The Taichi and Qigong Podcast

Dear all, as I'm leaving Miami for new adventures (in London), some students asked me to provide guidance in order for them to be independent with their  Tai Chi and Qigong basic practice . I am thus envisaging building an  online platform  of 10/15 videos, each one ranging from 10 to 30 minutes , where I would guide on the following topics: - Standing Practice; - Song Gong (loosening exercise...

The System Historically, hundreds of martial systems have developed in China, such as Taijiquan, Xingyi, Bagua, and Wing Chun, just to name a few of the most famous and widespread ones in the West. At the same time, Qigong and meditation schools have also formed through systems. But what is a System? In this episode, we try to clear things up.

Discipline vs. Obsession: Finding True Balance in the Internal Arts In this episode, we explore the delicate balance between dedication and obsession in the practice of Tai Chi, Qigong, and meditation. Starting from the relationship between body and spirituality in Eastern disciplines, the discussion examines how intensive training can shift from being a tool for growth into a mental prison. Throu...

We usually practice Tai Chi, Qigong or Meditation in order to gain something: more "Qi", more martial prowess, more understanding. But everything that is a kind of "gaining", is in some way reinforcing your Self, bringing dangers and vanity. But, if we look at our Self how it is in reality, meaning a ring in a wider chain, we start to look at our practice from a different persp...

Ancient masters and practitioners have produced a huge amount of texts, defined as "classics", on the practice of Taijiquan as well as other Internal Arts. We often hear that words are meaningless for practice, and books have no role in building a correct method. That's simply not true, and disregarding the classics can severely impede the chances of success. Here is why. Brennan Tra...

In the realm of practice, your thoughts—both their content and the way you process them—are never neutral. They either move you closer to reality or pull you away from it. Here’s why.

As "The Taichi & Qigong Podcast" has reached 1000 followers on Spotify and Apple Podcasts combined, we are happy to announce the creation of a new podcast, " My Meditation Podcast ", accessible for free on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. There you will find already collected previous episodes related to meditation, previously recorded on "The Taichi & Qigong Podcast&qu...

Mental clarity and moral quality are two of the traditional fruits that a correct practice should bring. While politics as a toxic topic is often wisely sidelined in Tai Chi, Qigong and Meditation communities, this does not mean that a good practitioner should also be "dumb 'n numb" when it comes to political views, assuming that he/she has interest in the topic, and thus has spent time and energi...

The Taichi, Qigong or Meditation class needs to be a hassle-free experience. But for who?

Upon the existence or not existence of the Self.

How much should we traini? What should we train? Can we only train at the training center? Is a 3 hours Meditation per se better than a 1 hour Meditation session? Is Standing Practice needed or not? And most importantly, where should the knee stay in a good Taichi Form?

In this episode of "The Taichi & Qigong Podcast," we explore the journey of becoming a Tai Chi teacher and delve into the often-overlooked political aspects of this ancient practice. We'll discuss how practitioners can navigate these political aspects while maintaining the integrity of their practice and fostering an open-minded approach to learning across different styles and lineages.

Asian traditions follows, without exceptions, the Three Body Problem path, which is, taming the Body to access the Energy in order to see the nature of the Mind. Some of the most modern meditation methods fails to see this correlation, developing de-stressing practices that are not, and should not be deemed as, traditional meditation practices.

We receive from the past wonderful traditions, and the reason this happens is that folks dedicated huge resources to these practices, to make space for the, and to dedicate time. Time is exactly what we discuss today, the need to find it, the need to add a little to be of stress at the beginning, to be repaid tomorrow.

In the previous episodes we went through the Dan Tian , Center of Mass, joints arrangement, muscles/tendons/ligaments and elastic force expression. All of this can be produce by your internal practice. In this episode we see how Pushing Hands ( Tui Shou ) and Fajing developed in very peculiar practices of the Taijiquan tradition. And remember, big guys will always have the lead when it comes to pu...

In this third episode on the relationship between muscles, force and Internal Arts, we clarify the path that brings from Dantian through relaxation to Dantian through force, and we also clarify a bunch of other issues.

In this episode, second of three dedicated to the use of "force" in the internal arts, we discuss about how the center of mass is supposed to be settled inside the body, in the lower Dan Tian area, in order to generate elastic force by the process of transforming the way joints, tendons and ligaments are used. A process that is at the basis of Taichi, Qi Gong and Meditation.

Nobody has ever been able to approach any Chinese energetic art (say Taichi or Qigong) without encountering the concept of "Dan Tian" (丹田), or "Elixir Field". We will see how the Elixir was intended to give immortality (in lieu of the awakening in the buddhist theories), of the shape, size and location of the Dan Tian widely varies in different centuries or schools, and how it is related to the...

When we think about Taichi, we usually link it to the Taichi Form: the slow, relaxed, continuous sequence of arcane movements. But at the end, what's the Taichi Form all about? Is it a form of therapy and self-healing? Is it a tool to develop a powerful martial prowess? None of the above, as we argue in this chat.

For groups and for singles, when it comes to religion or spirituality, the quest for power arises. It is unavoidable, generated by the ignorance-fear-frustration-anger-hate loop, a loop that cannot be broken, leading to the quest for power growing desperate. How to see it, how to avoid denial in dealing with it, and how finally leave it in background.

- Boredom: The feeling of being bored or uninterested in what you're doing  is boredom. Everyone experiences boredom sometimes. The feeling that nothing catches your interest, that everything's dull and flat, sums up the state of boredom. - Escapism: In psychology, escapism is  when a person routinely uses an activity or behavior to escape life's realities . It is a way of distracting...

LGBTQ+ issues has been heavily politicized, to the point that is not uncommon to find even internal arts teachers who claim some of this people to present deviations from a supposed given human nature. In this episode we dismiss such claims as non-sensical, and we on the contrary explain why, on a very practical ground, LGBTQ+ practitioners may find in their path to have a strength like many other...

The Three-Body Problem is a well known sci-fi novel by the Chinese author Liu Cixin, recently renderer by a Netflix series. In the Chinese Internal Arts we traditionally recognize three main energetic centers located in or correlated to the physical body: from physical energy to psychic energy, the internal journey may be obscure and detailed at the same time. Outside a traditional path only lies...

Meditation is not a therapy for the Self, the Ego is not the Nature of Mind, what was going on in your childhood is of no interest for your practice, and practice itself is not supposed to generate Love.

The Financial Times has recently launched a new investigative podcast, Untold, and the first serie is about the damages that intensive meditation practice can bring: " The Retreat ". This episode encourages you to listen to The Retreat podcast and learn how intensive meditation can damage you psyche. Resources to help people who struggle with meditation's damages: https://www.cheetah...