Intensive taijiquan (tai chi chuan) course 2019

[Paz]

Hello everyone, I wanted to share some thoughts and experiences regarding the intensive Tai Chi Chuan Course that is taking place right now in Penang:

This course is surprising me, it's being wonderful!

The first day I felt the stances very intense and very deep, like never before in my life.

Today in the morning we were doing pushing hands, where we were learning and practicing to feel the other. I consider it's very useful to develop and practice this "feeling", not only in Tai Chi, but in life. Especially after this class we felt a deeper connection with our surroundings and other living beings, more "sensitive" and with a certain " sense" in the events around us.

Today in the afternoon, at the end of the class we expanded in a way that i experienced completely new, in a very calm and quiet way, i perceived a lot of clarity ... As if we were expanded, but at the same time we continued in class.

I have definitely been able to live new experiences that are making me enjoy this course a lot, in ways I would never have even suspected.

Thank you very much Sifu, this course is very special ... We are learning and enjoying a lot.

[sancrica]

Wonderful testimonial dear Simui. Very happy to read about your experiences. Thanks for sharing them in the forum. :-)

Shaolin Salute,

Santi

[Angel]

Dear all,

We just finished day 2 of the Intensive Tai Chi Chuan Course and thanks to Sifu´s marvelous speed videos from day one are now available through this link:

https://shaolin.org/video-clips-17/t.../overview.html

As Paz expressed in the opening post, the course is being wonderful. We are a small group of four people but thanks to Sifu´s transmission the radiating energy of the course feels as if we were at least 50.

Every aspect of the course is being presented in a very clear step by step process followed by a smoothing process that allow all of us to learn and apply the content in a very fast and coprehensive way.

Sifu´s transmission is being very deep and iluminating, i can find it not just during the exercises but also in the Q&A time and even outside the class. It´s like once this course started the benefit has no beggining and no ending, it´s there all the time!

For example, the Zhang Zhuan session was quite long, very powerful and generated a lot of mental clarity, energy flow and even perceptions of jing being reestructured deeply.

During the stances Sifu gave us a lot of specific and personaliced adjustments, as Ryan pointed today, Sifu even adjusted his thumb while in the horse riding stance.

And after that experience that all of us perceived as different and stronger than in other courses Sifu sat us and reviewed stance by stance showing finer and wrong points, answered as many questions as we asked and share some important insights about meditation about how to stabilize the body and to focus in the mind to expand it into the cosmos that really flashed me.

After all these beneficial sequences sifu asked us to perform again the zhang zhuan and the result was even better that the first time.

The cloud hands session it was like an advanced Cotton Palm course. We practiced to control the form, direction, speed, movement and other variables, the result was so powerful and my arms were so full of energy than after the practice i needed some time to be able of bend my elbows or even my fingers. It was the first time in my life than i perceive the gate of my shoulders opening so big and such a huge energy flow circulating into my arms, hands and beyond.

The Grasping Sparrow Tail practice it´s for me an example of how Sifu presents things from different perspectives, an exercise that i have practiced easily hundred or thousands of times and while learning it again at a physical level i had moments that it seems to me as something totally new and find my brain adjusting as much as he could to Sifu´s instructions.

Day two was focused in Pushing Hands, we continued with the step by step process followed by the smooth process and again the learning become incredibly alive and allowed us to learn and apply it very fast and in a very enjoyable way.

Sifu put special focus in the sensing skills and Sifu remarked the importance of developing them. Sifu added that sensing skills were better in Tai Chi Chuan than in Wing Choon. After the morning training we could feel a much better conexión with the enviroment outside the class.

In the last part of the afternoon training Sifu asked us to review the Cloud Hands we learned the day before and after that he leads us to a chi flow and without any special procedure to expand flowingly into the cosmos. I could literally perceive myself disappearing and feel the chi flowingly and without any effort or explosion expanding very high into the cosmos, in addition to this new experience the cosmic place where my energy expanded there was daylight, a total novelty for me.

Just to thank Sifu for kindly offer us this amazing course full of health, vitality, longevity, combat efficiency and spiritual joys. Wei foong for taking care of us in so many ways. Ryan, Kristian and Paz for enhance so much the experience.

I´m looking forward to see what`s coming next…

Best regards,

Ángel

[LeeWeiJoo]

Always a delight to read about course experiences from the participants.

Thank you Paz and Angel for sharing

With Shaolin Salute,
Lee Wei Joo

[RyanS]

Dear all,

As Paz and Angel have shared, this Taijiquan Intensive Course has been a quite special for all of us, which we are very grateful to Sigung for. We are now halfway through Day 3 and I am continuously amazed at the profundity and vibrancy of this training (and marvel that it is only Day 3!).

I am fortunate to have attended Taijiquan Intensive Courses before and I feel even more fortunate to be here this week - I fully experienced the stances being "alive" during our training, and more deeply felt the simple joy of zhan zhuang, thanks to Sigung's guidance and transmissions. Previous to this course, I did not fully understand how a stance could properly be described as "alive" but thanks to Sigung I can now speak, and work forward, from direct experience. This is something I consider priceless.

As noted in Sigung's writings and lessons, after the fundamentals of form, flow, force, and philosophy are established, the focus moves to building up the level of skill in each of those aspects. It is amazing to see and experience the many, many levels of skill available to us in Sigung's teachings and transmissions; this being my third Taijiquan Intensive, the vast amount of techniques, tactics, skills, and power within the Shaolin Arts made available to us by Sigung is frankly incredible - and even more incredible is how much we are able to expand and improve in just a few days. The intricacies and near-limitless options within just Grasping Sparrow's Tail and Cloud Hands is wondrous to behold, and especially rewarding to experience at a deeper level because of past Courses and regular training.

I am deeply honored to have the opportunity to continue on this path as charted by the past masters and Sigung, and grateful for Sigung's simple, direct, and effective (yet profound and expansive) teachings, in this Course and others. On to top of all this, Day 4 and 5 still await!

With gratitude and respect,
Ryan

[LeeWeiJoo]

Thank you, Ryan, for giving us a glimpse of the Intensive Taijiquan Course being conducted by Sifu as well

With Shaolin Salute,
Lee Wei Joo

[Angel]

Dear all,

Yesterday was day 3 and the course was full of learning. In the morning session Sifu lead us by all the proactive and reactive tactics of mobile pushing hands in just one hour and fifteen minutes! We all thought that time was over but we still had 45 minutes more to train! Sifu gave us some instructions and leave the class to allow us to continue practicing all the tactics between ourselves until the end of the session without feeling pressed by his presence. The practice was very useful, i received very useful advice form my partners during practice, some of that advice Sifu corrected me again today on day 4. After the enjoyable practice we all did a chi flow and leave the hall very satisfied.

As i stated in my first post, Sifu is focusing a lot in this course in speeding up the learning process, we are learning a lot of things in a very short time, however, the final result it´s not being brain fried but ending with a very clear and complete picture of every step and teaching.

The afternoon session it was amazing, we reviewed the full cloud hands form, and had a very powerful session of exploding force. Sifu show us how to generate a lot of chi flow with just two or three repetitions of the pattern selected and then how to explode force many times without being tired at all. Sifu went one by one through black tiger steals heart, single whip, all the patterns one by one of grasping sparrows tail, lone drake leaves crowd, shoulder strike, elbow strike and showed us how to have strong anchors to the ground to be very solid stepping strong to the ground, this powerful exercise brang to Sifu´s memory the holes in the ground of the shaolin temple. Then we merge the solid step with the mobile shoulder strike and elbow strike and the result was outstanding in solidness and control but surprisingly also in agility.

The result of this long sequence of exploding force was surprising, every pattern had something to teach and the final result was very deep and strong. After that practice, when we spar between us i felt Paz, Ryan and Kristian much more powerful and solid than before .

Another special feature that surprised us is that after the teaching of how to generate a lot of flow from one to three repetitions of the pattern or patterns selected he includes the consolidation of the tai chi chuan force and the explosion of it. It really was a very powerful adding, and form me it was the first time that see Sifu teaching how to consolidate a tremendous chi flow in tai chi chuan. Our hands were literally vibrating but the movements were very well controled and the explosion of force was very very strong. I could feel a lot of force projected out of my hands and shoulders.

Another feature of this special session was when Sifu taught us how to explode force with all the body, not just the part that is striking at that moment. It was eye opening to see Sifu demonstrating that skill, even the exploding sound he made appears to emerge from all his body, not just his lungs, as if his body was insondable deep and the sound emerged form every pore like a locomotive but finally the chi flowed focused through the striking hand. Really amazing.

The afternoon session was two hours long but we had time to train very deep all the things described before and all the striking hands System! It was not just passing through the content superficially, we learn in a very complete way and experiencing different variables of all the general attacks and defence modes of striking, kicking, feeling and gripping. Sifu also taught us how to use the new developed flowing but consolidated and exploding force to defend and attack. After this block of striking hands we all were very surprised of the high skill level transmitted by Sifu. As Sifu said all we have to do now is to put the time to train it very well until it becomes second nature for us.

I was going to write that during the course i felt very happy and calm without reason, i also perceive that Paz, Kristian and Ryan were very happy too during the practice and i just remember that we had two beautiful experiences of expanding into the cosmosAdded to all this amazing teaching we had two beautiful expansions one as the first thing we did to start the class and the other as the last thing we did to finish the class. It was very funny for me at that moment that after coming back to earth Sifu said, normally after that experience people want to have some time to themselves and be calm, but now we are going to continue with our schedule and practice our mobile pushing hands. It was like, ok, now you are going to develop a new kind of force against laziness hahaha.

After this beautiful day 3 we all 4 enjoyed some delicious food in a chinese restaurant in Penang, i was amazed that we were full of force and happiness along the last part of the day. In a funny way we are calling the course not the intense Tai Chi Chuan Course but the Intense Intense Course

Thank you Lee, i´m glad that you are enjoying the posts. It would be great to see you soon, may be next june in KL courses with Sifu.

Best regards,

Ángel

[Kristian S.]

Dear all,

To echo what Angel, Paz, and Ryan have already so excellently related, this course has been a masterful, powerful, INTENSE*, and extremely generous teaching at an incredible level of breadth and depth.

Sifu, a living example of his teachings and generosity, has shared with us, over and over, the best of the best of the very, very best throughout each day of this course. It has been humbling, enriching, and has expanded my understanding and ability many times over already, with still more to go!

With very little prior TCC experience and a lot of time spent preparing, there have been lots and lots of great learning moments that have been tremendously beneficial in altering and correcting my many gaps and habituated divergences from good form, use of the waist, and distance and timing, to footwork, relaxation, and and keeping my hands "alive". This has felt like a quantum leap in accelerated progress at a very very deep level.

We have so far been generously gifted with some powerful stance training breakthroughs, incredible sensing skill development, profound insight into the use of the body in form, flow, and force, pushing hands, striking hands, and now the beginnings of the combat sequences, alongside many tactics, approaches to training each skill, and our skills within skills (i.e use of solid force and quality form, with good flow, while developing the tactic of continuous attack, etc).

If I am not mistaken, we have also expanded into the cosmos in almost every single session so far, if not all of them, and each has had a unique 'flavor' and profundity. Wonders begetting wonders.

I am really hoping to verbally-unload in a deeper manner once back and having processed these treasures more fully, but will continue to update and expand further as we approach the last few sessions of this most incredible course, that has already been filled to the brim with gifts by Sifu.

Thank you, Sifu, for your endless generosity, extreme excellence in teaching, patience and care with our development and progress, and for so openly sharing and in fact ensuring the receipt of, treasured gifts and secrets that most people today or in times past would never have the opportunity to encounter and be aware of, let alone have the chance to work hard to attain.

To more fun and diligent work improving on what we have been given and also learning what is to come!

Peace from Penang,

Kristian

[Damian Kissey]

Thanks much to lucky Paz , Ryan , Angel and Kristian for wonderful sharings from the Intense Intense TCC Course conducted by our Maverlous Sifu

[Paz]

Thank you Santi, Lee Wei Joo and Damian for your kind comments!

Just finished the course and I would like to add some extra details:

I feel that this course has been happening at the mind level. I think this has been a really special opportunity to learn and very different from other courses I've been in.
We expanded every day, sometimes twice each day. Each of the expansions has been guided and experienced in a very particular way ... I mean, the experiences of expansion have been very different from each other, the sensations have varied a lot. It seems to me as if we have been training expanded at the level of the mind, at least for a long time.
In some way reminds me of dragon's strength, like the sensation of being awake and lucid sometimes.

It also happened to me that I felt very happy without an apparent reason and at the same time very serene ... In fact I think it has happened to all of us. The course has created a fun and supportive environment. Thanks to Angel, Ryan and Kristian for their good reviews and feedback and of course the great improvements that Sifu made us.

In addition, it has also given me the impression of having expanded my perception continuously. When I have thought that I understand something, I suddenly see myself on a new level experiencing a new version of that aspect, for example with a stance, or a pattern, or even a personal matter. We have commented frequently on this, outside of class, the phrase "same, same but different" has come up a lot, in more everyday things in this case, but maybe because in the course it has happened to a deep level in many different ways.

Many thanks again to Sifu for everything he teaches us! your teachings are a valuable gift for our lives and existence.

Warm regards to everyone!

[Angel]

Thank you very much Damian, i agree with you, we are all very lucky in Shaolin Wahnam, our Marvelous Sifu is extremely generous with all of us.

Day 4 and 5 are done and the general perspective of the course is difficult to explain but is like being able to see the course from the cosmos and perceive all the different teachings appearing from the void and returning to it. There were moments when the teachings appeared in a very strong way, like in day 4 during learning some sequences and combinations of them, the session convert in almost a free sparring session where strikes were very well controled and a lot of internal force was used, i can remember perfectly the loud noise that made Kristian and Ryan arms while defending and attacking. In other times the teachings were so soft, expanded and connected with everything.

Sifu´s time management is out of this world, some sessions where so deep and full of skill and techniques learning using all the time available to it giving the impression that it was impossible to do so many things in the time given and another sessions we achieve also a lot and when all goals where done in what we perceived as "normal time" we finished the class and after that we discovered that Sifu´s finished one hour or even one hour and a half before the time scheduled. Specially the first day, i had the impression that we covered at least 4 or 5 days in just 1 day. It´s like expanding and contracting time.

Along the course there were a lot of opportunities to perceive weaknesses and points for improvements at all levels. Sometimes it could be hard to see some of the points but it´s always a good thing to be able to connect with this openings that allow much future development. I don´t know why, may be it´s because the tai chi chuan approach, but this time the experience of discovering these weaknesses or opportunities for improvement was very light and heart opening.

The benefits of the course applied to the daily life applied almost immediately and in a very evident way in many of the learnings, like flowing with the time and be able to be very relaxed, move in a continuous productive flow along the day, being able to feel an upgraded quality connection with the environment after pushing hands, enhanced energy, being very calm and happy without apparent reason and so on...

In day 4 and 5 we continued learning and practicing, focused at the skill level all the remaining sequences and forms, learned how to develop our own forms at different levels and for different purposes, practiced the tortoise method with one selected form to improve form, generate a lot of internal force and other benefits, counters against pin downs, knee strikes and other attacks and from time to time having nice chi flows at different levels ranging from avoid or clear injuries to expanding into the cosmos.

I consider this course pretty amazing, with a profound effect in my spiritual relaxation, it´s getting clear and clear for me how Sifu leaded us to be really able to relax our spirit and allow it to expand as never before, i will always be grateful with Sifu for this special connection that allows to enjoy deep calm, happiness, freedom and expansion from inside out and in a relaxed way. Thank you, thank you, thank you and always thank you Sifu.

In the graduation dinner Sifu said that in Penang there are two types of food, good food and very good food. Last day i was thinking in relation to this that in Shaolin Wahnam Sifu offers two types of courses, great courses and marvelous courses, and i´m sure that we are all very lucky and happy because of that.

Warm regards,

Ángel

[sancrica]

Beautiful testimonies. Thank you all for sharing your inspiring experiences. Your testimonies brought me fond memories of my Tai Chi Chuan Intensive Course in Penang some years ago.

It is amazing how much Sifu can teach in just 5 days. I remember that when I went back to Dublin I had the feeling that those 5 days contained more than a lifetime homework! I still feel astonished of how many lessons those 5 days contained.

With Love, Care and Shaolin Salute,

Santi

[Mark CH]

Awesome thanks for sharing all from Penang