The Staff Other Disciplines
Barbara McKercher
Meditation Instructor: Moving and Non-Moving
I remember my tai chi instructor telling how I would never really understand tai chi fully untill I learned the fighting aspect. I took that to heart and after learning the Yang style 108 form and quigong, I trained for years with Tim Cartmell in the Chinese internal martial arts of Ba Gua and Xing Yi, and Brazilian jujitsu. Tim trained for years in China and was an expert in training the use of power by going with force, rather that meeting force with force. He was most influential in teaching me economy and efficiency of power. I also spent years studying various forms of meditation. My tai chi teacher was right - to be fully integrated, one must learn both yin and yang.
Transitioning to yoga was very easy for me as yoga has the same roots as a body, mind, spirit practice. Most yoga classes make it a choice between a relaxing yin practice, or a rigourous yang body practice. But as I learned in the interal martial arts, we need both. Why wouldn't you want to be a strong as possible? Why wouldn't you want to know how to sit and still the mind? We all need to balance the feminine and masculine aspects of ourselves. So, I teach both a very powerful yoga as meditation, and sitting meditation as a compliment.
Hence, my classes are more like courses. I teach it the way tai chi is taught today, that is, presenting information in a systematic way for the purpose of truly giving students the tools to be their own yogis. Everyone wants to be strong, everyone needs to be calm. We meed to learn both, and listen and respond to what we need each day. In learning and exercising both sides of our being, we practice equanimity and balance.
Transitioning to yoga was very easy for me as yoga has the same roots as a body, mind, spirit practice. Most yoga classes make it a choice between a relaxing yin practice, or a rigourous yang body practice. But as I learned in the interal martial arts, we need both. Why wouldn't you want to be a strong as possible? Why wouldn't you want to know how to sit and still the mind? We all need to balance the feminine and masculine aspects of ourselves. So, I teach both a very powerful yoga as meditation, and sitting meditation as a compliment.
Hence, my classes are more like courses. I teach it the way tai chi is taught today, that is, presenting information in a systematic way for the purpose of truly giving students the tools to be their own yogis. Everyone wants to be strong, everyone needs to be calm. We meed to learn both, and listen and respond to what we need each day. In learning and exercising both sides of our being, we practice equanimity and balance.
