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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Since doing sets on my own for over eight months now, an interesting thing has happened. At first it seemed strange to practice alone, without a group. I felt oddly self-conscious, even though no one was watching. Over time, though, I stopped worrying about that and just started focusing on how my body felt while […]

“I noticed on the Saturday chanting that I was really opening up my jaws when chanting. Pronunciation is still lacking but my entire face was getting a workout. We don’t usually think about exercising head muscles when we practice our Tai Chi. This Saturday I found that the opening of the mouth was more pronounced […]

Solo practice has changed and deepened both my acceptance of change and my Taoist Tai Chi™ practice.  It has been fascinating to notice how my daily practice changes.  It’s not “just the tai chi” but also where it fits in my life.  In the last week I have begun to do a whole set first thing […]

Last Saturday, the Fung Loy Kok Institute of Taoism  offered an opportunity to observe and or participate in the All Souls Festival in a live online format following the weekly chanting opportunity.  Being familiar with some other traditions for the deceased, I was intrigued and curious but intended to just ” stay for awhile”.  Long […]

The Joy of Tai Chi “Saturday morning chanting and discussions have been my source of Taoist Tai Chi ™ practice during the pandemic. I appreciated encouraging words from the international leaders by sharing Master Moy and his teaching. I have a little deeper understanding of confidence, trust and less worry each time I listen.  And Tallahassee branch zoom meetings on […]

Prioritizing health and safety during the time of Covid-19, participants practicing “together apart” find strength and joy.

This is a thank you for giving us such rich guidance during this time of self cultivation. The chanting sessions on Sat. mornings are such an opportunity for coming together with common purpose and the discussions have opened up much more about taoism than I had ever imagined. This in turn has been very helpful in […]

Steve Spathelf, Dunedin’s famous orange artist, returns to the International Center Florida to undertake the restoration of the resident lions. These lions started their life as guardians at the entrance of the International Centre at Orangeville, Ontario, Canada, but after many severe winters they were relocated to sunny Florida. Now they await the opportunity to greet […]

  Sandy Cunningham, Dunedin, Florida Branch, is also a nurse at a very busy hospital, but found a brief moment to cultivate stillness.  She inspires us to keep practicing.  

Recently we were asked, “how can we take better care of the Taoist Tai Chi™ arts?”   This year, as we celebrate our 50th Anniversary, there are opportunities to reflect on the uniqueness of our teachings. The International Centre in Canada, in the winter, offered a ‘quiet’ that seems harder to find in the bustle of everyday […]

The California Branch Our goal is 50 Taoist Tai Chi™  demonstrations for the 50th anniversary of the Society. We joined over 40 other vendors at the annual Live Strong Health Expo at the Concord Senior Citizen Center and were able to share the health benefits of our practice with many of the 400+ attendees. We […]