I vividly remember some of the new students’ jaws dropped when I mentioned that Tai Chi (Taiji) Chuan is the grand ultimate martial art that is extremely powerful and effective. To non-practitioners, Tai Chi Chuan and other internal Chinese martial arts are intriguing and somewhat ‘mysterious’ because they are not just martial arts, but also healing arts. Even long-term practitioners have a hard time explaining how these two arts are fused together.
Sifu Loretta Wollering (New Jersey), gave a brilliant presentation to explain the relationship between the healing art and martial art during the second Annual Symposium for Integrative Health, Tai Chi & Qigong (Sept 7-9, 2018). The goal of martial arts is to protect and defend oneself or someone else, to deflect the attack from an opponent or to remove an obstacle, to defeat the rival, or even to destroy and kill the enemy. Loretta stated that the same goal holds true for health; that our body is to protect our health and overcome viruses, germs, and diseases. In martial arts, we learn when to fight and when to flee; the same can be said regarding our immune system. She emphasized that good Tai Chi comes from the adherence to the principles, i.e. relaxation, rooting, proper body alignment, deep breathing; indisputably, the same principles are also essential for a healthy body. Not only one can apply the same principles to improve his or her own health, the same principles can also be employed to provide therapy to others. She instructed workshop attendees to pair up with each other and taught them a couple of medical massage techniques. Students felt effortless when they utilized the Tai Chi principles to render the massage and the people massaged also felt greater comfort when it was done correctly. Sifu Wollering underlined that the difference between martial art and healing art is the intent (or Yi in Chinese), which can direct the energy toward the target for respective purpose.
The second Annual Symposium for Integrative Health, Tai Chi & Qigong was held at Maris Stella Conference & Retreat Center in Long Beach Island, New Jersey. Long Beach Island, or LBI fondly nicknamed by the locals, is east of the New Jersey seaboard in the Atlantic Ocean and connected to the mainland via New Jersey State Route 72. It is 18-mile long with the widest part only a half mile from beach to beach. It is considered a barrier island for New Jersey as well as a beach lover’s paradise and summer colony for well-to-do people residing in cities like Manhattan (NY) and Philadelphia (PA), and states of Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. There is no chain store, i.e. The Capital Grille, T.G.I. Friday’s, McDonald, or even Starbucks on the island. Most buildings are one to three-story Victorian houses with wood sidings painted in light muted colors. There is no Hilton or Howard Johnson; hotels are small and likely owned by locals. LBI is family-friendly and has no exuberant nightlife. It offers a majestic feel of nature, tranquility, and energy. No wonder Sifu and Dr. CJ Rhoads spent two years diligently pursuing the Maris Stella Center to host the symposium and was finally granted her wish.
The mission of the symposium is to help people connect, network, present, and share information about all aspects of integrative health and leadership. Even though it was a small symposium with 39 attendees, it consisted of six tracks: Health, Form, Push Hands, Weapon, Academics, and Meditative/Spiritual with 18 different workshops, presentations, and discussions. Sixteen Tai Chi and Qigong Laoshi’s (or teachers) from 7 states attended the event. Unlike large conferences, this symposium’s presentations were 50-minute-long and progressed one after another like a string of small pearls.
“Nei Gong (or internal power)” may sound esoteric, which can cause some individuals to stay away from it; on the contrary, some people are yearning for it, but afraid that they have to go through arduous training for decades to obtain it. Bill Douglas (Kansas), the co-founder of The World Tai Chi & Qigong Day, unveiled the secret of Nei Gong in his presentation. First he asked attendees to sit in a relaxing manner and let go of the left-brain thinking. He guided everyone through meditation to reach a state of total relaxation. He then instructed participants to conduct two simple maneuverings. It was amazing that people became much stronger when they were totally relaxed and that was Nei Gong at work.
Aside from Wollering and Douglas’ presentations, there were workshops with profundity. Steve Arbitman (PA) taught “Two-person set of Yang Style Tai Chi”; Sandra Balint (NJ) instructed “Mu Lan Fushion Fan”, Lucy Bartimole (OH) talked about “Tai Chi and Essential Self”, Luke Jih (NJ) spoke on “Taoist’ Cultivation of Body/Mind/Spirit”, Violet Li (MO) taught “Chan Si Jin (or Silk Reeling)”, Ken Lo (NY) hosted “Cha Dao: The Way Of Tea”, William Phillips (NY) shared “Neutralization Exercises for Push Hands”, CJ Rhoads (PA) spoke on “Vision of a Unified Integrative Health Network”, Kevin Siddons (PA) taught “The Bear Frolic from the Five Animal Frolics”, Tom Tague (NJ) shared “Eight Pieces of Brocade Qigong”, Jingshan Tang (PA) instructed “Six Healing Sound Qi Gong”, Stephen Watson (CT) spoke on “The Body as Philosopher” , Ramsey Yunan (NJ) instructed “Temple Style Training Methods for Tai Chi and Qigon”, and Chet Zeiger (NJ) presented “A Chinese Medical Approach to Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome”.
The attendees appreciated the opportunity to learn different styles of Tai Chi and Qigong and to understand the abundance of the internal art. Most participants are instructors themselves so they were able to provide valuable feedbacks to the presenters. It was a good occasion to exchange knowledge and trade skills and techniques among instructors. Many commented that the symposium contributed an arena to reconnect practitioners from different places with old friends and make new friends in a non-competitive and caring environment.
(Edited by Doc Luecke.)
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The article is wonderful and is doing a service to the Symposium. Sifu CJ Rhoads is doing a very valuable service to the internal arts by putting in all the work that it takes to make this event happen. So I want to thank her for running the event and also thank Sifu Violet Li for writing about it, and thereby spreading knowledge of it. I hope more people will attend in the future.