The Earth Dragon Canon Method

The Earth Dragon Canon Method of mindfulness practice shares functional practices for the internal method of self-evolution discovered by the internal martial art masters of Eight Trigram Palm, Tai Chi Chuan, Five Elements Fist, and Great Accomplishment Boxing.

Magical Book opening represents the introduction to Internal Martial Art Practice

Understanding Internal Martial Arts

Introduction to Earth Dragon Canon

In the Earth Dragon Canon Method of Mindfulness Martial Art practice you will learn practical methods for studying the internal martial arts of Baguazhang (circle walking), Taijiquan (meditative boxing), xingyiquan (five elements fist), and yiquan (standing meditation).

You will learn the history of these arts, and how to apply them for meditation, mindfulness, physical fitness, and self-evolution. Along the way, you will study the cosmological concepts that inspired the oldest of mindfulness practices.

Internal martial art practice is the study of physical movement. It is an exploration of the mind through the body, and conversely the body through the mind. The Earth Dragon Canon Method unifies modern and traditional practices into a pragmatic program.

Bare feet walking up a stack of old books.

Outline of the Method

The Earth Dragon Canon Method of mindfulness martial art practice teaches the functional practices for the internal martial arts of baguazhang, taijiquan, xingyiquan, and yiquan. You will learn about the history of these arts and the cosmological concepts that give them their names. Mindfulness martial art practice is more than the study of physical movement. It is an exploration of the mind through the body, and conversely the bod…

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Mindfulness Martial Arts Student Self-Evolution Blog

Knowing Yourself

In the late summer of 1993, I was working for a convenience store chain in Wichita, Kansas. During a shift change, I kneeled to open the safe and there was a loud pop from somewhere below my waist. It was so loud that both the manager I was relieving, and the customer he was serving asked, “What was that?” “I don’t know,” I replied, “but tell you one thing, I really need to start exercising.” “Exercise. Don’t you guys get enough…

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The First Practice is Attention

Before you start physical exercise, take a moment to consider if you can engage in the motion requirements of that activity. You never consider your physical condition when you bend down to pick up a dropped piece of paper or grab a suitcase from the baggage carousel at the airport. During these innocent movements you will hear the back crack, or the hip pop, and you find yourself in the doctor’s office seeking relief. It was no…

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A page from the dictionary defining definition

Vocabulary

Vocabulary is the foundation to understanding a subject. Martial art practice is filled with words that have similar meaning or are used interchangeably. When forced to put my practice into writing I discovered that in a single paragraph I would skip between form and posture in the same description. Is the Taijiquan a sequence or a routine? Is a static position a posture or a form? The interchange of the words forms, posture, and stan…

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Pinyin

The Pinyin system is the accepted standard for the romanization of Chinese characters. Pinyin means spell sound and is used to teach the standard pronunciation of Mandarin Chinese. It is also the standard system for entering Chinese characters on computers. Because of this standardization, it is the method I use in my lessons. You can be confident that if you pronounce the words as I present them in these lessons, you are close to t…

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Martial Arts in Anger

In my software development career, in anger was a phrase that meant you were developing a program or a process out of frustration with what was available. I share my mindfulness martial art practice out of a similar frustration. The trend in martial art practice is to stress combat effectiveness. Publications, videos, and teachers stress the art’s brutal nature, claiming that it was born in combat and violence. For certain, martial…

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Canon Method

Philosophical Foundations

Canon also means a literary or artistic work considered as permanently established as being of the highest quality.

The Canon components share the history and foundations of Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. Individually, or in concert, these systems shaped modern mindfulness practice.

Daoist, Confucian, and Dharma principles are the moral character of mindfulness. I encourage you to look beyond the physical forms to develop a deeper understanding of the internal martial arts.

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Earth Method

Supplemental Exercises

In the traditional method of internal martial art teaching, a master chose a few individuals as indoor students to share the secret transmission of the martial art.

The Earth components of the Earth Dragon Canon Method are these inside the door practices. Here you will find a mixture of traditional and modern exercises done on the floor. These supplemental exercises reinforce important concepts from the internal martial art practice.

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Dragon Method

Martial Forms

The Dragon Component includes the traditional styles, and forms from the internal martial arts of Baguazhang, Taijiquan, Xingyiquan, and Yiquan. This instruction emphasizes health over martial function. The Earth Dragon Canon Method does not teach violence.

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