In this page you can find information about:
BodyMind Centered Therapies , San Antonio, Tx.
Classes Offered: Tai Chi Chuan, Chi Kung, Further Studies
Blue Star and White Crane (Traditional Tai Chi Chuan in San Antonio) (an essay)
ACTIVITIES:
At the BodyMind Centered Therapies several classes on Traditional
Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan, Chi kung and Meditation ( Awareness,
Attention and Insight) are taught throughout the year; and also
different approaches to health and healing are offered. (i.e.
Massage Therapy).
Some of the different modalities of therapeutic massage offered
at the Center, by Certified and Registered Massage Therapists
are: Swedish Massage, Esalen Massage, Craneo-Sacral Therapy, Polarity
Therapy, Reiki Therapy and Reiki Classes, Touch for Health therapy
sessions and classes, Alexander Technique, and Awareness through
Movement (Feldenkrais).
The Center is also home to an extensive Video Library in the subjects
of Tai Chi Chuan, Chi kung and Nei kung, as well as, an impressive
Book Library (English, Spanish and Chinese language books) on
the subjects of Tai chi Chuan, Health and Healing, Philosophy,
New Physics, Taoism, as well as History and Political Science.
This library is available to students at the Center (for study
and research).
Different visiting teachers and guest speakers have been invited to lecture and teach at the Center: Among them:
Tibetan Buddhist Monks; Myrna Renaud (Puerto-Rican dancer and teacher of Afro-Caribbean Culture);
Madame Wang Jurong (Traditional Wu shu - China) and her husband Doctor Wu Chengde (Healing Chi kung - China); Master Yang Zhenduo and his grandson Yang Jun (the fourth and sixth generation descendants of the Yang Family
of Tai Chi Chuan), Lei Chen (Tai Chi Foundation's Director, Traditional Wu Chienchuan Style),
and others.
Teacher Feng (Tai Chi Chuan applications -Yan Banhou Style) from Taiyuan,
P.R.China is also scheduled to visit the USA and teach at the
Center at the end of 1998.
Finally, the Center also organizes study tours to P.R. of China
for Tai Chi Chuan study with the Yang Family in Taiyuan, Shanxi
Province.
All Classes are taught by the Center's Director, Horacio Lopez.
The Traditional System of Tai Chi Chuan taught is the one developed
by the Yang Family of the P.R. of China, as taught by the fourth
Generation descendant of the Yang Family, Master Yang Zhenduo
(the son of Yang Chengfu) to Horacio Lopez since 1990.
Tai Chi Chuan classes available:
Traditional Yang Style 103 Postures Tai Chi Chuan Form of Master
Yang Chengfu
Traditional Yang Style 13 postures Tai Chi Saber
Traditional Yang Style 67 postures Tai Chi Sword
Tui-shou Pushing Hands (single, double handed, stationary and
walking Push Hands);
Ta lu (four corners)
Form Correction Class
Advanced Tai chi Chuan:
Form Applications Class (self- defense)
Comparative Tai Chi Chuan Studies: Yang Family Style, Wu Family
Style, Sun Style, Cheng Manching Style, and the Modern Routines
developed after the 1950's.
Horacio learned Wu Style from Bruce Frantzis, Sun Style and Modern
routines from Madame Wang Jurong, CMC from William Chen.
The entry level for the study of Chi Kung is a five part series,
taught by Master Kumar Frantzis (author of Opening the Energy
Gates of the Body) to Horacio Lopez since 1985. The five parts
are:
1) Opening the Energy Gates, 2) Spiraling Energy Body, 3) Marriage
of Heaven and Earth, 4) Bend Bow and Shoot the Arrow and 5) Gods
Playing in the Clouds.
Each part of this series focuses on developing a particular set
of internal processes and provides the groundwork for the next
course.
Other systems of Nei kung (Internal Skill) and Chi kung are also
taught to advanced students: among them, Swimming Dragon Chi Kung,
Eight pieces of Brocade, Six Healing Sounds, Soaring Crane Chi
Kung, and Master Wang Ziping's 13 Health preserving exercises
and 20 Exercises for Longevity (learned from his son in law, Doctor
Wu Chengde).
The Nei kung and Chi kung classes are an easy and engaging way
to begin learning about: How does our body energetically work?
How to reconnect to the source of energy?
During the Nei kung and Chi kung classes different techniques
are learned for working on the 1) refinement of the body (alignment,
relaxation) leading to: 2) the refinement of breath, 3) the refinement
of the mind, 4) the refinement of Chi, and 5) the refinement of
consciousness.
Further Studies:
Besides the classes addressing the subjects of Tai Chi Chuan (
Traditional and Modern), Chi kung, and Nei kung, there are also
other classes offered at the Center.
These other classes aim at reconnecting bodymind with an all inclusive awareness, in a practical way.
From the understanding derived from the study of the five processes
named above, the need arises to probe more deeply into: what is
energy? and What is its relationship to thought, awareness, attention,
consciousness and insight?
The observations gained during the study and practice of these
processes are shared in small study groups. These study groups
are a serious attempt to work on oneself in dissolving the causes of the imbalances that lead to dis-ease.
During the practical study of these processes we acknowledge, investigate and incorporate
into our personal practice, the insights of Eastern and Western
pioneers in the fields of healing and energetics (these include:
Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais (Awareness through movement),
Bioenergetics (A. Lowen), Reichian body-work, Craneo-Sacral therapy,
Polarity Therapy, Reiki therapy, G. Roth (Ecstatic Dance), drumming,
etc.; plus we conduct Dialogue Sessions about some of the more basic concepts of the New Physics (David
Bohm, author of Wholeness and the Implicate Order) and their relationship
to a new Paradigm of Health (whole) and Healing.
These classes are practical. They are not lectures.
By Dian Yeager Lopez, a Tai chi Chuan Student
In the early hours of every Saturday, before the morning mist
has disappeared, forty or so figures move slowly upon the rivers
edge of the Blue Star Art Complex. (In the King Williams historical
district)
As the "White Cranes spread their wings" and fly down stream the
group performs a Tai Chi Chuan movement poetically named the same.
" White crane" is only one of many movements in the Tai Chi Chuan
form designed to release and guide the stream of energy (Chi)
inside the practitioner.
In an ever increasing boundary-less world Tai Chi Chuan provides
the student with a form of centeredness from which he can move
in a quietly intense way along the ever-shifting daily path of
mist and mirrors.
In this group, mothers and grandmothers, doctors, therapists,
artists, lawyers all move in concentrated inner calmness as they
greet the San Antonio sun.
The teacher of the group is Horacio Lopez, a 47 year old native
of Argentina, who has been learning and practicing this art for
22 years. He likes to point out, among the many benefits of the
practice of Tai Chi Chuan, the feeling of friendship and camaraderie
that develops among the practitioners of the art.
 Taiyuan/95: Mrs. Duan, one of Teacher Yang's Chinese students, shows me how with very little force on her part she managed to "close my armpit".I am ready to be pushed |
In China, where he spent two months on his first trip in 1992,
he was overwhelmed by the friendliness of his Chinese classmates
and by the kind relationships he observed between the hundreds
of practitioners that he met and befriended in the park. "It was
like a big family where everybody shares and passes their knowledge
and experience to everyone else". Although the levels of skill between the practitioners vary, the end result of the practice seemed to be shared by everybody: a strong body, a clear mind and an attitude full of smiles towards 'Life'. The same spirit pervades the Saturday morning practice at the Blue Star in San Antonio, where visitors are welcome. Other practitioners and teachers of different styles of Tai Chi Chuan often visit Mr. Lopez' class to participate in the "nonaggressive" practice of Pushing Hands (a more advanced practice of the T'ai Chi Ch'uan system) and to share in their experiences of this practice. Mr. Lopez often reminds his students of the many millions of people that every morning, in many different places of the planet and in spite of language, religious, and political differences, are greeting the sun and exercising in the same fashion their ancestors in China did centuries ago. Mr. Lopez feels very fortunate to be part of that tradition (he
is a student of Master Yang Zhenduo, the standard bearer of the
Yang Family Style of Tai Chi Chuan as practiced in mainland China);
and he feels very honored to be one of the bridges for the transmission
of this knowledge between the people of China and the people of
the west. |
Mr. Lopez and his students are recognized in China as an overseas
group seriously committed to the learning and practice of the
Traditional Forms of this Art . In 1994 they were invited by Master
Yang to represent the USA Tai Chi Chuan practitioners of Yang
Style at the "Third China Yongnian International Tai Chi Chuan
Gathering- 1995", to be held in Handan City, Hebei Province.
In September 1995, Mr. Lopez traveled to the Peoples Republic
of China with a group of ten of his students. At the Tournament
they were awarded the First Place (among 40 nations) in two disciplines: for their group performances
of Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan - empty hand form -; and for their
group performance of Yang Style Saber Form. (In China, group performances
are considered more difficult than individual performances since
they not only reflect the level of achievement of each individual
in the Group, but also the collective work of the group to flow
together in harmony and unity).
Written in 1995 for Whole Health Magazine