Full disclosure: I am creating this post mostly for the benefit of any possible participants in tomorrow afternoon's one-off (aka "special") Qigong presentation /slash/ practice session I am providing at The Hive at the Claremont Colleges here in Claremont, California. I'm going to make available a QR Code to this page with its flyer (immediately below) that shows my on-going offerings in the area. (That said, no one who does not live out this way need avert their gaze. If the flyer is irrelevant to you, feel free to scroll down past it, where—among other things—you find a story¹ about the painting that serves as the third image.)
Organizers at The Hive gave me a 90-minute slot on their calendar. Jeepers! My sessions are usually 60 minutes. The format: About 10 minutes to gather and gossip, 20 for warmup exercises, then the last 30 minutes for one or the other of the seven Qigong forms I have learned through the years. How to extend by another 30 minutes?! Two months ago, I had the opposite problem: I was asked to present at "The Gathering"² here at Pilgrim Place, a weekly event from time immemorial (that was "Vespers" in the early days—1915—but was kind of half-secularized about a decade ago. The task for me was to pare things down from my usual 60 minutes to 30. I entitled it "Qi: Non-Matter Matters." I am committed to providing an experience, more than just another passel of words. But there are loads of scholarly sorts here among the residents, and I wanted to situate the experience within information. I sneakily opened with guided imagery that moved us right into a sort of immobile Qigong practice (9 minutes), then gently wedged in 2 minutes of info about Taoism itself, spent 3 minutes leading one simple and subtle Qigong gesture, and finally dedicated 7 minutes to what is (and isn't) known about: the origins of what-we-now-call "Qigong," the repression of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), the following "Qigong Fever" decade, and the governmental (reactionary) institutionalization in the interest of "order." Various forms of Tai Chi and Qigong have been practiced here at Pilgrim Place for many decades, as led by various teachers. The only Qigong form that persists to this day (at four times per week!) was introduced in 2011 and is now group-led. My online research identified it as "Shibashi Qigong," developed in Shanghai in 1979 by Lin Housheng (who had practiced in secret and at great personal risk during the Cultural Revolution).
To be sure tomorrow, I will be drawing on my notes from October. And rather than truncate the practice, we'll be able to luxuriate within it! I'm down for some luxury³.
NOTES
¹ On the flyer, I wanted to include a photo of the current venue for Qigong here at Pilgrim Place: the Warner House, popularly—no—uniquely—known as "The Castle." When I did a Google image search, I found none. What I did find was a painting of it by one of our resident artists, Eleanor Scott Meyers. I phoned her to ask for permission to add it. She agreed and told me how it came to be. It was the centennial year; a committee decided to publish a calendar with images of Pilgrim Place. Eleanor was tasked with compiling images of various scenes of the grounds as painted by residents. She submitted them; they were approved. But, on the morning they were to go to the printer, a committee member called Eleanor in a panic. "Wait! We can't have a centennial calendar without an image of "The Castle"! Since Eleanor had not been able to locate such a painting—and on two hours' notice—she gathered her plein air materials, set up in front of the structure (quickly with the sun still in east, shadows cast to the west), and set to work. "It was one of those rare, magical moments for a painter, when the picture just flowed from the tips of the brushes!"
Eleanor rightly asked that I included a credit, then added "in tiny, tiny print." I told her that indeed I would and that—in 18-point font—retell her story! For more of Eleanor's stories (and paintings), please see her website. The home page has a link to her hot-off-the-press memoir Stories from an Unintentional Preacher.
² So, The Gathering of October 5, 2024. I tend to be pretty shy about these things, but if you've read this far, I suppose you deserve to know that my presentation "Qi: Non-Matter Matters!" was videotaped and can be accessed by clicking here. You've already seen the map that I detailed above. I did room at the end (as I usually say) "... for comments, questions, or arguments." Feel free to give me a holler at MindBodyLosAngeles@gmail.com .
³ Did someone say "luxury"? See photo caption below.
Witnesses to our Qigong practice inside "The Castle" include gold-and-silver threaded figures on this portion of a large tapestry that hangs behind the grand piano.
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