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 Peaceful Dragon School Updates
Dates of Interest for Winter 2006
Dec. 10—PDS Celebration @3:30
Dec. 15– T’ai Chi Classics @6:00—7:30 PM—$20
Dec. 15—Early Bird Registration
Dec. 22 & Jan. 5 - Practice @6:00—7:00 $10 each
Jan 9—Winter Session Begins
Feb. 2—Mar. 1—Chi Do—Your Stress Reduction Toolbox @5:30—7:00 PM
Feb. 10—Free Movie Night—Avatar (Animation) 6:00-8:00 PM
When the hostile Fire Nation threatens to enslave the Water, Earth, and Air Nations,
a reluctant and irresponsible boy must face his destiny as the Avatar, the Chosen
One who can restore the world order.
Words of Wisdom From a Few of the Teachers at PDS
Seeking Balance By: April Pickrel
For the last several months, I’ve been teaching and practicing the second Third of the form. This section highlights both moving meditation and balance. At this time of year, when daylight ends early, I find my practice helps me find a balance with the light and dark and the changing of seasons.
Looking back through my notes on teaching and practice, I find this comment on balance: think about the constancy of change and the evolution of all the elements. This reminder of change helps me focus on the altered qualities of light we find at this time of year and not dwell on how little of it there is! I’ve always found it easier to get through the darkest part of the year if I countdown to the longest night. Three more weeks to go, five more days to go . . . No two days are exactly the same length, and there is only one longest night of the year. And then, those of us who thrive on the light can breath a sigh of relief, as the days steadily grow longer.
Each movement of the second Third can feel much the same way. As I breathe in, I seek the fullness of a posture. I ask my body to find the highest degree of balance as I sink into my center. All this for just an instant, and then I relax into the next: next posture, next breath. One posture simply evolves into another. Every shift or turn presents a new challenge to balance, but the constancy of breathing slowly and fully helps me along the way.
Find your own appreciation of the light and dark this winter as you practice. And who knows—maybe lighting that extra candle will give you a tiny bit more balance as you work your way through the darkest months of the year.
Investing in Loss
By: Greg Knollmeyer
Have you ever heard the joke about the yoga teacher who can’t bend over? I’ve been that joke lately. Physically, this has been a hard year for me. I have healed through a bulging disc in my back and now I’m healing through torn ligaments near my spine. All of this has made me think about Professor Cheng Man-Ching. He said that students should “invest in loss” in order to improve in T’ai Chi. When I get pushed out when practicing push hands, someone has just given me information about where I’m tense. This loss is an investment in knowledge. The next step is to relax—which may still take me a while. But I can’t start this second step until I have the awareness that the loss brings me.
So I’ve been thinking, what does intense pain and lack of mobility have to teach me? It turns out, I have quite a lot to learn. One lesson is simply humility and interdependence. I have been more dependent in the last few months than I’ve been since childhood. Allowing myself to be dependent has kept me from re-injuring myself and given me time to heal. Mostly, I’ve noticed the lessons are T’ai Chi lessons. If I can breathe through this and keep in good alignment (alignment in perspective), I will emerge stronger and better. If I can relax and invest in loss, I can become more of who I want to be.
By asking “How can I make this loss an investment?” we have the opportunity to learn every time we are not at our best. Think about that for a moment. It can be very empowering. Every unintentional misstep or problem is an unintentional investment. Since the investment has already been made, why not embrace it as that and see how much it can yield?
Building Committees at the Peaceful Dragon School
This Winter Peaceful Dragon School will offer further opportunity for students to be involved in the direction and goals of the School. We are going to organize four committees necessary for our continued function, future growth and health. Each will have one of the four instructors and teachers as a resource person and chair.
They will be:
Marketing (Chris): Focus on posting and getting events at the school listed in local media and making sure flyers get posted.
Cleaning (April): Focus on the organization and maintenance of a clean studio.
Newsletter (Greg): Gathering articles, pictures and interest together and forwarding these to Master Young who will produce the newsletter at set intervals
Community Outreach (Jim): Generating ideas for how the studio can have a bigger presence in the community, organizing Promotional packets and 1-2 demos per year.
Each of these committees will begin to organize in January, and are open to any currently enrolled student at PDS. Please contact Master Young or the head of the relevant committee with questions and interest.
Assisting at Peaceful Dragon School
 By: Jim Carey
As the new semester approaches, it is once again time for me to encourage would-be assistants to step forward and help both the school and your own study by assisting an instructor in a beginning level class. We have need of two assistants for the Saturday Class (TC 2, 3 10:00 -11:15 am), and two assistants for the Thursday Ypsilanti Class (TC 1 & 2 7:30-8:30). This opportunity is being made available to anyone who has finished one semester of form progression, and is currently enrolled in an Advanced class (preferably Form Progression but also Push Hands, Applications, and Weapons).
Why assist? I’ll answer with my own experience. I started to assist Master Young in classes after about a year and a half of study, so this was ’92 or ’93 for those of you keeping track. The benefits to my form and my study were immense. I had the opportunity to repeat my “learning” of the movements in the third that we were working on, I would often be asked to demonstrate the postures, and receive corrections to my movements that helped me develop my form far faster than I could have without that added attention. In addition, there were prevalent reminders of how to incorporate the basic principles into my form, and it aided me greatly in allowing myself to apply beginners mind to my form-that elusive state of forgetting what you “know” and concentrating on incorporating the principles into the correct postural movement.
For anyone interested in teaching the T’ai Chi form (or other subjects, for that matter), the experience of assisting is invaluable for understanding how to break movement down to most easily and most accurately communicate it to others. For those not interested in teaching, the “others” can be yourself, and as I have said the effects on one’s own form are immensely beneficial-as other assistants can tell you.
The assistant role also helps the school by allowing the possibility of split level classes, and the maximum learning for the students, meanwhile allowing the development of the instructors at the school by facilitating the multi-level attention necessary for that position. If you are interested and cannot be available for the times listed above, we may be able to make space for you to assist in other classes. So please take advantage of this opportunity to deepen your study by contacting Jim with availability, as well as questions or concerns (741-0695).
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