Ancient masters and practitioners have produced a huge amount of texts, defined as "classics", on the practice of Taijiquan as well as other Internal Arts. We often hear that words are meaningless for practice, and books have no role in building a correct method. That's simply not true, and disregarding the classics can severely impede the chances of success. Here is why. Brennan Translation for an English translation of Taiji Classics...
Aug 20, 2025•32 min•Season 4Ep. 1
In the realm of practice, your thoughts—both their content and the way you process them—are never neutral. They either move you closer to reality or pull you away from it. Here’s why.
Apr 29, 2025•19 min•Season 3Ep. 13
As "The Taichi & Qigong Podcast" has reached 1000 followers on Spotify and Apple Podcasts combined, we are happy to announce the creation of a new podcast, " My Meditation Podcast ", accessible for free on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. There you will find already collected previous episodes related to meditation, previously recorded on "The Taichi & Qigong Podcast", as well as future episodes that will be recorded on the topic in the future. Enjoy! My Meditation Podcast links: Spotify Appl...
Apr 02, 2025•3 min
Mental clarity and moral quality are two of the traditional fruits that a correct practice should bring. While politics as a toxic topic is often wisely sidelined in Tai Chi, Qigong and Meditation communities, this does not mean that a good practitioner should also be "dumb 'n numb" when it comes to political views, assuming that he/she has interest in the topic, and thus has spent time and energies to gather correct informations and propel analytical tools, none of which, as a seasoned practiti...
Feb 28, 2025•31 min•Season 3Ep. 12
The Taichi, Qigong or Meditation class needs to be a hassle-free experience. But for who?
Feb 11, 2025•31 min•Season 3Ep. 11
Upon the existence or not existence of the Self.
Jan 24, 2025•20 min•Season 3Ep. 10
How much should we traini? What should we train? Can we only train at the training center? Is a 3 hours Meditation per se better than a 1 hour Meditation session? Is Standing Practice needed or not? And most importantly, where should the knee stay in a good Taichi Form?
Jan 14, 2025•36 min•Season 3Ep. 9
In this episode of "The Taichi & Qigong Podcast," we explore the journey of becoming a Tai Chi teacher and delve into the often-overlooked political aspects of this ancient practice. We'll discuss how practitioners can navigate these political aspects while maintaining the integrity of their practice and fostering an open-minded approach to learning across different styles and lineages.
Dec 20, 2024•46 min•Season 3Ep. 8
Asian traditions follows, without exceptions, the Three Body Problem path, which is, taming the Body to access the Energy in order to see the nature of the Mind. Some of the most modern meditation methods fails to see this correlation, developing de-stressing practices that are not, and should not be deemed as, traditional meditation practices.
Dec 05, 2024•28 min•Season 3Ep. 7
We receive from the past wonderful traditions, and the reason this happens is that folks dedicated huge resources to these practices, to make space for the, and to dedicate time. Time is exactly what we discuss today, the need to find it, the need to add a little to be of stress at the beginning, to be repaid tomorrow.
Nov 19, 2024•19 min•Season 3Ep. 6
In the previous episodes we went through the Dan Tian , Center of Mass, joints arrangement, muscles/tendons/ligaments and elastic force expression. All of this can be produce by your internal practice. In this episode we see how Pushing Hands ( Tui Shou ) and Fajing developed in very peculiar practices of the Taijiquan tradition. And remember, big guys will always have the lead when it comes to pushing or being pushed. Let them have it, and mind your own development....
Oct 22, 2024•22 min•Season 3Ep. 5
In this third episode on the relationship between muscles, force and Internal Arts, we clarify the path that brings from Dantian through relaxation to Dantian through force, and we also clarify a bunch of other issues.
Oct 07, 2024•23 min•Season 3Ep. 4
In this episode, second of three dedicated to the use of "force" in the internal arts, we discuss about how the center of mass is supposed to be settled inside the body, in the lower Dan Tian area, in order to generate elastic force by the process of transforming the way joints, tendons and ligaments are used. A process that is at the basis of Taichi, Qi Gong and Meditation.
Sep 26, 2024•23 min•Season 3Ep. 3
Nobody has ever been able to approach any Chinese energetic art (say Taichi or Qigong) without encountering the concept of "Dan Tian" (丹田), or "Elixir Field". We will see how the Elixir was intended to give immortality (in lieu of the awakening in the buddhist theories), of the shape, size and location of the Dan Tian widely varies in different centuries or schools, and how it is related to the physical nature of Homo Sapiens .
Aug 30, 2024•21 min•Season 3Ep. 2
When we think about Taichi, we usually link it to the Taichi Form: the slow, relaxed, continuous sequence of arcane movements. But at the end, what's the Taichi Form all about? Is it a form of therapy and self-healing? Is it a tool to develop a powerful martial prowess? None of the above, as we argue in this chat.
Aug 04, 2024•30 min•Season 3Ep. 1
For groups and for singles, when it comes to religion or spirituality, the quest for power arises. It is unavoidable, generated by the ignorance-fear-frustration-anger-hate loop, a loop that cannot be broken, leading to the quest for power growing desperate. How to see it, how to avoid denial in dealing with it, and how finally leave it in background.
Jun 19, 2024•40 min•Season 2Ep. 14
- Boredom: The feeling of being bored or uninterested in what you're doing is boredom. Everyone experiences boredom sometimes. The feeling that nothing catches your interest, that everything's dull and flat, sums up the state of boredom. - Escapism: In psychology, escapism is when a person routinely uses an activity or behavior to escape life's realities . It is a way of distracting the mind.
Jun 04, 2024•29 min•Season 2Ep. 13
LGBTQ+ issues has been heavily politicized, to the point that is not uncommon to find even internal arts teachers who claim some of this people to present deviations from a supposed given human nature. In this episode we dismiss such claims as non-sensical, and we on the contrary explain why, on a very practical ground, LGBTQ+ practitioners may find in their path to have a strength like many other practitioners never find in their whole life.
May 16, 2024•20 min•Season 2Ep. 12
The Three-Body Problem is a well known sci-fi novel by the Chinese author Liu Cixin, recently renderer by a Netflix series. In the Chinese Internal Arts we traditionally recognize three main energetic centers located in or correlated to the physical body: from physical energy to psychic energy, the internal journey may be obscure and detailed at the same time. Outside a traditional path only lies delusion, exacly where many practitioner find themselves in modern Yoga or Meditation approaches. Wh...
Apr 19, 2024•30 min•Season 2Ep. 11
Meditation is not a therapy for the Self, the Ego is not the Nature of Mind, what was going on in your childhood is of no interest for your practice, and practice itself is not supposed to generate Love.
Mar 19, 2024•20 min•Season 2Ep. 10
The Financial Times has recently launched a new investigative podcast, Untold, and the first serie is about the damages that intensive meditation practice can bring: " The Retreat ". This episode encourages you to listen to The Retreat podcast and learn how intensive meditation can damage you psyche. Resources to help people who struggle with meditation's damages: https://www.cheetahhouse.org/ https://miguelfarias.co.uk/...
Feb 22, 2024•18 min
In our societies "Wellness" has become a key marketing word, and it is supposed to be one of the main objectives of the Internal Practice. Is it truly so? Also, the second video on Wuji practice has been released here
Jan 09, 2024•15 min•Season 2Ep. 8
As when looking for a good physician, we do not go after nice personalities or beautiful smiles when we look for a Taichi, Qigong, Meditation or Yoga teacher, or at least we should not. High quality practices are often associated with high pressure on the self, and high level practitioners are seldom the kind the smiles beautifully and greet you with a bow. Let's see why. Also, here on youtube a video on Wuji practice: Wuji #1...
Dec 28, 2023•14 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Can modern Yoga be seen as an Internal Art, the same way Taichi & Qigong are? Can the Western circus tradition be seen as an Internal Art? Moving the body, breathing in and out, thinking about peace in the world, is this an Internal Art. For us, the answer is "no".
Dec 07, 2023•24 min•Season 2Ep. 6
One of the main practices of Taijiquan is the the Taichi Form. It is often the Taichi Form that encapsulates the outer signs of that lineage or that school. All the main 5 classic styles (Chen, Yang, Wu-Hao, Wu and Sun) have similarities and differences, and in every lienage you have one different Taichi for every teacher (yi ren yi taiji - one Taichi for each Teacher). So how important is the sequence in Taichi and how much is important to find a new teacher that teaches the sequence you have b...
Nov 27, 2023•24 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Meditation has been, along with other East Asian traditions, acquired in the modern mega-culture and shaped it along with terms as "Yoga", "Zen" and "Kung-fu". But which are the roots of the ancient meditative traditions, how have they developed till today, and how big a pie of this cake may we realistically hope to eat up?
Nov 14, 2023•35 min•Season 2Ep. 4
In all realms of human knowledge, tradition and access to it is a key factor of success. The more we are able to access sources of traditional knowledge, the less time we will need to reach low hanging fruits and the higher is the possibility that we may one day access the more precious aspects of the art. Let's see why.
Nov 09, 2023•32 min•Season 2Ep. 3
We have discussed so far about the history of Taichi and Qigong developments. But how is it today to really learn these arts? Is it something that we can just google out and find the class we like at the location we like with the time schedule we like, or is it probably a little bit more tricky that this? If you think about it, it cannot be an easy task.
Oct 17, 2023•25 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Many people seem to believe that there is a "true" method, be it in Internal Arts or Martial Arts or Meditation as well. This idea would hint at a reality were past (often very past) Masters would have discovered a true method, and that our goal is to gain access to that true method via the relation with a correct lineage knowledgeable master. Tradition and access to it is a key factor in traditional practices, but for good or for bad, there is not such thing as a true method, no less than there...
Aug 21, 2023•34 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Taijiquan has always been a "kung fu", one of the many styles of the traditional Chinese martial arts. On the other side, yet from the beginning the practice of martial art has always been seen in China as a way to develop the personal character. During the 20th century we saw Taijiquan steering toward the cultivating, or "Wen" side of the practice. Many Taijiquan practitioners think that their cultivating practice will one day lead them toward martial skill, which is not true, while practitione...
Aug 14, 2023•29 min•Season 1Ep. 12
