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Time for Change
In response to the uncertainty of these times, and in conjunction with the online training programme 'Time for Change', Clive's focus this year is on encouraging a greater sense of purpose in life. Along with this theme comes an emphasis on what he calls our pure presence. This is a conscious recognition of the personal power required to bring about change. These themes inform the chigung classes and especially the three retreats planned for the year. There is a clear and urgent need to stem the rising tide of anxiety and mass insecurity. The solution is to be with what's happening in the knowledge that it is time for change and the new must come. But how can we submit to the imperative of change without suffering from pressure and stress? The current work is intended to reconcile you to what's happening, to live with the pressure and yet be without anxiety or stress.
The Hestercombe Chi Gung Group
At The Memorial Hall, Cheddon Fitzpaine, Taunton, Somerset TA2 8JY
Wednesday mornings 11am - 12.15pm.
Subject to Covid restrictions classes may be cancelled at short notice. Those on the class register will be kept informed by email.
Sinking Your Chi
19 January - 16 February (5 weeks)
We will continue to work with Essential Elements - the building blocks of all chigung and taichi movements - and this time we will focus on sinking chi and rising energy. Movements will be drawn from Taichi 15 and we will further refine the six movements of 'Gods Playing in the Clouds'.
Cost £40 for five classes. Beginners may join this class.
Spring Chi
9 March - 13 April (6 weeks)
In the last series of classes we were engaged with 'sinking chi'. This was a preparation for regulating the chi that rises as earth energy and is drawn up into the body. We need this rising chi to bubble up naturally and stream into the upper body without running into too much contracted or stuck energy. So we continue to sink the chi, and along with it we surrender the tension that accumulates around stuck energy. To the extent that the body is free and easy, we will notice that there is a 'springiness' of motion in our performance of the exercises. We continue to learn Taichi 15 and use movements from 'Gods Playing in the Clouds' as a means to perceive the flow of chi through our inner space.
Cost £48 for six classes. This class is not suitable for complete beginners.
Opening to Chi
11 May - 15 June (6 weeks)
The essential elements of chigung include three particular dynamics of chi: circling/rotating, sinking/rising and opening/closing. We've covered the first two in previous classes so in this series we'll focus on opening movements and in that way become more open to the flow of chi. And we'll continue working with the movements of Taichi 15 and 'Gods Playing in the Clouds'.
Cost £48 for six classes. This class is not suitable for complete beginners.
Summer Chi
Occasional outdoor practice announced by email to class members at short notice.
Autumn Sessions
7 September - 12 October (6 weeks)
This is the opportunity for a new intake of group members. So if you're interested in using chigung to support a more conscious way of living you can join the group this autumn. We will be working with the movements of Shibashi Taichi - a set often used to introduce beginners to chigung, but which can be developed to an advanced level. We will focus on refinements of movements 1-9. Those who have been attending these classes for years will find elements in Shibashi that they haven't encountered before. Those who have been through the Essential Elements programme, and who have explored 'Gods Playing in the Clouds' in recent times, will go further into the perception of chi.
Cost £48 for six classes.
Winter Sessions
9 November - 14 December (6 weeks)
This series of classes has been postponed due to illness.
These classes will be at a different venue and start earlier than before. We're moving temporarily to Friends House in Bath Place, Taunton. Sessions (10.30am - 12.30pm) will include some standing chigung and neigung exercises. In the first part of the class we will review Shibashi movements 10 - 18 with refinements. After a break we will do some meditative sitting practice to develop the perception of chi. This class is not suitable for complete beginners. The cost is £60 for six mornings including refreshments. Please attend all sessions to get the full benefit. If you know in advance you can't attend one of the classes, there's a discount of £10 using code £10OFF at the checkout.
Refining Your Chi
'Just as they drill for oil, and then must refine it to make it serve us, so when we draw on earth energy it serves us to refine it. And that is done by first applying our awareness to what's happening in practising chigung movements, and then refining that awareness until it becomes a perception of chi. It's really only when the perception is refined that the chi we draw on from all sources serves our wellbeing. In the last set of classes we were working with the first nine movements of Shibashi and giving attention to the way the key components in each movement work together to enhance 'the volume of chi'. It's important in more advanced practice to become increasingly aware of that volume of chi in the space we occupy. In these Winter Sessions we will review Shibashi movements 10 - 18 with the same attention to key components. When there's enough awareness of the way chi functions during the movements, the next step is to perceive the chi as the energy of a presence that is there whether moving or not. After a break in the class we will do some meditative sitting practice to develop that perception.' - Clive Tempest
More About Chi Gung with Clive Tempest.
Read what people say about practising chigung with Clive here.
Spring Retreat: Life with Purpose
Monday 25 April to Friday 29 April 2022
Our third visit to Florence House, a lovely villa by the sea on the South Coast of England, to bring new energy and purpose to the practice of conscious living. Chigung exercises, meditations, talks and dialogues. Mainly vegetarian/vegan cuisine. The retreat is easy to reach by train from London and from Gatwick or Heathrow airports. Cost: £700/600 single/shared, fully inclusive of accommodation, all meals and course fee.
See full details.
Summer Chi Gathering in Finland
Four-day Residential Retreat
Labbnäs, Kimito, Finland
18 - 21 August 2022
Arrival for lunch 13.00 on Thursday 18 August.
Departure after tea 16.00 Sunday 21 August.
Rooms and meals: Single €330 / Shared €285 per person.
Course fee: €275
The annual visit to the Labbnäs Semesterhem will take place in the third week of August this year. Being at Labbnäs we can get close to Nature - there's the lake, the wind in the trees, the breeze in the reed beds, the sunshine and the rain. The presence of Nature is the companion of our own natural presence and is our helper as we strip out the conditioning we've inherited from the past. Everyone has love for the natural world, regardless of their busy lives. But can we live and love in our own presence, despite what's going on? Our purpose is to purify that presence. Then into our lives may come mercy, gratitude and grace. In the chigung work we will focus on the three essential dynamics of movement found in all forms of taichi - because they draw us towards our pure presence. Then it has to be made conscious through recognising what life is, in all its forms and in the formless. So there will be movement, talks and dialogues, and spells of sitting still in silence.
Booking is open. Go to clivetempest.com/chi-gathering
Read about previous Chi Gatherings at Labbnäs
Autumn Retreat: Your Pure Presence
Monday 17 October to Friday 21 October 2022
Join us again at Florence House in Sussex for a week of energising relaxation as Clive introduces you to 'pure presence'. When you come to the end of your psychological life - at least as the driver of what goes on in you - and you're able to live a more conscious life, accepting everything as it is, then you realise there's been a radical change and that what happens for you day to day is informed with new purpose. The realisation of what your life is can then be sustained moment-by-moment. People talk about 'living in the now', or 'being present', as if that's an experience that just happens by grace. And that's true. But to sustain a conscious life you have to know what your pure presence is. 'Being present' or 'living in the now' are meaningless terms unless 'the present' and your pure presence are one and the same. Chigung exercises introduce the energy necessary to realise your own presence. But that has to be purified. Come and find out how to incorporate purity in your presence.
Cost: £725/625 single/shared, fully inclusive of accommodation, all meals and course fee.
Booking is open. Go to clivetempest.com/florence-house-retreats
Advance notice: Your Pure Presence II at Florence House 24 - 28 April 2023
Enquiries:contact@bigger-picture.net
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