Craig Mallett

A short clip from my weekly Patreon classes, each week we dive into qigong exercises to develop fundamental qualities for internal cultivation arts. The way I approach this is rather universal, designed to give you firm foundation from which to pursue specific arts from (or just support your life if you're not into the epic training needed for most internal arts).

My patreon can be found at https://patreon.craigmallett.com

A small snippet from one of my recent classes. Here I am talking about the legs as the gas-strut-like structure that transfers the weight from the torso to the ground, and the kua as the link between the torso and this gas strut effect.

My patreon now has a huge selection of classes available, and I'm adding new (roughly seasonal for the southern hemisphere) classes every week that you can follow along with. Those with top tier patronage can also access the classes live on zoom; there are 2 of these classes every week and only one usually makes the upload.

patreon.craigmallett.com if you'd like to check that out.

I don't train Taiji (taichi). I use some principles and some drills from the art for my own purposes, but I'm not a "taichi" guy.

Pushhands is one practice I like a lot. It has multiple uses, but what I mainly explore is how the interaction gives me an opportunity to discover and connect with new experiences or perceptions. For me, it's not about winning or losing, keeping your structure integrated or not, or even having good release or not. I have my good days and bad days with these things and overall they tend to evolve in the way they do, apparently getting better slowly. The overarching idea I work with is to notice the discovery and the inherent joy or curiosity within that. Even discovering something difficult (a disconnection or blockage) is charged with this. "How interesting, I never noticed that before" or "I have never experienced it quite like this before". There's no end to what might be discovered a new or something forgotten rediscovered, but the process of discovery is what interests me.

To be in this mode, one must remain connected to the mystery, what you do not know, what is unknown. As Zen Master Seung Sahn says: "only don't know".

In my language this is part of the opening quality, releasing being linked to "letting what is discovered be as it already is and change however it will change" (the change is simply more discovery). Opening leads to discovery, releasing allows the discovery to change however it may. Both sides of this single process are always and already occurring, which becomes obvious when one stops trying to know.

Pushhands play here with the mighty Chris Radnedge who I believe was excommunicated from Instagram but is still releasing untold meme mastery over on Facebook. Recommend checking him out of you're in Canberra!

A snippet from a recent workshop, on accepting the pressure of the partner to your centre. There are no external perceptions!

When the releasing process is running through the body, the body does not move using conventional coordination. Instead, the release allows the body to organically reorganise itself around the position of the hands. As the hands are constantly moving, the body is constantly following.

As the body releases more deeply, it becomes more free in its reorganisational capacity, so the posture and alignment of the body becomes progressively less controlled by the mind. This freedom is also what allows the natural circulation of Qi in the system. Most of the practices in qigong are not there to govern the circulation but rather to free up the interior so the circulation can do its thing without governance.