuang/Qigong foundations – Taijiquan DaoRen and Chi Nei Tsang will be open to the public and those who have taken Taijiquan with me. Get in touch with INAM for details. If you are not from the Philippines, you can still join the public seminars … and pay only the local tuition. There’s nothing extra but you will have to arrange your flights and board and lodging. There are many restaurants, B&Bs, hostels, boarding houses and hotels in the area.
For those who are interested in seeing the Philippines, there are many places you can explore: the famous rice terraces up north, Palawan and its underground river and quartz islands, Bicol and Mayon Volcano. The Philippines has 7,000 islands: you can look up your travel guide and decide which one impresses you.
I have taught many seminars in the Philippines. You can find the flyers in my website.
In the Writings section, there’s an essay, first written 10 years ago, now updated, about the legendary Tai chi chuan master Cheng Man-Ch’ing/Zheng Man Zing and raises the questions: How long did he study with Yang Cheng-Fu whom he claims as his teacher and what did he study with him? It is by no means the last word on the subject. If anybody is privy to materials about it, please step forward. I will be happy to be corrected if you have documentations and evidence that would be relevant to the colloquy. There’s also another essay about what I believe Tai chi chuan is all about. It is my own personal approach to the art as I research its sources and potentials.
Last but not least, I am reprinting my tribute to Grandmaster Johnny F. Chiuten, my first Shaolin master, whose third death anniversary is being observed this coming September. You’ll see it in the Blog along with several photos.
Blessings,
Rene J. Navarro
www.renenavarro.org