Thank you for today’s online practice with Pati, Debbie, Simone, Jasmine and Aila (sp?), Liz and Wiley, and Simone and the 2 ducks.
Today we practiced circular warm ups to open up the joint spaces and then we practiced a portion of primordial qi gong set that I learned from the late Dr. Hu. Primordial points to emptiness and nothingness. It also connects to what is being and becoming and the unfolding world of form and materiality. Today we practiced what I have been affectionately calling the donut section. We will practice this all week.
Insights about noticing, accompaniment, and transformation came out of the shares/storytelling/reflections. This is my recollection and take it with a grain of salt because brain and body are tired.
I heard that some were able to be still and notice what was happening to remember, to reconnect and see what was unfolding like 2 ducks were accompanying and releasing vs. fighting. I also heard that others were able to feel they were practicing with others and this was the doorway to connect self as one current and then the self in relation to others as another current. I also learned that people were able to see and experience their roles movements and roles differently.
Practice schedule: Tuesday 4/14, Thursday 4/16 then next one will be Tuesday 4/21
Changes for the online schedule — no practice Sunday April 19.
It was nourishing to practice together this morning with Debbie, Simone, Bonnie, and Karin.
Welcome Karin! Glad you joined for the first time!
From this morning, I heard reflections like “it was comforting, soothing, grounding” and connecting to moves in a way that felt “joyful and playful” even as people faced uncertainty.
My journey of healing from the mild traumatic brain injury continues. My brain still gets tired after an hour of reading, writing, and speaking with complex ideas.
Qìgōng continues to be a big part of my rehab and essential as I enter this new mode of healing and working. I am grateful to my teachers the late Dr. Hu and to Paul Li, as well as my practice coach my dad and mom and the wild goose / dayan teaching community. Mindful movement has been good for getting the neural circuits connected and to get the parasympathetic system to be in charge.
I continue with qì gōng and walking mindfulness because it is healing to mindfully move together while in community and drawing from this tradition that is 1000s years old.
We are closing a chaotic March and are starting a new month this week.
Join us!
SOME NEW IN-PERSON OPPORTUNITIES TO PRACTICE!
APRIL 1 and 15: May 6: Pitzer College
PEACE IS EVERY STEP: Mindful Walking in the Thích Nhất Hạnh Tradition
WHAT: A gentle, walking meditation inspired by the teachings of Thích Nhất Hạnh. Slow down, breathe, and walk together in awareness as a community.
BRING: Comfortable shoes, sunblock, sunhat, water, compassion, and cultural humility.
COST: Free
FACILITATED BY Dr. Kathy Yep Full Professor, Asian American Studies, Pitzer College Faculty for ASAM 88: The Social Theory of Thích Nhất Hạnh
BACKGROUND
“Peace work is not a means. Each step we make should be peace. Each step we make should be joy. Each step we make should be happiness. We don’t need the future. Everything we want is right here in the present moment.” — Thích Nhất Hạnh, Creating True Peace
Zen master Thích Nhất Hạnh co-founded Tiep Hien (the Order of Interbeing) during the American War in Vietnam in the 1960s. The Order of Interbeing organized community-led mutual aid amid militarism, forced displacement, human-made starvation, gender-based violence, environmental destruction, and collective grief. Tending to the liminal space between heartbreak and hope, Tiep Hien (the Order of Interbeing) rooted their peace-making in the concepts of mindfulness and interconnectedness.
Thích Nhất Hạnh’s root temple is in Huế, Vietnam —the same city where Pitzer hosts one of our summer programs.
We had a meaningful practice this morning with Jasmine, TQ, Simone, Liz, and Aliyah– from what I recall and my brain is tired so take this with a grain of salt: of as Liz says “what I heard, what I experienced”: insights about relief, meeting yourself and things as they are while also having tools like “sweep,” suppleness to balance transitions, curiosity to what is unfolding, openness, laughter, and accompaniment. Thank you for the movement practice from the primordial set and your insights.
A gentle reminder we will not have practice until Thu March 26. This is short and sweet because brain is fatigued.
May your practices nourish and flourish until then. The next time we will see each other will be in the new season!
Hello and happy lunar new year! I hope you are well. No lunar new year post because navigating cognitive fatigue. Here’s to the fire horse!
We are starting a new month on Sunday! Thank you for practicing together for February. Your presence is always welcome. If you have capacity, donating to these gofundme is welcomed or to a place of your choice:
Our last practice and reflection were powerful and humbling as we practiced tracing the meridians and then adapted to how we needed to move while rooted in qi gong principles.
Some themes as I recall that came up (brain is tired): staying connected with self and others, nourishing mercy in self and for others, casting aside childhood norms about feelings and feeling feelings as adults, sustaining communities where can unlearn and relearn.
We will have class per usual on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays except for the following days:
No class:
Sunday March 8, Tuesday March 10
Thu March 19, Sun 3/22 and Tue 3/24
The first day of spring is March 20! What do these last weeks of winter feel like and look like for you?
I was fortunate to start learning dayan/wild goose over 30 years ago.. Lately, I have been teaching small pieces of dayan/wild goose. Join us! This is a demo video of set 1.
The journey of healing from the mild traumatic brain injury continues. It has been 13 months since the car accident and about 9 months since I fell and hit my head after the accident. I am still doing rehab daily and hoping to get back to teaching, research, and life more fully. I still experience pain when I read, write, and think at the work level of a professor after an hour. Qì gōng and mindful walking have been grounding, healing, and connective.
I continue with qì gōng because it is nourishing. I find joy in moving mindfully with community and carrying forward this tradition of 1000+years in the the Yang Mei Jun lineage via the late Dr. Hu and Paul Li. My dad practices every day and he loves hearing about our practice on zoom.
Join us in practice! All abilities and bodies are welcome. No experience necessary. Offered in the spirit of generosity.
Donations accepted for community partner, Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity. No amount is too small or too big. All are welcome regardless of funds donated. (Make offerings to where and how you wish for or food, water, medicine, medical care, shelter, clothes.)
Suggested donations: sliding scale $5- $20 per session. No one turned away for lack of funds.
At the end of month donate directly to the organizations or send check or offerings to: K. Yep, P.O. Box 1313, Monterey Park, CA 91754 for the number of sessions you attended. People have sent poems, seeds, cards, quotes, art and offerings.
All levels are welcome. Bring open heart, cultural humility, and water. Come early or late. Leave early if needed. As Liz says: “Come as you are.”
We are learning and practicing with a form that is over a 1000 years old. We are meeting the movements and the form rooted in a tradition with who we are and who we are becoming from our specific social locations. It is an invitation of continuity and accompanying our selves, each other, and all beings with relaxed awareness.
As Debbie says: “Connect to playfulness”. As Simone says “Receive it as care and release the struggle.” As Penny says: “Try different ways of moving — inside to out, outside to in, from the bones, from the muscle, from the air)
Dr. Kathy Yep 