About
What is Yiyangmen?
At its heart, Yiyangmen is a set of guiding principles to orient us to a positive, healthy, and authentic life.
Building upon this orientation, Yiyangmen teaches a set of simple, but profound exercises distilled from qigong, martial arts, and yogic practices of China and India. The teaching method is informed by modern understandings of how we organize our mind and body. Together, they form a set of short exercises that are easy to learn but transformative in their benefit.
Practicing the the One Sun Practice helps individual to reach a state of physical, mental, and emotional ease. In doing so, we can look past our suffering to recognize and actualize our true aspirations in life.
It doesn’t mean that our wishes miraculously come true, although they might. What is true is that you will be able to genuinely pursue your goals in a meaningful way, without becoming limited or derailed by the conditioning of your past.
What are the principles of Yiyangmen?
Yiyangmen cultivates three primary virtues:
- Gratitude
- Honesty
- Charity
Gratitude is life’s guiding star. It brings clarity, joy, and a sense of balance. It orients us to that which is positive and life affirming. With gratitude we can embrace both the warmth of a sunny day and the life giving rain of a stormy night.
Speaking honestly resonates deeply with our genuine self. In doing so, we draw out the strength of our highest self. Through truth we acknowledge and move from our present situation to our true aspirations.
In charity, we share with those who needs it in three forms: our resources, our physical assistance, and our knowledge. In embracing charity, we will find our own abundance. And in sharing, you will open up the hearts of others to share as well.
Is Yiyangmen a martial art?
Yiyangmen is a martial path. By undertaking martial arts training, we develop the courage and physical health that allows for mental and emotional growth. If your body is a temple, then martial training is way of purifying and perfecting your temple, making it a place worthy for your soul to reside and flourish.
Yiyangmen uses a distillation of practices from traditional Chinese martial arts: Taichi, Xinyi, Xingyi, Yiquan, Bagua, Tongbei, Mantis, and Southern Shaolin as well as Indian and Japanese methods to help us improve our body.
You do not need to be especially strong or talented. You will learn traditional martial techniques. It is not the goal to create the ultimate gladiator, but you do acquire the moral strength of a warrior.
Is Yiyangmen a religion?
No, Yiyangmen does not teach or advocate the worship of any particular deity. Yiyangmen recognizes that we are more than physical organic machines. We recognize the energetic aspect of our existence. We celebrate that we are more than just biology.
These ideas are not religious and you’re not expected to accept them by faith. It is not faith, but a truth that you come to recognize through experience. You will be able experience this through simple but profound meditative practices.
What are the origins of Yiyangmen?
A desire to help people move better through physical therapy and a love of Taoist, Buddhist, and Indian martial arts.
What we noticed is as people moved better, they would start to resolve issues in their lives. We observed that the ability to move with physical confidence and integrity translated directly into their ability to live with confidence and integrity. Once on this path, people showed a natural progression from greater confidence, to greater integrity, to greater empathy and compassion and to greater freedom.
What are the advantages of Yiyangmen?
1. The requirements to start are low.
Yiyangmen practices do not require extraordinary strength, flexibility, balance, or coordination. They are easy to practice for even persons with physical injuries that limit their athletic participation. (But always consult with your physician regarding your readiness to participate in any physical activity).
2. The methods are simple.
Many traditional martial arts and yogic practices have numerous postures and forms. The typical Taichi form is a sequence of over 100 movements. In comparison, Yiyangmen relies on a handful of postures and movements to activate our natural capacity to improve.
3. The practices provide strong feedback.
People often say you can’t learn Taichi online, or Yoga online. You need a teacher to guide you. This is because you need the feedback. Yiyangmen practices inherently provide a strong feedback. Within a few minutes of practice you will be aware if you are correctly practicing and benefiting. Because of this, it is possible to learn online and train by yourself.
4. Progress is visible and regular.
Unlike other traditional practices that say you must practice for 10 years to see results, you do not need to practice with blind faith. You will observe improvements within minutes of practice. The gradual continued success will naturally reinforce your motivation and help you stay on your journey.
What are the requirements of practice?
To live genuinely, you have to be present. That simply means you have to be ok with who you are and ok with the world and your situation in it. That doesn’t mean that you won’t want to better yourself or make the world a better place, but that you can take an honest look at yourself and your situation without having to turn away or retreat into daydreams (or nightmares).
So presence is the requirement for living genuinely, and living genuinely is the requirement for genuine empathy and compassion.
If you are willing to dedicate yourself to this process, we will help you move forward.
How do I start?
The gateway to presence is courage, and that’s the heart of the method.
We start with a physical practice, a psychological practice, and a living practice.
- The physical practice is the step by step restoration and strengthening of physical integration via the coordination exercises.
- The psychological integration begins with a commitment to unify with your best & highest self.
- The living practice is practicing courage and genuineness by taking actions to live with greater integrity.
The physical practices are taught in our learning section – the One Sun Practice. It is the most concrete and reliable starting point. The psychological and living practices are discussed in our blog.
Who are you?
My name is Chester. Yiyangmen is the result of my goal to help martial health to become more attainable. I believe that its benefits should be attainable for the average person, not just for the talented who spent their whole life.
That being said, I do enjoy life long practice. I have studied martial arts for over 30 years, and have taught numerous students in kungfu, taichi, qigong, and weaponry for over 20 years. Martial arts is a life long passion of mine. I have competed internationally, earning medals in China for my performances in Shaolin kungfu, other kungfu methods, and swordsmanship.
But I believe that much of the benefits of martial practice can be experienced in a small fraction of that time span and by a much broader group of people. Yiyangmen is the distillation to make it suitable for our fast and chaotic world. To this end, Yiyangmen aims to be widely accessible and maximally beneficial while remaining true to its cultural heritage.
Yiyangmen teachings reflects my love for helping people grow and thrive. It’s my vision to make it easy to teach and easy to learn.
It is my sincere wish that people can be happy, free, courageous, and strong. Yiyangmen is my offering to make this our reality.
Do you have more questions?
Feel free to contact us through the contact page. We are happy to answer your questions, whatever they may be