StillMind

StillMind Tai Chi and QiGong Classes and Workshops for Fitness, Relaxation, Health and WellBeing in Lincoln an

Chi Kung and Tai Chi classes start back again this week at Friends Meeting House, Lincoln. Beginners and established practitioners welcome.
Chi Kung - 31st Oct, 7:00pm: 18 Movement Chi Kung, Water/Earth and Fire/Heaven Qi, Microcosmic Orbit Practice.
Tai Chi - 2nd Nov, 10:30am: 24 Step Yang Style for Deep Relaxation, Physical Resilience and Calm Abiding.

Call Nick: 07788 533754

Tai Chi and Chi Kung classes starting back again this week. Beginners and established practitioners welcome. Call me for further details: 07788 533754

A Morning Call...

Re-Mind... I Am a live and a wake.
Re-Call... I Am all ways here, I was never Not.
Re-Member... All that is Now, is my body... is the most Precious Jewel of all... it is always here, yet can never be found. It is the un-panelled Gate with no handle nor hinge. To find it “I” must strip off every last vestment. It’s price is everything, it’s price is “I...Me...Mine...” In exchange? only all...

StillMind Tai Chi and QiGong Classes and Workshops for Fitness, Relaxation, Health and WellBeing in Lincoln an

In Starbucks

Quiet sitting
Still and silent

The Breath
Rising…. Falling

Sounds
Seeping…. Punctuating
Words flow amidst speakersong

The sitting and moving, tapping and talking…
A smile, stories begin, endings rehearsed, again and again -

“He said… She did… It was… When I… I can't…
And then… I will…”

All things Seen, All things Heard, Touched and Touching…

Familiarly, This enduring Heart breaks… and gratitude
precedes…

The Flow of

Joy

StillMind updated their info in the about section.

Be what you Do....

Tat Tvam Asi. There is nothing that needs to be added. Drop the personal self with all its opinions and judgements, likes and dislikes and just receive the experience of Be-ing, here, now... beyond time. When every note of your life is stripped away, including that which you call "I"... what is left? Thou Art That.

Adyashanti, in 'The End of Your World' writes, "When we see this moment as it truly is, we see something extraordinary. We don’t feel the need to turn this moment into anything other than what it is, because it is extraordinary as it is. When we perceive this, we have healed the illusory split within ourselves, and we have started to heal the illusory split within the greater consciousness of humanity. Our greatest contribution to humanity is our awakening. It is to literally leave the state of consciousness that the mass of humanity is in and discover the truth of our being, which is the truth of all beings. When we do this, we come back as a gift, a newborn. We are, in a certain sense, reborn."

Let this day again sing strong in all hearts, that All awaken on the instant... such as to when a sunbeam pierces the cloud and lights your brow. That it takes you then.... and this life is become no longer your own. Cloud it, as you may, and return constant to your well worn way, but all times the moment when light kissed you soft will remain, raising you to look, lifting your chin again for some thing known but long forgot... "I am beloved on Earth and under Heaven, I am that which loves and is loved... I Am Love, Eternally... Eternal"

Evening Prayer....

May I dwell in the Heart
May I be free from suffering
May I be healed
May I be at peace....

May all beings dwell in the Heart
May all beings be free from suffering
May all beings be healed
May all beings be at peace

As I grow older, little by little, I feel the changes wrought by age manifesting in this body such that practising and teaching Tai Chi and QiGong become continual explorations of the manner of change's touch. My little group seem so patient with the excitement I find in making links and new discoveries... the Relationship between the parts and the whole... how the music of our patterning is conditioned by the cadences of day and night, months and seasons stirred with our psychological conditioning and the influence of our Ancestors... and then the beautiful, elegantly elegiac 24 Step Form. The great metaphor for the Dance of Life! How it's demands challenge us and challenge the teaching, such that my students turn and teach me through their struggle to flow and integrate and deeply connect the body and breath with Great Mystery. I do hope that any who read this have some touch or spark in your life that ignites your heart to speak to itself, in joy... and say, as I do now as I lay down my head, "I am so blest. Under rain or sun, stars and moon, I am beloved." X

Advaita Vedanta by Nisargadatta Maharaj:

"Obviously, every thing experienced is an experience. And in every experience there arises the experiencer of it. Memory creates the illusion of continuity. In reality each experience has its own experiencer and the sense of identity is due to the common factor at the root of all experiencer experience relations. Identity and continuity are not the same. Just as each flower has its own colour, but all colours are caused by the same light, so do many experiences appear in the undivided and indivisible awareness, each separate in memory, identical in essence. This essence is the root, the foundation, the timeless and spaceless 'possibility' of all experience. Q: How do I get at it? M: You need not get at it, for you are it. It will get at you, if you give it a chance. Let go your attachment to the unreal and the real will swiftly and smoothly step into its own. Stop imagining yourself being or doing this or that and the realisation that you are the source and heart of all will dawn upon you. With this will come great love which is not choice or predilection, nor attachment, but a power which makes all things love-worthy and lovable."

Enjoy the day!

Alison and Kenny's last ChillOut! Always a great day with all proceeds going to Medecins Sans Frontieres.

À LA GLOIRE

In Stillness and Silence,
Deep breathes the Body.

Look, Hear, Sense,
How beautiful...
All Is.

As Big Life paints
I've forgotten…

Who am I?
This Two-Legged easel...

When thoughts arise,
The paused brush floats...

When mind, is still...
Ten thousand brushes,
constant
Weave Life's Play

St Hillaire-St Mesmin
August 2016

When the Heart is set true the journey is always right, no matter the outcome. When we act in the world and receive Joy then no amount of money can paper over that. When we act in the world and receive more money than a poor man could spend, then no amount of Joy could burn it's way through the stifling weight of that. The search for more than we need gradually extinguishes Joy. The Heart flaps like a leathern bird in the ribbed cage of the chest. To live fully, the "Self" needs must die... those who address their life journey entirely through the looking-glass of "Self" have died before they live.

As a Wheel turns smoothly,
Without any jars,
My Will and my Desire
Are turned by Love...
The Love that moves the Sun,
And the other Stars.

QiGONG for HEALTH and BEAUTY
18 Tai Chi QiGong and 13 Movement Tai Chi Form starting this Tuesday 18th April at St Mary's Guildhall, LN5 7SF. Come, join this this joyful class and feed your spirit.
Phone Nick on 07788 533 754

SAVORING THE EXPERIENCE OF BE-ING

(Read very slowly... let each phrase enter... flower... then fall away into the Silence.... one phrase for each full, slow, full breath)...

Sit quietly... relax into the body... feel the breath rising and falling, rising and falling... like a tide in the body... Be-ing... just Be-ing... so you are Aware... of The Life in the Body... feel the breath rising and falling... rising and falling... feel the beating of the Heart... peaceful Heart... gentle Heart... loving Heart...
let awareness... gradually... extend out... to touch the world... to embrace the world... to envelop the world...

You are the.... breath.... of the World

You are the.... beating Heart... of the World

The World.... Is... The Cosmos... Is...

This Body

StillMind updated their business hours.

Chi Kung Workshop

Saturday, March 11, 2017
10:00am 12:00pm

Central Wellness Unit 2 Allenby Business Village, Crofton Road Lincoln, LN3 4NL United Kingdon

The Song of Qi

With Nick Stark

This introductory workshop , suitable for all, will go straight to the heart of Chi Kung practice for health, vitality and good spirit.
Gentle loosening and stretching exercises open the pathways of the blood, calling the breath and vitalising our energy. From here we move to study the postures, movements and breath of the famous Chi Kung set, "Eight Strands of Brocade."
At first, technique... "Two Hands Push Sky" - position, stance and the line of the movement: "Drawing the Bow" - relax repeat relax repeat.... "Look back at the Moon" - turning back and forth, back and forth... so that, gradually, as body memory takes and holds, we deepen into the flow ...the notes of each Strand transforming into a Body Song. And body, mind and spirit awaken as consciousness settles ...like a Bird, returning home.
Breath deepens, Body relaxes even more as we Embrace the Earth and Draw Down the Sky. Awareness senses energy vibrating within the body, at play, singing in the forest of muscles, tendons, skin and bones. Body, Energy, Spirit - Jing, Qi, Shen - are One, as movement and breath sing a joyful song.

No prior experience necessary £12 / £10 for series pass holders

LINCOLN CLASSES start in earnest Week Beginning 20th Feb. Fees will be set to cover the cost of Hall Hire. There will be no tuition charge for this 7 week Term. Bring friends and colleagues - most welcome!

QiGong: Tuesday evening
Tai Chi: Thursday morning and Thursday evening.

QiGong: Loosening Sinews, Posture, Breathing Techniques, Mindfulness, 8 Strands of Brocade, Tai Chi Walk, Deep Relaxation and Meditation (cushion and blanket required).

Tai Chi: Loosening Sinews, Posture and Breath, Mindfulness, Start learning Yang Style 24 Step Form.

Any queries text Nick 07788 533 754

LINCOLN CLASSES start in earnest Week Beginning 20th Feb. Fees will be set to cover the cost of Hall Hire. There will be no tuition charge for this 7 week Term. Bring friends and colleagues - most welcome!

QiGong: Tuesday evening
Tai Chi: Thursday morning and Thursday evening.

QiGong: Loosening Sinews, Posture, Breathing Techniques, Mindfulness, 8 Strands of Brocade, Tai Chi Walk, Deep Relaxation and Meditation (cushion and blanket required).

Tai Chi: Loosening Sinews, Posture and Breath, Mindfulness, Start learning Yang Style 24 Step Form.

Any queries text Nick 07788 533 754

"Un souvenir de l'automne...." when sunlight shone among the trees and Qi sang on the breath. Now I stumble about in the dark, like a blind man searching for a candle. Kidney Qi is challenged by Winter Fears... so breathe gentle warmth into your palms, reach round and warm the Kidneys with love and gratitude for all they do.

The practice of Tai Chi.. The practice of Life....

THE NATURE OF AN ACTION : Thom Gunn

I

Here is a room with heavy-footed chairs,
A glass bell loaded with wax grapes and pears,

A polished table, holding down the look
Of bracket, mantelpiece, and marbled book.

Staying within the cluttered square of fact,
I cannot slip the clumsy fond contact:

So step into the corridor and start,
Directed by the compass of my heart.

II

Although the narrow corridor appears
So short, the journey took me twenty years.

Each gesture that my habit taught me fell
Down to the boards and made me an obstacle.

I paused to watch the fly marks on a shelf,
And found the great obstruction of myself.

I reached the end but, pacing back and forth,
I could not see what reaching it was worth.

In corridors the rooms are undefined:
I groped to feel a handle in the mind.

Testing my faculties I found a stealth
Of passive illness lurking in my health.

And though I saw the corridor stretch bare,
Dusty, and hard, I doubted it was there;

Doubted myself, what final evidence
Lay in perceptions or in common sense?

III

My cause lay in the will, that opens straight
Upon an act for the most desperate.

That simple handle found, I entered in
The other room, where I had never been.

I found within it heavy-footed chairs,
A glass bell loaded with wax grapes and pears.

A polished table, holding down the look
Of bracket, mantelpiece, and marbled book.

Much like the first, this room in which I went,
Only my being there is different."

First QiGong Group for a while last night. Such lovely people.
"Cleansing the Container" then "Drawing in the Energies of Heaven and Earth." Beautiful whole body breathing... relaxing and energising.
Slept like a newborn!

Tai Chi classes tomorrow. Dancing with the energies of stone walls and oak floors and the soft air. Even our bones radiate light as spirit takes wing. How good is that...

May your feet sweetly kiss Mother Earth each day and your Heart be a Sun to those in Shadow.