The Dragon's Head Blog

Getting ready for the All Souls Festival, volunteers wash fruit and prepare jai vegetarian food as offerings. They also get ready to film the ceremony so participants around the world can join together to chant virtually.

We all have a relationship with our ancestors. All Souls Festival provides a way to care for & maintain harmony with them, which extends to our lives & communities. At the FLK International Centre the Columbarium, along with the cemetery and Memorial Hall, are permanent places to care for people after they have died.

At this time of year the temples bustle with activity. Volunteers at D’arcy Street Temple in Toronto prepare for the All Souls Festival. FLK All Souls Festival chanting ceremonies will take place virtually this year. 

All Souls Festival gives the living an opportunity to express filial piety, harmony and dedication by honouring ancestors, relatives and friends who have passed away.  Beautiful paper bags decorated with symbols of longevity, balance and comfort in the afterlife hold paper offerings to be burnt. FLK All Souls Festival chanting ceremonies will take place virtually this year. 

Paper offerings help the souls.  FLK All Souls Festival chanting ceremonies will take place virtually this year.  Buddhist and Taoist temples around the world observe All Souls Festival during the first half of the 7th lunar month when the gates of the realm of the dead are opened and the souls of the deceased can receive […]

All Souls Festival is one of the most important times of year in the Taoist calendar. It provides an opportunity for the living to honour those who have passed away. Volunteers prepare paper offerings for the souls of the departed in the Realm of Yin.  FLK All Souls Festival chanting ceremonies will take place virtually this […]

I was very young when I started suffering from allergic asthma, particularly severe during spring. So, it is years that I need to check the Oxygen blood saturation (pO2) regularly, with an oxymeter: until recently, I have been finding it around 90/92 %, which doctors found acceptable.  With the practice of Taoist Tai Chi™ arts […]

When I started my Taoist Tai Chi™ practice in 1998, I was just like every other beginner. I was eager to learn this shiny new thing. I knew nothing. With every class I attended, my confidence grew. Before I knew it, I was doing the whole set with everyone else. When the next beginner class started, I […]

I believe that my Taoist Tai Chi™ practice has helped to hold off the brittleness of aging. I think that it has restored my sense of balance that was beginning to decline some, and improved my peripheral vision. The awareness of others around me doing the same moves enhances the energy field. I feel like […]

The news of the Pandemic, like it did for most people, came to me like a bucket of cold water. I am a very stressed and worried person and since my daughters are living in a country where the number of infections was overwhelming from the beginning, I was filled with anguish and concern. Faced […]

When it was announced a year ago that we would be canceling Taoist Tai Chi™ classes for the indefinite future I assumed I would continue to practice the 3 or 4 times a week I had been practicing when I went to classes. But where would the instruction come from? I had never thought about […]

Lockdown arrived so no classes, all usual routine was gone. I felt all at sea. Practicing sets daily as usual, but I found that by the end of a set I had tears streaming down my face, even though I did feel calm. It was troubling. What to do? I decided to stop the sets […]

I have found this 3rd lockdown in England very difficult and felt bowed down with grief for our son who died 18 months ago. It’s been a struggle to do my daily practice. However,  I have forced myself to join the chanting on Saturdays and Mondays to bring some structure into my life. During the last […]

I have come to realize more that the core of our learning path can be traced back to the heart. Often I know things but sometimes I can feel it. [...]

Four meetings on Zoom have become a permanent part of my weekly schedule. When I announce at home that it is time to meet, my daughter asks me: are you singing today? On Wednesday and Saturday I say – yes, why are you asking? She replies –because I would like to be with you. Therefore,  […]

Before starting a chanting session, a feeling of stillness and calm invades me. This feeling of tranquility, but at the same time of strength, remains afterwards. I usually practice on my knees. This position helps me release my hips (in the sitting position is where I get the most pain from trochanteritis) and I have […]

Confined but not suffocated or isolated!  Our instructors have never stopped repeating to us, without ever getting tired: “Do some foundation movements, a little, every day…” At first, my practise was very limited, often in the early morning. I found it easy to start but harder to continue. There is always some distraction ready to […]

56 years ago my mother passed away. I was 10. Since then I have lived a pretty wreckless life. Smoking has been one of my coping mechanisms for the last 40 years until 6 years ago, when Taoist Tai Chi gave me the strength to stop. I ordered a plaque for my mother, for All […]

During the latest lockdown, I hardly found time to practice. Indeed, I was having twice my normal amount of work, in addition to the daily household chores (including looking after 4 kids). My body paid for it: I felt more stressed and tensed and recently got a block in my upper back. I called the […]

During the first months of self-practice, I was practicing very high Don-Yus. This allowed me to relax a lot the cervical and lumbar area. By spending so many hours working in front of the computer, they were parts of the body very vulnerable to pain. I managed to incorporate the 50 Don-Yus into my daily […]