Sunday, March 31, 2019

10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
(with a break from 12:30 to 2 p.m.)
 

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 WORKSHOP

In this workshop you will learn how to practice Dragon & Tiger as a means of embodying Compassion, Kindness, Caring, or Universal Love.

• We will explore what Compassion, Kindness, Caring, and Universal Love feel like as energies, both in our bodies and all around us.
  

• We will practice projecting and absorbing chi with each move of Dragon & Tiger - using hands, feet, and breath - in and out along the pathways of each move.
  

• We will learn how to use conscious intent to feel for, send out, and draw in the energy of Compassion with and through the hands, feet, breath and pathways of each move of Dragon & Tiger.

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, 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”.

Prerequisites

You must know the complete Dragon & Tiger set, including the version of the pathways that we teach in our Refinements Series 1 courses. These pathways are presented in the books on Dragon & Tiger by Bruce Frantzis.  

You must also know how to cup and curl your hands and fingers in D&T, either through our Refinements Series 1 course on the Hands, or equivalent experience.

Those who know how to push and pull chi will learn how to apply this skill to the practice of sending and receiving Compassion or related energies. 

Instructor

Kathryn Komidar

When

Sunday, March 31, 2019

10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (with a break from 12:30 to 2 p.m.)

Fee

$120

Registation and Payment:

Please click here to register online and pay by credit card through our website. 

Or you may pay in person at our studio by check, cash, or credit card.

Or you may mail us a check with a registration form. Please click here for instructions and to download a registration form.

Please note that enrollment is limited, and we will not save you a space until we receive your payment. 

If we have run out of space when you try to register, and you would like to be placed on a waiting list, please email us (info@towardharmony.com) to let us know.

Refund Policy

• If you pay for the workshop and are not able to attend due to an illness, emergency, or other circumstances beyond your control, and we are able to to fill your space with another student, then we will refund in full the fee you paid, minus a $30 administrative fee. If we are not able to fill your space, then we will refund half of your fee.
  

• If you pay for the workshop and decide not to attend for any other reason, if we are able to fill your space with another student, then we will refund the fee you paid, minus a $30 administrative fee. Otherwise, we will not refund any of your fee.
  

• In any of the above circumstances, instead of issuing of refund, we will be happy to hold your full fee as a credit to be used for classes or workshops with us in the future.