Practices

Foundation Practices

In my experience, these practices form the ideal foundation in the Internal Arts for most people. They get you into the heart of the Internal Arts more quickly than Tai Chi, or can very usefully be learned in combination with Tai Chi. Any one of the Foundation Practices may be taken singly with excellent results. The practices complement each other exceptionally well, however, providing a combination or 'synergy' of techniques and approaches, and produce the smoothest progress towards maintaining your health and energy when done together. Classes often combine different Foundation Practices, and there will always be a number of Foundation Practices taught within a whole evening (see Classes for details)

1. Whole Body Breathing (a.k.a. Taoist Longevity Breathing).

2. Internal Strength & Awareness Practices (from Energy Gates Neigong).

3. Qigong for the Joints & Spine (from The Marriage of Heaven & Earth Neigong)

4. Twisting & Spiraling Qigong (a.k.a. Cloud Hands from Energy Gates Neigong)

Taoist Meditation & Foundation Classes

The Taoists found that as the mind and body are so interlinked, in order for a human being to become fully awake, healthy and emotionally balanced, it is important to work with the mind and body together.

Otherwise, they found that in practise body tensions tend to block the opening of the mind, and mental and emotional tensions tend to block the health and energy of the body.

Consequently, Taoist Meditation is performed sitting, standing still, and moving, fully activating both the mind and body.

They found this combination of practises avoided many of the pitfalls of doing just the one or the other. Just sitting in practise frequently leads to drowsiness, stagnation, weak energy and passivity. Just moving often leads to a lack of focus and relaxation.

At Oxford Internal Arts, our classes therefore sometimes do not look like a traditional meditation class! We move too. But the reasoning behind this is very clear. It is to provide a balanced and integrated approach to give you the best possible chance of realising the aims of meditation – to become more awake, balanced and healthy.

Our Foundation Classes are carefully designed to achieve this in as interesting, balanced and enjoyable a way as possible.

Tai Chi

Tai chi is the best known of the Internal Arts.

At O.I.A. I teach the Wu Style of Tai Chi as passed down by Master B.K. Frantzis. Master Frantzis’ teacher lived and studied with the founder of the Wu Style as his formal disciple, and was regarded in taoist circles as one of the great Taoist masters and Tai Chi masters of the 20th century. He passed on his lineage to Mr. Frantzis and one other person.

In my experience it is more rewarding for students to learn Tai Chi on the basis of the Foundation Practices rather than on its own. Tai chi classes are therefore run in this way, especially at an Intermediate level. Students learn quicker, in more depth, and more completely, without leaving large gaps in their abilities.

At best, the Foundation Practices are learned before learning the Tai Chi form. Frantzis found this approach enabled him to learn up to five times more quickly than students who went straight into learning the Tai Chi form, and found that most Internal Arts masters in China concurred in this experience (see B.K. Frantzis, “The Power of the Internal Martial Arts”, North Atlantic Press, page 51).

Dragon & Tiger Qigong

At the moment, this qigong is taught only in Private Classes.

Massage

The massage techniques at O.I.A are a part of Qi Gong Tui Na. They are taught within classes in order to help deepen your practice. Tutors and students at the Oxford School of Massage report these techniques to be very usefully incorporated into their massage practices.

They are not offered to qualify you as a massage therapist, even though they will most likely be appreciated by friends and family!