Ch'i kung training to bring mind and body back into cooperative union, with one another as well as with Nature. Employing standing and walking meditation forms with yoga and breathwork to invigorate, heal and maintain optimum mental and physical fitness.

What is ch'i kung?

There are countless styles of ch'i kung, but we begin with a "standing in stillness" method known as Standing Like Trees (AKA Standing Zen or "Zhan Zhuang"), and then take that into moving and circle-walking practices. It is very easy to learn, yet affords endless development. It also supports other forms of yoga practice as well as Taijiquan, Baguazhang and Yiquan.

Indoor sessions held at Perfect Knot Yoga Center, 409 Few Street, Madison, Wisconsin (in the Williamson Street neighborhood), on Saturday afternoons from 2:45-4:00. Welcome.

“In a bygone age, when life on earth was full, no one paid any special attention to the greatness of people, nor did they single out anyone for their outstanding abilities.  The leaders were simply the most evolved among them, like the most enduring of trees, and folks lived as naturally as deer in the forests.  They were naturally caring and decent without having to worry about “doing their duty”.  They loved each other without having to think about why a person should love their neighbor. They were sincere and unpretentious without trying to be. They were people you could trust without need for promises.  They lived together happily, freely giving and taking, without an awareness of their generosity. They had no thought of fame and for this reason their history has not been recorded.”

Chuang Tzu, Chinese (3rd Century, BCE)

“This awful, ugly tradition produces basically masters and slaves– ‘my teacher is better than yours, yours is not as good as mine’–  kow-towing 3000 times calling the teacher ‘Great Master’ does not make him a teacher, nor does it make the student a student, for that has really nothing to do with teaching or learning.  Knowledge is the most sacred thing in the universe.  This is the reason I so urgently emphasize breaking down the master-disciple relationship.”

Wang Xiangzhai, Chinese (20th Century, CE)

Confucious visited Lao-tzu and lectured him regarding the virtues of charity and duty to one’s neighbors. Lao-tzu listened patiently, but then had this to say: 

“The chaff kicked up from winnowing grain will blind a person’s eyes so that he cannot see whether he is coming or going, much less the points of the compass.  Mosquitoes will keep a person awake all night long with their incessant biting.  And just in the same way all this talk of charity and duty to one’s neighbors drives me insane!  Please sir!  Let’s try to keep the world’s affairs in their original state of simplicity.  Let us try to maintain our natural modesty. Just like the wind blowing where it will, let virtue establish itself.  Why do you feel the need to force these issues so?  It’s like you’re trying to hunt down an escaped convict while all the while beating a loud drum.

“The snow-goose is white without having to bleach itself.  The raven is black without having to apply any dye.  The original simplicity of black and white are not something you can argue about.  The fabricated worlds of fame and reputation are not worthy of expansion.  When the pool in your courtyard dries up, and the fishes you have supposedly cared for so lovingly are left on dry ground, moistening them with your spitty kisses will provide pitifully little consolation to them.  Better that you had left them in their native waters in the first place.” 

When Confucious left Lao-tzu that day he would not speak for another three.  He returned to his disciples and they grew concerned:  “Master, so how did it go?  Did you set that old codger Lao-tzu straight?”

“I saw a rainbow-colored creature,” replied Confucious, “soaring amid the clouds as naturally as he lingered upon the meadows and threaded through the trees. Wavering hues danced upon his hide as he lead us to a sparkling stream, both lit by the same dance of sunlight.  He fed on earth and sky, the formed, and the unformed, the visible, and the invisible.  How could my mouth not fall agape?  I struggled to close it.  How then would you suggest that I should set Lao-tzu straight?”

Chuang Tzu