Embodying Compassion Through
Dragon & Tiger Qigong
Late Fall Session:
November 6 to December 18
Our Taoist tradition considers Compassion, Universal Love, and qualities such as Kindness and Caring to be naturally occurring energies found throughout the universe.
Through the practice of Dragon & Tiger we can learn to perceive, generate, give and receive these energies. Eventually we can learn to pull them into and infuse every cell of our bodies, and from our bodies send them out to every corner of the universe.
DRAGON & TIGER’S SOURCE IN TAOISM AND BUDDHISM
Although Dragon & Tiger is most commonly practiced today for health and relaxation, it has deep roots in the spiritual traditions of both Taoism and Buddhism.
Dragon & Tiger’s kinesthetic orientation to bringing the body and its energies into balance indicates that it was developed by Taoists. Yet the oral history of our tradition says that for 1500 years it was held and practiced in China’s Shaolin Temple, the birthplace of Chan Buddhism.
Only in the 1940s did a Shaolin monk teach the system to someone outside the Temple. A woman practitioner of Chinese Medicine named Zhang Jia Hua received it from her uncle. She then taught it publicly in China, including to our teacher Bruce Frantzis.
To bring things full circle, Bruce and his Taoist teacher Liu Hung Chieh - who was also a highly accomplished practitioner of Buddhism - then integrated it into our Taoist Water Tradition of qigong and meditation.
Cultivation of Compassion and Loving Kindness with the wish that all sentient beings benefit is central to Buddhist meditation. Many practices exist for sending and receiving Compassion, sometimes using the medium of the breath, sometimes using visualization or imagination, and always training the mind toward it.
The practice of sending and receiving Compassion through Dragon & Tiger as taught to us by Bruce follows the Taoist principle of making the body itself conscious. While we begin with an intention to feel, send and receive Compassion, we ultimately develop a felt experience of it deeper and deeper within the body itself until we literally embody its energy. In each move of Dragon & Tiger we continuously exchange it, first with our immediate surroundings, and ultimately with the whole universe.
WHAT WE WILL EXPLORE IN THIS SERIES
In this series you will learn how to practice Dragon & Tiger as a means of embodying Compassion, Kindness, Caring, or Love. We will learn how to use conscious intent to feel for these energies, both in our bodies and all around us. Each session we may choose a different energy to work with as well as explore a different facet of this practice.
Subjects may include:
Absorbing and releasing Compassion or related energies through the breath, hands, feet, eyes, and lower dantian
Pushing and pulling these energies along the pathways
Exchanging these energies with Earth
When we practice Dragon & Tiger or any form of qigong, we always do so with some intent. Some of our intent may be conscious, e.g. to become healthier, or to feel and have more chi. Some may be unconscious, e.g. to boost our ego or to reinforce our emotional patterning or belief systems.
If we can learn to become more conscious of our underlying intent for our Dragon & Tiger practice, we can make choices to develop and embody those energies and qualities such as Compassion that we wish to manifest in our daily lives.
Bruce’s teacher Liu taught, “You become what you practice”.
EARLY FALL SESSION - September 11 to October 16
For our Early Fall session schedule information, please click here.
LATE FALL SESSION - November 6 to December 18
This course will not be offered this session.