Tai Chi at Nibukikan
Lin-Yi Maslin
Lin-Yi Maslin (楊蓮儀) is the head teacher for Tai Chi at Nibukikan. She teaches the traditional Wu style Tai Chi, 108 form, which she learned from her late father, Master Wabu Young (楊華彪), from Hong Kong. Wabu loved and excelled in many forms of martial arts, but he gave them up to follow the famed Grand Master Wu Chien Chuan (吳鑑泉) in learning Tai Chi, so he could focus on the internal development. Lin-Yi has been teaching Tai Chi in Chico since 1977, and she also does Energy Work that she learned from her father. Recently, she came out from retirement and is now taking new students in the spirit of a growth stage of the Nibukikan in its new location.
Energy Work
Each session is only ~10 minutes (lying down on a bench with street clothes on), a client would receive acupressure-like energy on the back and legs, next on the front, arms and legs, then similar energy while sitting and standing. The session focuses on major Chi pathways, guiding the client to sensing spinal integration and limb dangling Chi flow. The awareness promotes wellness.
Effects
Though the work does not emphasize healing, it mainly moves Chi that may ameliorate health status. Over the thirty years of interacting with Wabu’s clients, Lin-Yi saw its efficacy—perpetual weaknesses improved, a surgeon’s shaky hands steadied, a pediatrician’s pestilent neck pain went away, a larger than life painter’s nagging body ache relieved.
Many clients became Tai Chi students, and lived the motto of practicing Tai Chi,
Longevity with youthful rigor.