Heaven Man Earth Internal Arts - Pensacola

Every day we do this "warm-up set" also known as our "joint loosening set." Today after showing a new student and an existing student (who has a shoulder injury) I had some more thoughts to share... It has become obvious to me from spending time with those with the highest skills I've encountered just how much "training" is kind of happening all of the time. A beginning student might apparently be throwing their arms back in a certain way in order to loosen and open their shoulders for a minute - which is correct and which will cause a certain amount of progress toward our ends for the shoulders. However, the advanced student has a certain amount of awareness (Yi) of their shoulders such that they naturally maintain a level of openness therein and throughout the day. It is as if they're accomplishing a lot more training while everyone else is going about their day - and while the beginner's shoulders are closing back up until their next training session. This is embodiment. It doesn't take much embodiment to want to remove a rock from the inside of your shoe because you're so bothered by it. Likewise, if the advanced student somehow had the shoulders of the beginner transplanted into them, then perhaps within a few days they'd be so bothered that they'd transform them into intermediate shoulders! So why can't the beginner just use their will to decide to have intermediate shoulders? Because the will is not awareness. The will, in fact, interrupts awareness. Awareness does not begin or end while our "training" beings and ends.

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It is healthy to be able to appreciate things we do not understand. To allow ourselves to be inspired.
While elegantly demonstrated by my teacher, to even "try" to do this requires a certain depth of cultivation in the fundamentals - fundamentals which are too rarely appreciated, much less cultivated today.

Understanding The Jin Lu Points In this video - Adam Mizner discusses and demonstrates the Jin Lu p...

If training were a game...

If you'd like to attend classes and the current hours do not suit you, then please private message me with time(s) that do.

Instead of fabricating using the mind in an attempt to reify, we cultivate what is there; what is real...

A Christian who is a prospective student asks whether a Taiji class is conducive or perhaps contrary to his faith.

As always, fear not - but I see no conflict. Actually I welcome this question because not only do I want to train along side dedicated Christians, but I see that anyone dedicated to the fundamentals of Christianity should already have a growing internal awareness - an awareness that is separate from the world. After all, Christ is within (Galatians 2:20, Colossians 1:27, Romans 8:10-11, Ephesians 3:17, 2 Corinthians 13:5, 1 Corinthians 6:19, etc)! And Christians - as well as internal arts practitioners - are called to realize that they are in the world, yet not of it (John 17:14-16).

Considering today's Easter holiday, I want to share some Biblical verses that strike at the core of Christianity and all internal arts alike:

Matthew 6:33 - Seek first the kingdom of God... and all shall be added.

Luke 17:21 - Behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

Thessalonians 5:17 - Pray without ceasing

2 Corinthians 10:5 - Casting down imaginations... Bring into captivity every thought.

2 Corinthians 13:5 - Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.

Ephesians 4:6 - One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

So - while Taiji, neigong, and qigong might be entirely unfamiliar to a Christian - I propose that the type of training we do is in no way contrary to Christianity. I can also promise that you will be better at "taking thoughts captive" if you put in the effort - and that your experience of 'being in the world yet not of it' will deepen. As I see it, the more our awareness becomes embodied, the more an "open heart" becomes literal and not figurative.

Happy Easter! He who is anointed (Christ) is risen!

"What can Taiji classes actually help me with?"

- correcting your posture
- automatically keeping good posture
- getting "out of your head"
- improving connection with your body
- rehabilitating injuries
- correcting shallow breathing and respiratory issues
- strength with mobility
- compressed joints
- slowing down thoughts
- letting go of thoughts
- becoming embodied
- stabilizing your emotions
- achieving a fresh perspective
- ... much more - these came to me as I freshly ponder this question.

Surely there are other approaches to achieving the above, but I've not found anything necessarily more *causal*. Often people want a highly specialized solution for each special-sounding-problem, but I propose all such problems are downstream from fundamentals.

These natural outcomes are more to do to the fact that special care is given to developing bodily awareness than they are to do with any stylistic, sectarian, or lineal specialization.

Taiji (aka Tai Chi) classes are about to begin in Pensacola, Florida!

Classes will be held Tuesdays (2h) & Thursdays (1h) at 4:15pm @ 1010 N 12th Ave (The Historic Sacred Heart Hospital) - Suite 211.

Everyone is welcome and will be met where they are... We follow the https://DiscoverTaiji.com curriculum. Classes are taught by James Maniotis, a https://HeavenManEarth.com affiliate.