By Shawn Cartwright
The Qigong State and Five Animal Frolics medical Qigong were part of the Qigong credit courses that we taught to holistic nurses at their annual convention this year. All forms of higher cultivation including meditation and Qigong benefit from the Qigong state.
This video introduces you to the Qigong state and the Five Animal Frolics form [...]
By Shawn Cartwright
The Dragon and Tiger have long been totems of internal Kung Fu and symbols of Taoist internal cultivation. The highest levels of internal Kung Fu provide an entry point to Internal Alchemy (Nei Dan) cultivation. Here is a video of Dragon and Tiger free movement performed by Mr. Shawn Cartwright, TCCII Executive Director. It was [...]
By Shawn Cartwright
For every Yin there is a Yang. In this case, the Yang is the Chen Tai Chi Form performed by Mr. Shawn Cartwright, Executive Director of TCCII. This form shows the obvious hard and soft, fast and slow movement of the original style of Tai Chi Chuan. Mr. Cartwright is a 20th generation Chen Tai [...]
By Shawn Cartwright
Bagua and Xingyi (Pa Kua and Hsing I) are two of the most famous Chinese internal Kung Fu systems (after Tai Chi Chuan.) Bagua is generally based upon the eight trigrams of the Yi Jing (I Ching) while Xingyi is based upon the Wuxing (Wu Hsing) five element theory. Here is a demonstration of Xingyi’s [...]
By Shawn Cartwright
Today we travelled to Wei Bao Shan (Wei Bao Mountain), considered one of the major Taoist mountains in China. The drive took a couple of hours and we travelled on a newly built highway through the mountains. This region is home of the Yi people, who wear a distinctive green costume. They sometimes walk their [...]
By Shawn Cartwright
Beautiful, Deadly, Silent – No, not a catchphrase for a new femme fatale, a hunting tigress, or an excellent Kung Fu move – I’m talking about the mountain of snow here in Washington DC. In case you don’t live in the US, or have been meditating in a cave, the nation’s capital and surrounding states [...]
By Shawn Cartwright
Real Taoist and Buddhist philosophy is experiential. It is a practical method of living in the world. Even if there is a large body of scholarly work and scriptures written about it, at the end of the day, it is a practical method of living.
You cannot just read about it or think about it.
You have [...]
By Shawn Cartwright
Real Chinese Internal Boxing*, or Nei Jia Quan as it is called in Chinese, is designed to get you home alive. It is not designed for sport or for entertainment.
But there’s more to it than that. Much more.
One thing most people don’t realize is that these arts are not just for fighting. It is true [...]
By Shawn Cartwright
As a Kung Fu and Qigong teacher, you get to meet all kinds of people.
One day I received an interesting call. I answered the phone and introduced myself.
The voice on the other end said, “So you teach Wing Chun?”
No greeting or introduction. But the timing was not a coincidence as I happened to be practicing [...]
By Shawn Cartwright
Generally speaking, the first part of any culture that gets exported is its products. It is pretty easy to understand why we got silk, spices, and china from China before we got philosophy and Kung Fu. Trade goods don’t need context, just cash.
China has been trading with the west for thousands of years. But where [...]