Coming this July - The Legacy of Zhang San Feng 4 Hour Course (Online)
Welcome to The Way Within – Legacy of Zhang San Feng
Zhang San Feng is the legendary Daoist sage credited with the creation of internal Taijiquan – a profound art that wove together martial application, meditative awareness, and energy cultivation. Believed to have lived between the 12th and 13th centuries, he stands as a bridge between the structured strength of Shaolin and the flowing subtlety of Daoist internal alchemy.
Rather than rejecting martial arts, Zhang San Feng refined them. He saw that real conflict is not only fought on battlefields – it also lives in the mind and heart. By embodying the principles of softness overcoming hardness, yielding overcoming force, and stillness within movement, his Taijiquan became more than a martial system – it became a path of integration.
His teachings build upon the legacy of Bodhidharma – the Indian monk who brought Chan (Zen) meditation to Shaolin centuries earlier. While Bodhidharma taught stillness as the way to pierce illusion, Zhang San Feng infused stillness into motion, harmonising body, breath, and spirit within the natural flow of life.
In this course, we return to his Treatise on Focusing Spirit and Accumulating Energy as a map for internal cultivation. Through simple forms, breathwork, reflection, and silence, we explore Taiji not as performance – but as a way to rediscover wholeness.
Who's the course for?
This course continues the lineage explored in The Legacy of Bodhidharma – Moving into Stillness. It is also open to anyone interested in a grounded yet profound journey into the cultivation of body, energy, mind, and spirit.
We now follow the teachings of Zhang San Feng, a legendary Daoist sage and originator of internal Taijiquan. His way brings stillness into motion, and motion back into stillness, cultivating harmony and wholeness through continuity and intention.
Suitable for those interested to:
- Deepen an existing practice of Qigong, Taiji, or mindful movement
- Explore spiritual cultivation through embodied practice
- Calm the nervous system and restore vitality
- Harmonise intention, breath, and energy to feel more centred and whole
Whether you are continuing from the Bodhidharma course or joining fresh, you are warmly welcome.
Practice and Reflections
Each of the sessions will explore aspects of the path:
Opening the Way
Gentle preparation of body and breath. Rooting into Wuji. Entering stillness through form.
Gathering and Circulating Qi
Practices to harmonise breath, movement, and awareness. Flowing Movement. Intention before form.
Shen Arises
Refining clarity, calm, and inner spaciousness. Allowing spirit to be felt in stillness and motion.
Returning to Wholeness
Integration. Moving as one. Resting in presence. Living the Dao in everyday life.
A meeting of masters.
As part of my musings, I wondered how a conversation may have flowed between the Zen Patriarch Bodhidharma (circa 527 AD) and the originator of Tai Chi Chuan, Zhang Sang Feng (circa 14th century).
A pine branch swayed. Two historical figures from different times stood, though neither sought to arrive.
Zhang San Feng bows lightly, hands at the dantian.
“Honoured One. Though we have never met, I have always walked with you.”
Bodhidharma returns the bow, his eyes deep and still.
“And I have felt the echo of your movement in the stillness I kept. You come with lightness. What do you seek?”
Zhang San Feng:
“Not seeking, but returning. Your stillness prepared the ground. I moved to know what cannot move.”
Bodhidharma (nodding):
“You understand. Stillness is not absence of movement. It is the mother of it. I taught silence to shake the world awake.”
Zhang San Feng:
“And I taught movement to return to silence.
Yet without peace in the heart, no silence remains.”
Bodhidharma:
“Speak more of this.”
Zhang San Feng (quoting softly):
“‘Heart not peaceful, nature disturbed. Energy not accumulated, spirit disordered.’
This is the condition of most. They seek flow, but their heart is restless. They seek awakening, but their breath is shallow.”
Bodhidharma:
“So you begin with peace?”
Zhang San Feng:
“I begin with the body, yes - open the meridians so that Qi can move.
But if the heart is not calmed, nature is stirred - and the Qi disperses.
If Qi is not gathered, it cannot support the Shen.
And when the Shen is disordered, the light of knowing is scattered.
We move, but do not see. We breathe, but do not live.”
Bodhidharma:
“This is also Zen. To see the nature directly - one must become still through and through.
The wall I faced for nine years was not a wall of stone. It was the wall of illusion.”
Zhang San Feng:
“And when illusion fell?”
Bodhidharma:
“There was nothing left to fall. I found what never moved.”
Zhang San Feng:
“Then we teach the same. You from stillness. I from continuity.
You from breaking illusion. I from dissolving it.
The Dao flows through both.”
Bodhidharma:
“And your Grand Ultimate - how do you describe it?”
Zhang San Feng:
“It begins in the Limitless Void.
From no separation arises Yin and Yang - movement and stillness.
They combine. They spiral. They generate the myriad things.
But the life of man, though shaped in the world, is not apart from the Void.
When energy and spirit are harmonised, the Way is remembered - not found.”
Bodhidharma (smiling faintly):
“Not found… because it was never lost.”
[They sit now - one still as mountain, the other like mist settling into its basin. Between them, the pine does not move, and yet it sways.]
5th July: 8.30 to 10 am
12th July: 8.30 to 9.30 am
19th July. 8.30 to 10 am
Online via Zoom.
Recording available to catch up in your own time.
£89 for 4 hrs training.
Free Training Guide.
Included in Your PDF Welcome Guide:
- Course overview and practice intentions
- An introduction to Zhang San Feng and his Treatise
- Reflection prompts for each week
- Space for personal notes, insights, and journaling
- Suggested home practices to deepen the experience
- A full translation of the Treatise on Focusing Spirit and Accumulating Energy by Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit
- Practical insights and commentary to help apply the Treatise in modern life
- A guided structure to explore body, energy, mind, and spirit through weekly intentions
The Way Within – Legacy of Zhang San Feng: A Living Book
For those interested in taking the course, the mini-companion will give you all the information you need.
Future and fuller versions of this book will include:
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Additional commentaries and reflections
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Audio and video practice support
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Stories and insights from students and teachers
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New sections emerging from the next courses and retreats
To receive future editions, reflections, and supporting materials as they unfold – plus the expanded version of the mini companion sign up below and stay connected to the path.
Download the full version of The Way Within - Legacy of Zhang San Feng
The Four Meditations
This course includes four meditations, each drawn from the deep streams of Zen and Daoist practice. You’ll explore:
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The Unborn - resting in present awareness, as taught by Bankei
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Shou Yi (守一) - concentrating spirit by guarding the One
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Wuji Sitting - effortless presence, seated in stillness
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Zuo Wang (坐忘) - “sitting and forgetting,” dissolving the sense of self into the Dao
These are not techniques to master, but doorways to return - again and again - to what is already here. Each one supports the journey of Moving into Stillness.
A Simple Set – Entering the Way Through Form
This course includes a short, gentle sequence of Tai Chi and Qigong movements – not to memorise a form, but to experience what moves beneath it.
Each posture is chosen for its capacity to:
- Open the body – soften tension, establish rooted alignment
- Harmonise the breath – allow Qi to flow continuously
- Calm the mind – gather intention in the present
- Nourish the spirit – cultivate quiet presence
These movements are drawn from the essence of Taijiquan, not its full syllabus. They reflect the inner architecture described in Zhang San Feng’s Treatise:
- Loosen the waist
- Use intention, not force
- Continuous harmonious flow
- Calm the heart, stabilise nature
We practise them not to ‘master’ the form, but to enter a state of unity - where breath, body, and spirit return to the same source.