Autumn workshop with Mark

The Autumn workshop with Mark will run at Fetternear Hall 21st - 24th October. Paolo is finalising the schedule for 121s and group sessions, so if you want to book one of those then please let him know as soon as possible.

Travel for Autumn workshop

For anyone planning ahead and intending travelling by train to the Autumn workshop which starts on October 21st, LNER tickets to Aberdeen are now on sale here

Aberdeenshire Autumn Workshop

The Aberdeenshire Autumn workshop with Mark will be at Fetternear Hall 21st - 24th October, followed by 121s with Mark.  There will be more details nearer the time: please let Paolo know if you want to book a 121.

Dates for the summer workshop in London are expected to be confirmed soon.

Aberdeenshire Spring Workshop

The dates of the Aberdeenshire Spring Workshop with Mark have now been confirmed.

Due to unavailability of the hall on the Monday and Tuesday, it will be a slightly different arrangement from last October, starting on the Friday afternoon rather than the usual Saturday.

Friday 3rd March to Sunday 5th March 2pm - 9.30pm(ish) 3-day workshop at Fetternear Hall 

Monday 6th to Wednesday 8th 1 to 1 lessons

Thursday 9th 2pm - 9.30pm at Monymusk Hall. An afternoon of weapons, followed by a leftside class after the food break.

Please contact Paolo if you'd like to book a 1 to 1 with Mark, or are interested in attending the workshops.

Lots of news from the T'ai Chi Centre

I've spent the weekend with Mark arranging all sorts of upcoming good things for the T'ai Chi Centre and Great River, so here's the latest.

The 4 day Summer Intensive is going ahead as announced 23-26 July and we look forward to seeing you there. All students who have ever studied with Mark, Caro or John Kells or his students are welcome to attend. All the details are in the previous post. 

Mark will be taking new beginners at the Trinity Rd Tooting class at 6.30-8pm on Tuesdays from mid September. So let all your London pals know. All with some previous experience are welcome right now  from 7-9pm each Tuesday night, and classes will continue until 20th July, resuming 6th September. Class costs £15.

In the autumn, Mark will begin recording video lessons for an introductory online class, which can be studied by anyone anywhere. Film maker Jonny Randall will be shooting and editing the course. We are researching hosting platforms at the moment. If you have studied an online course over the last few years and would recommend one in particular, then get in touch with Mark to let him know.

So that Mark's new classes and courses will be known about more widely, we have set up an Instagram account which you can see online even if you don't have Instagram as an app. Go to www.instagram.com/thetaichicentre.co.uk . I am uploading the photos and text he sends me, and answering or forwarding enquires. Mark aims to show photos from the whole period he has been teaching - since 1988 - as well as the breadth of the syllabus covered. We have uploaded two posts so far, and there'll be one every couple of days, for now. Feel free to let friends know about the upcoming courses and the insta account. It's nice that already an old student of mine from Hackney found the account and will be popping along to Mark's classes in Tooting next week, as they miss T'ai Chi so much. 

Staring at screens is never fun, but it is worth it when it helps bring people back to real physical T'ai Chi again.

Great River T'ai Chi will start in person classes in Southbourne and Boscombe in September as I have found some great movement studios with plenty of space and light. More on that soon!

And, after two years of really not being able to raise my right leg properly to do Sweep Lotus kick, all my exercises have paid off, and although the arthritis is still there, my muscles around the joint are much stronger. This is in good time, as next week we do this posture in the online class.

Online Short Form class continues live each Tuesday morning 9-10am by Zoom, all welcome, £6.

All good wishes from me in Bournemouth. Have a great week ahead. 

The long-awaited 15th Annual summer intensive

Dear friends, at last we are able to announce The T'ai Chi Centre 15th annual summer intensive. It will be a four day event this year, to ease everyone back gently into the workshop habit. We were not able to afford the newly refurbished Petersham premises any more, and the dates we wanted were not free anyway. Our recent venue in Kingston have kindly moved a booking for us to have our preferred last week of July slot and have not raised their prices, for which we are grateful. 

Here are the details so far.

Dates: 2pm Saturday 23rd July until 9.30pm Tuesday 26th July 2022

Times: 2-5pm and 6.30-9.30pm daily

Cost: £50 per day, £25 per session. (Concessions £24 /£12) or anything between these that you can afford.

Address: Leander Sea Scout Hut, Albany Mews, Kingston Upon Thames. (No entrance from riverside, Lower Ham Rd.) Local parking restrictions may apply. No parking at venue. 65 bus stops very nearby. Train: Kingston, 20 min walk.

Food: Bring your own food for the break between sessions. Tea and soft drinks provided.

Nearer the time we will know if anyone can stay in the venue overnight. For now it is best to assume not. We have the venue from 12 noon Saturday until 10pm Tuesday. 

London taichi long weekend with Mark starts tomorrow

 I am looking forward to seeing those coming along to Mark's three day session this weekend in Twickenham. I have a cold (not Covid) that has been bad but is now clearing up, so I hope to be there the whole time. Contact Mark directly for any details. Bring your own food, tea will be provided. Cost is £50 per day or £25 per session. Concession are £24 / £12. Travel well!

London Taichi Long Weekend with Mark in February

All students are welcome to come to 3 days of Taichi in Twickenham taught by Mark at the same venue as 2021's Summer 4 day Intensive. The dates are Saturday 12-Monday 14 Feb, 2pm - 9.30pm, with a break for food between the afternoon and evening sessions. Cost £50 per day, or £25 per session. Tea is provided, bring your own snack for the break. 

Call Mark for further details. It's not 'an intensive', but a chance to have some concentrated study and practice. We look forward to seeing you there.

Monthly in person Sunday classes with Mark have begun

These classes started this week and will continue on the second Sunday of every month 3-6pm, £15, at Mark's studio. 121s are also available at the studio any time. All TCC students are welcome.

Mark's Zoom classes resume next week - details

Regular Monday night Left side class and Thursday night Dance B side classes will start up again from 15th November. If you have been coming to any of Mark's online classes in 2021, you'll receive and invitation to these, all in the same email. Classes cost £10. Just reply with 'unsubscribe' if you would like to be removed from the list. My laptop is currently dying, but I hope to send the emails by Friday lunchtime using ingenious workarounds!

Sunday afternoon in-person drop-in classes will also resume monthly at Mark's studio near Hampton Court. First class is 4-6pm Sunday 14th November, and then each subsequent second Sunday of the month. Class costs £15.

Warmest wishes from breezy Bournemouth.

Mark's Tuesday classes in London

Mark's classes resumed this week after a break for the Scottish workshop. They'll continue until Christmas break. All TCC students are welcome.

Online classes will resume soon when the topics and times have been discussed with those who'd like to come. Get in touch with Mark if there's something you really want to do via Zoom. Of course, there may end up being another lockdown in UK, in which case there may be more online classes, as there were in the last one...

Wishing you all the very best for autumn, from me in Dorset. Thanks to Davina for all her work organising the workshop last week. The pictures look lovely. 

I plan to resume studying with Mark in London this term, hip allowing. See you soon, Caro.

Autumn workshop thanks

Thanks to everyone who came along to the Autumn workshop with Mark for all your work and enthusiasm, and best wishes to those who weren't able to attend. Thanks also to Mark for his teaching at the workshop, the Left Side class, and all the 121s. The redecorated hall was lovely to be in and we'll be organising future visits by Mark in due course. As it was our first workshop in 2 years I didn't take many photos, but just to confirm that we did have:

flowers,

partnerwork,

and, of course, cake!

Fetternear Hall housekeeping information

 I’ve visited the hall to see the changes as a result of the refurbishment work and here are a few things you need to know:

There is no longer access into the hall via the kitchen, so please come in through the main front door.

As usual the small hall will be laid out as our dining room - please leave any cold food on the “buffet table” in there.

If you are bringing food that needs to be reheated, bear in mind there is no longer a microwave. If a number of folk need to be reheating/cooking, please agree amongst yourselves who will take care of watching / stirring to minimise the number of people in the kitchen at one time. Where possible, bring hot food through to the small hall for serving.

Update: you can bring food to share or your own packed lunch - whichever you prefer.

There is a brand new urn in the kitchen for teas/coffees (so no more waiting for kettles to boil!). Mugs, milk, sugar and a selection of teas will be available in the small hall.

We will use the hall’s plates and mugs and I will bring cutlery and some basic utensils. Feel free to bring your own plate / mug / cutlery if you prefer.  

We will use the dishwasher in the kitchen rather than washing up by hand. If you have anything you don’t want to go through the industrial-strength machine, then please take it away with you to wash at home.

The notices in the hall stating that masks must be worn apply to events open to the public. You may wear a mask if you wish, and guidance is to wear a mask if <1m from another household. As always I’m sure you’ll be considerate of your fellow students - remember you may not be aware of their personal or household situation and circumstances.

Regarding payment for the workshop, I can take cash on behalf of Mark. Let me know if you are paying by bank transfer and also if you need Mark’s payment details. 

If there is any other information you need I’ll see what I can do to help. See you soon!

one week to the workshop

The Autumn workshop with Mark will start next week, Saturday 16th October at Fetternear Hall. The details are in this post.  If you booked a 121 with Mark, but didn't get my email earlier this week with the schedule, please get in touch and I'll confirm the date/time you are booked in for.

Once I've been to the hall early next week, I'll let everyone know the practical arrangements re food etc by email and put an update on here by Wednesday. If you need any other information, please let me know and I'll do what I can to help.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone and enjoying our first workshop together for two years.

Aberdeenshire Autumn Intensive

 I’m pleased to confirm the schedule for the Aberdeenshire Autumn Intensive with Mark.

The workshop will be at Fetternear Hall from Saturday 16th to Wednesday 20th October, sessions are 2-5pm and 6:30-9:30pm each day. The price is £22 per session, £12 concession. As usual, come along from the first session and then stay for as many as you like. There may be some limits on numbers of people in the kitchen etc, but I’ll advise everyone of any relevant Covid related requirements nearer the time.

There will also be a Left Side class with Mark on the evening of Thursday 21st October at Monymusk Hall. Time and price to be confirmed.

121s will be scheduled for Friday 22nd through to Sunday 24th October, and will be held at my house. Times are usually 2-4pm, 5-7pm, 8-10pm. If you’ve requested a 121, please let me know when you are/are not available and I’ll put together a timetable to suit.

If anyone needs advice or assistance with travel or accommodation, please get in touch and I'll do what I can to help.  It may be possible to stay with local students, and I also have information on local holiday accommodation.

Brief pause and news

I am away from home while my boat is being mended and painted so I cannot do much in the way of planning, organising or blogging during this time of dislocation. Zoom class links will continue to land in your inboxes in the meantime. Email me if you want to be added or removed from any lists. I do not have a date yet for when in-person classes at Trinity Church Hall or Mark's studio can resume, but will post them here as soon as I get them. 

I have found a wonderful, affordable riverside venue for evening classes in future, where I live. I taught my Zoom short form classes there the last two weeks and it was lovely, 360 degree river views! Soon I will introduce Mark to the person who runs the space, and hopefully as soon as restrictions allow, we can have spacious, airy indoor space for pushing hands, evening groups, heartwork and occasional Sunday afternoon sessions. Watch this space!

Very best wishes to you all from near the Petersham venue, where I am staying until tomorrow. i shoul dbe back aboard my home on Friday.

Term dates and summer workshop latest

NEWS: Easter holiday. There will be no break in online classes with Mark during the Easter period, as he is not able to go away due to lockdown restrictions - and he lives only 60 metres from the studio! He understands that you might not be able to make it to class over this period, or may want a break, and will make sure no one gets left behind on anything that gets covered. However, as many folks may also be stuck at home, he thought you might like to join him for T'ai Chi anyway.

Summer workshop: I will be meeting the Sea Scouts at Petersham soon to arrange returning to that wonderful riverside venue this summer for the 15th Annual Intensive. Of course we cannot know what, if any, restrictions will be in place at that time, how long the workshop will be, if not the usual full week, and many other things. I went to see the new building yesterday from the outside, it is mostly completed and looks fantastic, airy and big, perfect for rainy days. The outdoor space is still great, big enough for classes and camping even though there is now a cool bushcraft area. The fire site is still there with plenty of wood for bonfires. 

We will provide hand gel and the new venue toilets are going to be clean and accessible, so hygiene will not be a problem. It is likely we would all bring our own packed meals this year and have a rota for serving teas, rather than a free-for-all in the kitchen. But this is all easily doable and so worthwhile. I will post more here when I know more. Last year I also bought a 4m square gazebo for when I moved boat. I will be ideal as a dry store for bags and shoes during the day so that we can stay outside for all but loo visits. Now we just all need our vaccines.

Not Two

Last week Mark mentioned in class the piece of writing below, by the Third Chinese Zen (Ch'an) Patriarch. He sent me this link and I quote it all here for your interest. I have added bold type to the passage Mark discussed, the section which had inspired John Kells about 'not-two'.

The Great Way* is not difficult for those who have no preferences.  When love and hate are both absent, everything becomes clear and undisguised.  Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. If you wish to see the truth, then hold no opinions for, or against, anything.  To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind.  When the deep meaning of things is not understood, the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.

The Way is perfect, like vast space where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess.  Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject that we do not see the true nature of things.  Live neither in the entanglements of outer things, nor in inner feelings of emptiness.  Be serene in the oneness of things, and such erroneous views will disappear by themselves.  When you try to stop activity to achieve passivity, your very effort fills you with activity.  As long as you remain in one extreme or the other, you will never know Oneness.

Those who do not live in the single Way fail in both activity and passivity, assertion and denial.  To deny the reality of things is to miss their reality; to assert the emptiness of things is to miss their reality.  The more you talk and think about it, the further astray you wander from the truth.  Stop talking and thinking, and there is nothing you will not be able to know.

To return to the root is to find the meaning, but to pursue appearances is to miss the source.  At the moment of inner enlightenment, there is going beyond appearance and emptiness.  The changes that appear to occur in the empty world we call real only because of our ignorance.  Do not search for the truth; only cease to cherish opinions.

Do not remain in the dualistic state; avoid such pursuits carefully.  If there is even a trace of this and that, of right and wrong, the Mind-essence will be lost in confusion.  Although all dualities come from the One, do not be attached even to this One.  When the mind exists undisturbed in the Way, nothing in the world can offend, and when a thing can no longer offend, it ceases to exist in the old way.

When no discriminating thoughts arise, the old mind ceases to exist.  When thought-objects vanish, the thinking-subject vanishes, as when the mind vanishes, objects vanish.  Things are objects because of the subject (mind); the mind (subject) is such because of things (objects).  Understand the relativity of these two and the basic reality: the unity of emptiness.  In this Emptiness the two are indistinguishable and each contains, in itself, the whole world.  If you do not discriminate between coarse and fine, you will not be tempted to prejudice and opinion.

To live in the great Way is neither easy nor difficult, but those with limited views are fearful and irresolute; the faster they hurry, the slower they go.  And clinging (attachment) cannot be limited.  Even to be attached to the idea of enlightenment is to go astray.  Just let things be in their own way, and there will be neither coming nor going.  Obey the nature of things (your own nature) and you will walk freely and undisturbed.

When thought is in bondage, the truth is hidden, for everything is murky and unclear, and the burdensome practice of judging brings annoyance and weariness.  What benefit can be derived from distinctions and separation?

If you wish to move in the one Way, do not dislike even the world of senses and ideas.  Indeed, to accept them fully is identical with true enlightenment.  The wise man strives to no goals, but the foolish man fetters himself.  There is one Dharma, not many; distinctions arise from the clinging needs of the ignorant.  To seek Mind with the (discriminating) mind is the greatest of all mistakes.

Rest and unrest derive from illusion; with enlightenment there is no liking and disliking.  All dualities come from ignorant inference.  They are like dreams or flowers in air; foolish to try to grasp them.  Gain and loss, right and wrong; such thoughts must finally be abolished at once.

If the eye never sleeps, all dreams will naturally cease.  If the mind makes no discriminations, the ten thousand things are as they are, of single essence.  To understand the mystery of this One-essence is to be released from all entanglements.  When all things are seen equally, the timeless Self-essence is reached.  No comparisons or analogies are possible in this causeless, relationless state.

Consider movement stationary, and the stationary in motion; both movement and rest disappear.  When such dualities cease to exist, Oneness itself cannot exist.  To this ultimate finality no law or description applies.

For the unified mind in accord with the Way, all self-centered striving ceases.  Doubts and irresolutions vanish, and life in true faith is possible.  With a single stroke we are freed from bondage; nothing clings to us and we hold to nothing.  All is empty, clear, self-illuminating, with no exertion of the mind's power.  Here thought, feeling, knowledge and imagination are of no value.  In this world of Suchness, there is neither self nor other-than-self.

To come directly into harmony with this reality, just simply say when doubts arise, "Not two".  In this "not two", nothing is separate, nothing is excluded.  No matter when or where, enlightenment means entering this truth.  And this truth is beyond extension or diminution in time or space; in it, a single thought is ten thousand years.

Emptiness here, emptiness there, but the infinite universe stands always before your eyes.  Infinitely large and infinitely small; no difference, for definitions have vanished and no boundaries are seen.  So, too, with being and non-being.  Don't waste time in doubts and arguments that have nothing to do with this.  One thing, all things, move among and intermingle without distinction.  To live in this realization is to be without anxiety about non-perfection.  To live in this faith is the road to non-duality, because the non-dual is one with the trusting mind.

Words!  The Way is beyond language, for in it, there is no yesterday, no tomorrow, no today.

* NOTE:  The Chinese character translated as "Great Way" or "Way" is the character for "Tao."  --  Weinstein

Invitations to Mark's online Short form Class

I will send these out over the weekend as I am still collating the names of those who would like to come along. Everyone is welcome, especially students of students of either of us, and those who want to revise Short Form that maybe has disappeared into a dim corner of memory... Get in touch. 

Also today's Short Form class with me via Zoom is now uploaded to the Dropbox.

Mark's payment details

I have heard that some people have no problem paying Mark via bank and some people have many problems... The sort code and account number were correct in all but one email that has been sent, in which they were labelled vice versa. Please mail me at caroline  at greatrivertaichi dot co dot uk for the bank details and / or paypal payment details for Mark if you need them or want to check them. Alternatively, call or text him any afternoon, make a note of what you owe him, and wait until you see him in person.

Sorry if you are having any problems, I corrected my one mixed-up details email very swiftly. It appears some banks just will not recognise Mark's business account. Let me know if I can help.

Invitations to this week's classes will go out tomorrow, Monday.