Rotten Wood Can Be Carved QIGONG

Movement, Meditation, and Metaphysics

Qigong with Steve Geisz

Qigong is Chinese yoga and meditation.  It incorporates ideas of body, mind, health, and cosmos from Daoism, Chinese Buddhism, traditional Chinese medicine, and the internal martial arts.

In the classes and workshops here, we do contemplative mind-body practices with sincerity, a bit of critical detachment, a full dose of laughter, a cover story, and the hope for some sort of transformation.

Beginners welcome.

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I am a graduate of the multi-year qigong-teacher-training program of Ken Cohen, a Certified Full Instructor in the Universal Healing Tao qigong system of Mantak Chia, and a 500-hour registered yoga teacher (RYT 500) who trained at the Kripalu Center in Massachusetts and the Lotus Pond Center for Yoga & Health in Tampa. I also have a Ph.D. in philosophy.

What’s going on with the “Rotten Wood Can Be Carved” title?  Check out Analects 5:10.

Here’s the story:

Zai Wo was a student of Confucius.  On occasion, Zai Wo would sleep during the day.

Daytime sleeping was a most definite faux pas among the disciples of Confucius. It took away precious time from the hard work of self-cultivation and self-transformation.

So, when Confucius heard about Zai Wo’s daytime sleeping, Confucius famously said: “Rotten wood cannot be carved; a wall of shit cannot be troweled.”

I don't know if Confucius actually believed that some people are made of something like rotten wood or that any of us are really beyond hope, but, regardless:  here’s to hoping that rotten wood can be carved.