Tibetan Tai-chi: a lifelong practice for preserving vitality, balance, and awareness.
Temple of Heaven Lineage Training at Garuda Studio
Garuda Studio in Albuquerque, NM, teaches Tibetan Tai-Chi from the Temple of Heaven as transmitted by Grandmaster Liu Sion (Willem Reeders).
Tibetan Tai-Chi uses slow, precise, low-impact movement to train balance, posture, breath, coordination, focus, proprioception, clean weight transfer, and moving meditation.
The name emphasizes Tai-Chi, but the training extends beyond slow-form practice. The broader curriculum includes foundational Tibetan Tai-Chi, unique QiGong forms, martial katas, and strength/endurance sequences.
Students do not need prior Tai-Chi experience, athletic ability, or interest in martial arts to begin.
The doorway into the practice begins with balance, breath, posture, attention, and control.
Walk of the Tiger: Practical Balance Training and the First Step into Tibetan Tai Chi
What if standing, breathing, shifting weight, and walking could become a daily practice that restores presence, balance, and vitality?
Most Tai-chi, QiGong, and martial arts classes start too far downstream for many students.
They ask you to memorize forms, learn unfamiliar terms, copy complex movements, or follow long sequences before you experience much practical benefit.
Walk of the Tiger training starts at the beginning: standing, breathing, shifting weight, and walking in a new, more conscious way.
Sometimes called Tai-chi walking, Walk of the Tiger involves far more than placing one foot in front of the other. Grand Master Liu Siong taught a rare, complete version that integrates conscious breathing, balance, attention, and movement into a practical daily discipline.
It is not another Tai-chi form, QiGong routine, or martial arts system. It is a practical breathwork and awareness practice that you can use throughout your day.
You learn to use breath as an organizing principle—to settle attention, coordinate movement, release unnecessary tension, and restore presence and balance whether standing in line, crossing a room, climbing stairs, getting out of a chair, or walking across uneven ground.
This brief introductory course requires minimal strength, flexibility, stamina, or prior experience. Most people can begin practicing after the first session.
From the first session, you leave with skills you can practice for the rest of your life.
The goal is not to collect movements. The goal is to improve the movements you already make.
If you have tried Tai-chi, QiGong, yoga, martial arts, meditation, videos, books, or classes and still feel disconnected from your body, the problem may not be you. It may be the learning sequence.
No commitment is required. Attend as many or as few Walk of the Tiger classes as you choose. Each class builds on the previous one and adds more to your life.
We expect these simple principles to make enough difference in your physical, emotional, and mental wellness that you may wish to explore their origins in the Temple of Heaven System, as taught by Grand Master Liu Siong / Count Willem Reeders, his widow and designated successor, and those she has authorized to teach.
Tibetan Tai-chi, the basis of the system, builds on the Walk of the Tiger foundation for serious students who wish to continue their development. It offers a lifelong practice for preserving vitality, balance, and awareness.
Whether Walk of the Tiger remains a complete practice for you or becomes the first step into a deeper study, the skills you learn can begin serving you immediately in everyday life.
Why Balance Training Matters
Balance requires more than strength.
It involves timing, posture, breath, attention, body awareness, emotional steadiness, and clean weight transfer.
Many balance problems do not begin dramatically. They often appear first as small hesitations, uneven steps, cautious turns, stiffness, or less confidence stepping down.
Most falls happen during transitions: stepping, turning, reaching, or recovering.
Tibetan Tai-Chi trains those transitions directly.
Strength helps you stand.
Control helps you move.
Walk of the Tiger trains control.
What Students Often Notice
Most students begin for practical reasons:
steadier walking
better posture
improved flexibility
calmer breathing
better coordination
greater body awareness
more confidence turning and stepping
improved focus
less reactivity
more emotional steadiness
a practical way to stay active
Many students also report that as movement slows down and breathing settles, attention becomes less scattered and daily movement feels more deliberate, grounded, and reliable.
The same skill that steadies the step can steady the mind.
The Larger Tibetan Tai-Chi Curriculum
Walk of the Tiger introduces the foundation, but Tibetan Tai-Chi offers a deeper path for those who continue.
The Qigong forms deepen breath, internal awareness, relaxation, posture, and structural integration. The first form includes Daoist reverse breathing, a traditional method for developing breath control, rib-and-abdominal coordination, and internal awareness.
The katas preserve body mechanics, timing, sequencing, continuity, and lineage memory. Some movements carry martial or self-defense applications, but those applications remain ancillary. Students do not need interest in fighting or self-defense to benefit from the training.
Martial applications do not provide the doorway.
Balance, breath, posture, attention, and control provide the doorway.
The strength/endurance sequences build durability, stamina, structural strength, flexibility, and resilience.
For older adults, the training supports steadier movement, better posture, calmer breathing, confidence, and active aging.
For younger students and martial artists, the training can also build the deeper mechanics beneath practical skill: rooting, timing, weight transfer, structure, coordination, breath, and calm under pressure.
Introductory Session
Introductory Session: $25 Payable by cash, check, credit card, or Venmo.
Your introductory session begins with the Walk of the Tiger—the foundation of the Temple of Heaven System and the first step into Tibetan Tai-chi.
You will learn how conscious breathing, standing, shifting weight, and walking work together to improve balance, coordination, focus, and awareness in everyday life.
You will also observe the opening movement of Tibetan Tai-chi, offering a glimpse of the larger practice that grows naturally from these same principles.
Every student learns at a different pace. Rather than expecting everyone to progress together, we provide individualized instruction within the group so each student develops a solid foundation.
The goal is not speed.
The goal is precision, balance, breath, focus, fluidity, and steady practice.
Even if you never learned another movement, the Walk of the Tiger would remain a valuable daily practice that you can use for the rest of your life.
Continuing Your Practice
If you decide to continue after your introductory session, regular classes meet:
Tuesdays: 9:45 AM and 6:00 PM
Saturdays: 9:00 AM
Additional times: By appointment, when available.
Monthly Tuition: $95
Tuesday morning classes include warm-up exercises, stretching, formal group practice for advanced students, and individualized instruction for beginning and intermediate students.
Tuesday evening and Saturday morning classes offer a more informal practice for students at every level, with individual coaching throughout the session.
If your primary interest remains the Walk of the Tiger, individual sessions focusing on balance, breathwork, awareness, and conscious walking may also be scheduled without enrolling in monthly classes.
Whether you choose only the Walk of the Tiger or continue into Tibetan Tai-chi, each lesson builds on the last and adds practical skills that can enrich everyday life.
Feedback
We continue refining how this teaching reaches modern students.
After your first session, we appreciate your thoughts through a brief online form. Your impressions, positive or critical, help us improve.
Feedback form:
https://tinyurl.com/Tibetan-Tai-chi-feedback-form
Contact
Garuda Studio of Tibetan Tai-Chi
10900 Menaul Blvd. NE, Suite L in Cimarron Square
Albuquerque, NM 87112
505.903.2243
info@tibetantaichi.com
https://tibetantaichi.com
