Advocacy for Overcoming Difficulty
~Chan Master Cheng Yen

• Face It.
  Look difficulties in the face instead of deceiving yourself by burying your head in the sand.
• Accept It.
  Accept the facts of difficulties instead of blaming fate or other people.
• Deal With It.
  Handle things with wisdom, and treat people with kindness and compassion.
• Let It Go.
  As long as you have done your best it is not necessary to worry about gain or loss, success or failure.

I am That. (Ahamsa.)
This workshop pursues a peek at the unconditioned Self using a simple, direct, immediately-accessible exercise. Before settling into its analytical exercise we will use natural movement and coordinated breathing to remove unwanted tensions and prepare for the breathing and relaxation exercises which follow. After thus preparing body and mind we will pursue the Self using neti-neti.

I am who I am. I am what I am.
I will become what I choose to become.
Before closing we will look ahead to possible futures ... training ... who we want to be. Focusing on health and energy cultivation we will use natural methods of Chinese/Tibetan Qigong (coiling, twisting, rocking, range-of-motion, and walking exercises), and Kundalini Tantra … following the formula of Patanjali's yoga. Emphasis on Samyama: Dharana (concentration), Dhyana (meditation), and Samadhi (advanced meditation).
Yoga is meditation. ~Swami Satchidananda

You are what you is. ~Frank Zappa

The goals of this training are practical and measurable. Positive motivation and positive action are integral to all of its strategies. The strategies are simple, easy behaviors which you can include in managing your self for the sake of general health. Regular practice can increase your resilience to contemporary stressors and decrease your susceptibility to stress-related disorders. With positive motivation it becomes the pursuit of peak performance.

Promote a self-managed lifestyle based on 'normalizing techniques' integrated from classic Indian, Chinese, Tibetan, and Western biobehavioral science. Your training will include a foundation of simple graduated breathing and relaxation practices to calm and steady body and mind and to support your success in applying higher-order methods. Each week’s practice builds progressively on the previous. Practice daily to take full advantage of natural mind/body mechanisms for learning and conditioning. Discipline pays. Note: This course also prepares you for success in the rest of our Classic Meditation curriculum.

• Nature of (di)stress, its causes, effects, and effective management
• Relationships between stress, emotion, motivation, behavior, and health outcomes
• Stress-management as self management for peak performance
• Promoting and maintaining effective self management
• Graduated breathing and relaxation training
• Manage time; nutrition; exercise and recreation; rest and relaxation; sleep
• Communication and relationships
• Cultivating rational thought; Reduce irrational worry

Learn simple relaxed natural coiling/twisting, rotating, bending, stretching, rocking, undulating (wavelike), and walking exercises (walking from Taiji Qigong) … all performed in an unhurried pace. All sessions include Standing Contemplation and the mind/body practices of Inner Strength and Inner Smile. Later sessions will include use of the 4 foot staff.

Note: Excessive stress adversely impacts health causing increased anxiety, mood disorders, and impairments in every organ system. Qigong can reduce perceived stress and anxiety. Also, many adults with chronic arthritis who practice qigong can expect to reduce pain and depression and improve their quality of life (NIH Research). Practice daily. Discipline pays. Note: This course is a supportive ‘elective’ for those entering our Classic Meditation curriculum.

• Posture and alignment
• Diaphragmatic breathing
• Relaxation (Song; Fang Song Gong)
• Vital energy experience and cultivation
• Standing contemplation and warmup
• 3D spatial organization (planes, quadrants, sectors)
• Intention, attention and effects
• Tao  Samkhya Yoga