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Please scroll down for the Autumn season events. The Hestercombe Chi Gung Group At The Memorial Hall, Cheddon Fitzpaine, Taunton, Somerset TA2 8JY
We are interested in recruiting more members to the group. There are usually opportunities for newcomers in January and September. We invite you to apply by writing to express your interest to contact@bigger-picture.net. Beginners Shibashi
Shibashi, a set of eighteen movements, is an excellent introduction to the principles of chigung and a starter practice in taichi. It's suitable for the active over 60s and brings health and mobility benefits relatively quickly and easily. It's the first set we learn in the Hestercombe Chigung Group. To learn the form with a basic degree of proficiency usually takes a day-course or ten to twelve classes. Then beginners are introduced to other chigung exercises and work on the movements of Shibashi to add more precision and flow. After about nine months to a year most students can perceive the chi circulating in their bodies. Increasingly they experience both the energising and relaxing effect of chigung. Training Day
An opportunity to get a day's intensive tuition in the eighteen movements of Shibashi. This is intended for beginners, especially those who want to join the Wednesday morning classes starting on 8 May. It's also open to anyone who has previously learnt Shibashi and wants a refresher course. Cost: £60 including a light lunch and refreshments. Beginners: Introduction to Chigung Energy Work
The basis for an effective practice of taichi as a means to wellbeing and health is a knowledge of the way our energy works in us. These classes are intended to gradually put this knowledge into your body through the practice of certain exercises. You learn about your 'energy architecture' and how to open your 'energy gates'. You'll also start to learn the eighteen movements (Shibashi) that qualify you to participate in more advanced classes. Cost: £40 for five classes, includes an 80 minute audio programme for you to stream at your leisure. More About Chi Gung with Clive Tempest.
Advanced Classes - Focus on Flow
These classes are for those who have previously done several chigung sets. Classes in 2023 were about the essential components of various exercises - in the Shibashi Taichi set, The Marriage of Heaven and Earth and Dragon and Tiger Chigung. Now it's time to bring 'the parts into the whole', to integrate the exercises with more perception of chi moving the body. This means focusing on transitions between movements in various sets, including Gods Playing in the Clouds. There has to be more integration of Dragon and Earth energies, focused on the dantien, with breathing exercises. Movement stimulates the flow of chi through the limbs but it's also important to experience chi moving while we are still so we also use Standing Like a Tree. In the first six classes we learnt to increase the flow of chi with the three Cs - continuity, connectivity and cohesion. In the second six classes we further explore how to make use of these 'keys', using specific exercises. We continue with Standing Like a Tree, focus on the dantien and 'reverse breathing' to bring about the fourth C - chi consolidation. In the second set of six classes we encouraged flow by working with reverse breathing and applying our intention, such as by circulating chi in the microcosmic orbit,’ and applying ‘reach and fold’. We used Heaven and Earth Chigung and particularly exercise three from Gods Playing in the Clouds. Ultimately, by experiencing the flow of chi in our own inner space and working in a circle, we were able to recognise the pulsing effect of the flow of chi in the space we shared. Cost: £48 for six classes Advanced Class - Fluent Chi
Fluency adding tai to chi,
The 'language of chigung' has its own kind of grammar - built on our physical structures and moving parts. And it has a syntax, the harmonious application of essential elements of movement. Practising chigung is like learning a language. One day a language becomes so integrated in the experience of speaking that we're no longer monitoring our words. There's no translation going on. We’re fluent. What we say is precise and meaningful. Advanced chigung has that flow and precision. The focus of the advanced group is on developing the perception of chi and its flow - recognising how this induces chi to circulate and become consolidated in the dantien. The flow of chi is recognised more easily when we know ourselves as spacious, moving freely. Standing Like a Tree, together with certain exercises derived from sets that the group already knows, plus some seated neigung, all contribute to bring about more fluency in the practice. Cost: £48 for six classes / £32 for four classes in the second season.
Summer Practice
These are four practice sessions for anyone who knows Shibashi. We'll also do other exercises to 'open the energy gates' and move the chi with weight shifting, silk reeling and basic neigung. These classes may be in the hall or outside on the grass. Cost: £32 for four classes.
Five Element Chigung
This class is for people who can practice Shibashi and have done training in the Energy Gates. There's a traditional approach in taichi, Chinese Medicine and Taoist philosophy featuring the Five Elements. It's a system for identifying certain qualities of chi and illuminating their characteristics. We will be examining movements we already know in terms of the elements - Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. We will also be learning new movements for each of the elements. These can be performed as a set to characterise the cyclical transition between the qualities of chi, as exemplified for instance in the change of seasons; there being five seasons in the Chinese calendar. Or as a way of nourishing each of our main organic systems in turn - Liver, Heart, Spleen, Lung and Kidney Cost: £40 for five classes / £32 for five classes.
Summer Chi Gathering in Finland Residential Retreat
For more details and booking see www.clivetempest.com Read about previous Chi Gatherings at Labbnäs
Practising Presence At The Swan Centre, Stoke St Mary, Somerset, TA3 5DE
These sitting sessions stimulate awareness and enhance perception. The purpose is to know your own presence in a space shared with others. There are internal energy exercises and periods of sitting in silence during the first half of the afternoon. After a teabreak Clive talks about the value of knowing your own presence and the benefits of living a more conscious life. Cost: £15 a session including refreshments (£10 with discount scheme).
Autumn Series
As this is continuing work with a group that is experienced in practising presence, these three autumn sessions are by invitation only. If you've been before you're welcome to come again. If you're interested in joining as a newcomer, you need to ask. Details of where we meet and at what time will be provided by email.
A Weekend Away . . . Practising Presence
This is an opportunity to relax away from the normal pressures and conflicts of everyday life - to dwell in your own presence for five sessions of sitting practice, with talks on conscious living. Norton Park is a four-star conference and spa hotel, set in many acres of parkland. It's just off the M3/A303, an hour from Heathrow and a few miles away from the ancient city of Winchester. The weekend begins with a talk on Friday evening and ends at 4.30pm on Sunday. There will be free time to go for walks or enjoy the spa, sauna and indoor swimming pool. There's the option of staying for an extra night's B&B on Sunday, and maybe on Monday we will visit the famous Winchester Cathedral Crypt with its Anthony Gormley sculpture. Cost: £430 per person for a couple sharing a double room and £515 for single occupancy. This includes the course fee and bed and breakfast on Friday and Saturday; with lunch and dinner on Saturday, lunch on Sunday, and refreshments during sessions breaks; plus use of hotel conference room, spa and pool. Extras: Other meals and drinks in the hotel bar or restaurant, Sunday night bed and breakfast (booked directly with the hotel) and taxi transfers from airports or Winchester rail station if required. Book with a non-refundable deposit of £300 pp. The balance will become due shortly before the event. We will email you about your room and dietary requirements. Returning to Norton Park
For the Spring Retreat next year, we will be practising presence here again, but for five days. There will be chigung and more extended talks and dialogues about the challenge of maintaining presence in a world of conflict. We will have exclusive use of The Manor House adjacent to the Norton Park hotel - a high quality venue for a retreat like this.
The Programme for 2025 Beginners and advanced chigung classes continue at Cheddon Fitzpaine and, as announced above, there will be a Spring Retreat at Norton Park. The programme details are here.Enquiries:contact@bigger-picture.net
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