Welcome!

Welcome to the website for my fifth book, Ride Backwards on Dragon: a poet’s journey through Liuhebafa.  Nominated for Canada’s Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, Ride Backwards on Dragon is a collection of 66 linked poems following the 66-move sequence of Liuhebafa, a 1,000-year-old martial art from China that I have been studying since 1997 (with thanks to my teacher Josh Crossley).

I also include 30 pages of endnotes in the book to help decode the metaphysical symbolism of the ancient names of all 66 moves, since they are purported to be a hidden recipe for internal alchemy, longevity and even immortality.

Have a look around. In addition to information on the book, I also have some further information on Liuhebafa and the other internal martial arts from China (Tai Chi, Bagua, Hsing-I), plus Taoism and Qigong.

And check out my creativity workshops involving these practices in my Pen & Dragon: Kung Fu for Writers series.

You can find me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter @KimPigSquash. And don’t forget to check out my Pig Squash Press blog for all the literary goings on.

May you be river flowing, never ceasing,

Kim Goldberg  

 

 

Lok Hup Ba Fa

Reblogged from Neijia Tao:

To the student of Chinese martial arts (CMA) a world of confusion is encountered with naming systems brought about by the fact that a number of languages, mainly Mandarin and Cantonese, are translated by two different systems, Wade-Giles and Pinyin, which lead to a myriad of different spelling for same things. Lok Hup Ba Fa is the Cantonese spelling for a system more commonly encounter by it’s Mandarin name of Liu He Ba Fa or their abbreviated form of LHBF.

Read more… 2,233 more words

This is a very detailed and useful article from the Neijia Tao website on the history and different versions of Liuhebafa. My thanks to Neijia Tao for making this article available. -Kim Goldberg

Why I Deactivated Facebook

Reblogged from Pig Squash Press:

• 
• 

I did a radical thing this morning. I deactivated my Facebook account.

I joined Facebook several years ago (in 2008 or 2009—who can remember?). And in that time, I have accumulated lots of Facebook friends—more than 1,300.

Facebook has been useful to me professionally for promoting my books and readings, selling books, getting invited to literary festivals and other paid gigs, and for connecting me with the global community of poets and writers.

Read more… 706 more words

For those of you who have been connected to me on Facebook, this posting from my other blog, Pig Squash Press, explains why I am no longer there. I deactivated my Facebook account this morning. I have several books I am working on and hope to release later this year, including another book on Liuhebafa. Facebook, while fun, is mainly Wild Horse Chasing Wind - and as such, is not conducive to sustained creative thought and writing. You can always reach me here on my blog or on Twitter @KimPigSquash. May you be Parting Clouds to See Sun. -Kim Goldberg :)

Kung Fu for Writers Workshop – Galiano 2013

WORKSHOP

When: Saturday, February 23, 2013.

Time: 2:00-3:00 pm.

Where: Galiano Oceanfront Inn & Spa 

Host: Galiano Literary Festival 

Cost: $20 

~

I will be returning to beautiful Galiano Island this weekend where I have once again been invited to offer my “Kung Fu for Writers” Workshop at the Galiano Literary Festival.

In this workshop, I combine certain Liuhebafa movements with Qigong and Creative Writing exercises to awaken the body and stimulate the mind, enabling people to tap into their raw creative energies. This is the fourth year I have been invited to come and offer this popular workshop at the Galiano Lit Fest.

Discover what happens to your creative powers when Angry Horse Turns Head Around or Green Dragon Stretches Claws!

Liuhebafa is a 1,000-year-old martial art from China. The 66 flowing movements of this ancient practice are purported to be a recipe for internal alchemy and even immortality.

Tap into your hidden creative powers. Explore your spontaneous writing abilities (“first thought, best thought,” in the tradition of the Beat poets) that are alive to the moment unfolding around you and within you.

Join me in this exciting journey into mind-body connection! No prior background in martial arts is necessary.

This workshop is part of the 3-day Galiano Literary Festival, which runs from February 22-24, 2013. You can register for just the Kung Fu For Writers workshop ($20), or take in other festival activities too.

For the full festival schedule visit: http://galianoliteraryfestival.com/programme-3/

Beauty is in the Cracks

Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in 

–Leonard Cohen, “Anthem”

~

Perfection. We all want it. We strive for it in our practice, our training, our execution of applications and forms. The perfectly calm mind, the perfectly weighted archer’s stance in T’ai Chi, the perfectly timed transmission of fajing in push hands. But are we missing the larger point in this quest to be seamless and error-free? Are we failing to “grok” the true nature of perfection (to borrow Robert Heinlein’s fabulous word from Stranger in a Strange Land)?

Compare the Leonard Cohen verse above to the following poem (a tanka) written one thousand years earlier by Izumi Shikibu, one of Japan’s foremost women poets during Japan’s classical period, and translated here by Jane Hirshfield:

Although the wind

blows terribly here,

the moonlight also leaks

between the roof planks

of this ruined house.

~

Perhaps these two selections are telling us that true perfection lies not in the flawless, hermetically sealed structure, but in the fractured one. For it is through the cracks that moonlight (a common Buddhist symbol of enlightenment) may enter. It is the cracks that hold the potential for personal growth and insight, for illumination. We learn nothing by being invincible at push hands. We learn everything by being knocked over. Our weaknesses, our so-called “imperfections” (as well as life’s hardships and heartaches), are in fact the grain of sand in the oyster that will become the pearl. Or that offers the possibility of a pearl.

Kung Fu Poets – Class Photo

What an awesome bunch in my Kung Fu for Poets workshop today at the Nanaimo Museum! We rocked the joint working on Liuhebafa moves #1 Stop Cart & Ask Directions, #6 Replace Star with North Star, and #31 Monkey Picks Fruit.

I matched each move thematically to a passage from T.S. Eliot’s famous suite of poems,  Four Quartets. And then we let nature (or should I say poetry) take its course with the personal poetic expression that flowed from our pens after we had physically embodied the abstract themes of time, the ‘still point’, and exploration – themes that are common to both Liuhebafa and Eliot’s Four Quartets, as shown below.

#1. Stop Cart and Ask Directions:

In my beginning is my end…

…In my end is my beginning

(“East Coker”)

~

and:

The river is within us, the sea is all about us;

(“The Dry Salvages”)

~

#6. Replace Star with North Star:

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;

Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,

But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,

Where past and future re gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,

Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,

There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.

(“Burnt Norton”)

~

#31. Monkey Picks Fruit

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

(“Little Gidding”)

~

My Kung Fu for Poets workshop was part of the month-long celebration of Eliot mounted by the Crimson Coast Dance Society as a lead-up to Deborah Dunn’s dance performance “4 Quartets” happening on May 19.

World Tai Chi & Qigong Day

Happy World Tai Chi & Qigong Day!

World Tai Chi & Qigong Day has been celebrated annually around the world on the last Saturday in April since 1999. The idea is for people everywhere to make their way to a public park at 10:00 am (local time) to do their Tai Chi or Qigong – either alone or with a class – so that a Tai Chi wave will sweep the planet over a 24-hour period.

Here in Nanaimo, 17 people turned out for my free lesson in Healing Sounds Qigong this morning at Maffeo Sutton Park. We visited all five organs (heart, spleen, lungs, kidneys, liver) with sound and visualization, and then concluded with the San Jiao (Triple Burner) to unify the energies we had awakened.

My next Healing Sounds Qigong course begins on Wednesday, May 9, in a wooded location in central Nanaimo. The class will run for 6 consecutive Wednesday mornings from 10-11 am. We will work on a different organ each week. And, as with all of my Pen & Dragon courses, guided creative writing exercises are also part of the package.

$95 for 6 weeks (or just $75 if you pay before May 1).

To register: email goldberg@ncf.ca or phone 250-741-8577

New Qigong Class Starts May 9

Qigong For Health & Creativity

DATES: May 9-June 13, 2012 (6 Wednesdays)

TIME: 10:00-11:00 am

WHERE: Wooded setting in Nanaimo (details provided upon registration)

INSTRUCTOR: Kim Goldberg

PRICE: $95 ($75 early bird if paid before May 1)

CONTACT: goldberg@ncf.ca or ph: 250-741-8577

~

Supercharge your body and your creative powers in this extraordinary six-week course using Healing Sounds Qigong and related writing exercises amidst the majesty of forest, river, and sky. Register before May 1 to get the early bird price of $75.

(Try a free sample of Healing Sounds Qigong this Saturday, April 28, at 10:00 am at Maffeo Sutton Park, where I am offering a free lesson for World Tai Chi & Qigong Day.)

Journey through the five principal organs of your body (heart, spleen, lungs, kidneys, liver) using sound and visualization as you focus on the properties specific to each organ. After awakening each organ’s life force energy, you will have an opportunity to transmute those energies to creative output through guided writing exercises tailor-made for each organ. (Selected movements from Liuhebafa will also be introduced to enhance the bodywork experience.)

Healing Sounds Qigong is based on Five Element Theory, which is the underpinning of Traditional Chinese Medicine. This is powerful energy work that can potentially be life altering. Read some testimonials from previous students here.

We will work outdoors in a forested riverside location that embodies the particular qualities of each organ. For example, the liver’s element is wood, its colour is green, its virtue is kindness, and its deficiency manifests as anger or envy. So a grove of cedar trees is a gigantic matrix of liver energy. We are literally standing in the planet’s liver while working on our own. And the river in the outer world corresponds to the river of energy coursing through our own bodies.

If it rains, we will work under trees. Dress warmly. You may want to bring something to sit on while you write – a mat, towel or campstool.

Experience this revitalizing fusion of mind, body, and spirit as you discover the vastness of your creative powers. You need not be an experienced writer. Anyone can benefit from this course. (“First thought, best thought,” in the tradition of the Beat poets.)

Pre-registration is required. Mail or drop off cheque (payable to “Kim Goldberg) to:

35 Prideaux Street

Nanaimo, BC V9R 2M3

~

Be sure to include your phone number and email address so I can contact you with details about location.

You are welcome to contact me with any questions. Email: goldberg@ncf.ca or phone: 250-741-8577.

This course is part of my Pen & Dragon series. I offer my Pen & Dragon courses at Vancouver Island School of Writing (Victoria College of Art) and elsewhere. I have been studying Qigong and the related Taoist internal martial arts of T’ai Chi and Liuhebafa for 15 years. I am the author of Ride Backwards on Dragon and other books.

May you be morning sunshine filling ears,

Kim Goldberg