Monthly Archives: April 2008

Zhan Zhuang Taiji

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Last night after about 20 minutes of zhan zhuang standing meditation, I do as I normally do, that is go into the Yang long form. However, this time, I mixed things up a bit and did “zhan zhuang taiji”. This is basically, taking the form but then holding movements for an extended amount of time.

For me, I have gotten into the habit of holding each posture for about 6 breaths. The amount of time can vary depending on how deep my breathing has gotten. Additionally, instead of just holding the end postures of the movement, I decided to hold each transition posture. The simplest example to illustrate this would be to hold the “step forward” transition in between 2 consecutive brush knee and push steps.

In this type of practice, I can really feel all the tension held in my body. As such, I have changed things a bit to have a higher and narrower stance. One interesting tidbit was to notice at what point I began to feel tension in my rear supporting leg when stepping forward.  This exercise really impacted the length of my step!

One of the harder postures to hold was the ‘raise hand’ posture in Yang style. This was causing quite a bit of strain in my left leg. I guess I have been neglecting this type of posture or just merely glossing over it in my practice.

I remember the first time I did this kind of training was under the TT Liang Yang style camp. Normally, the TT Liang form is done to music with Master Liang counting the beats in the background. Each posture has a set number of beats. For example, Raise Hands would be done to 2 beats, while Single Whip was done to 6 beats and brush knee was done to 4 beats. Sometimes the teacher would mix things up and have us hold the end posture for 6 beats of a metronome. While appearing simple, if we really try it and not try to make it an endurance exercise, it can really shed lot of light about the tension in our bodies.

I vividly remember a class in which I asked the instructor “how high should we kick in the form”. He said you should kick about as high as you can easily do 6 repetitions of the kick on one leg. The instructor then lined us up, put bean bags on our heads and had us do about 6 sets of 6 repetition kicks on each side. Since I had come from a wushu taiji background, my kick was done slowly and with the heel about nose height, but after doing the above exercise, it slowly moved down to about solar plexus height.  Now, I do heel kicks about abdomen height and toe kicks about chest height.

On a side note, I called the event organizer of an upcoming Fong Ha workshop and he basically said to be prepared to do about 1.5 – 2 hrs worth of meditation a day! I am still around the 20-25 min mark in my zhan zhuang training, hopefully by the seminar I’ll be around the 40 min mark.

Fishing

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“Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.”

– Henry David Thoreau

 

More and more, I have been noticing a shift within my own training. The main emphasis has been zhan zhuang with a sprinkle of form play thrown in the mix. The shift is I don’t really worry about ‘how I look’, ‘how low is my stance’ or ‘how is this fajing’ anymore.  Additionally, the whole martial side of the fence has taken a back burner for now.

Am I becoming a “Tai Cheese” practitioner or one of those “Rainbow Taiji Folks”? Perhaps, but I think it really is about perspective. I have no grandiose dreams that I will be able to bounce someone off me using empty force energy or like that.. right now my main goal is to feel healthy and enjoy my practice. 

I really wonder about the role of fate and it’s play in my own life. There have been some major changes on a personal/family/professional front within the past couple of months and it’s eerily coincidental similar changes are happening on my taiji goals and training.

This reminds of of the “Uncarved Block” in the Tao of Pooh:

One of the basic principles of Taoism is P’U, the Uncarved Block. The essence of the Uncarved Block is that things in their original simplicity contain their own natural power, power that is easily spoiled and lost when that simplicity is changed.

Source: Just-Pooh.com – The Tao of Pooh

Stand like Sitting on a Chair

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In light of Ralph’s “One Hundred Days“, I decided the timing was right to jump in myself and train consistently for 100 days. I am actually planning to attend an upcoming workshop by Fong Ha, a practitioner of Yang Taijiquan and Yiquan. It just so happens the workshop is roughly 100 days away! What a coincidence.

Last night’s zhan zhuang began with a rough start. I was a bit tense after a long day. I started off with a basic wuji stance with hands at my sides. I kept the stance pretty high without a desire to go low. Right off the bat, I could feel the tension in my hips and thighs. My mind was wandering, and images of The Peaceful Warrior flooded my mind where Nick Nolte asks the young athletic if he can ‘stand like this’ and proceeds to do what I think is a zhan zhuang embracing the balloon posture. I pushed the thoughts out and focused on the inner smile.

Practicing the inner smile allowed me to really sense the tension in my body. The tension in my lower back was brought to the front of my attention. To address this, instead of tucking the pelvis, I worked on lengthening. I picked up this exercise a while back. Basically, instead of forcefully tucking one’s pelvis under, I imagine a pulling down force that causes my lower back to straighten. While they may sound the same, the latter has worked out very well for me.

As I was lengthening, my hips were slightly flexing causing me to sink a bit lower in my stance (maybe 5 degrees or so). The more I did this, the more I began to feel as if I was sitting on a chair! It literally felt as if an invisible chair was behind me supporting my body. The tension in my thighs and hips dissolved.

Next, I incorporated the imagery of head erect, but instead of hanging from above, I imagined something pulling me from above. While keeping both forces (down through tailbone, up through head) I began to feel as if I was floating, yet firmly rooted.  The more I pulled up on my head, the more the tension along the inner side of my arms went away. It was wildly strange, yet very exciting at the same time because I felt as if I tapped into something and I did not want to stop.

The coolest thing about the whole ordeal was it literally felt as if I was maintaining the universal post or standing stake zhan zhuang posture WITHOUT EFFORT. I was not trying (physically nor mentally), I was just there, just in it, just being. This sorta felt like my previous zhan zhuang adjustments, however this time, I was not leaning forward, I did not feel like I was going to fall backwards, and the whole ‘pulling from above’ added a new dimension to the stance and training that I have never experienced before.

After zhan zhuang I went into the Yang Long form and instantly I noticed a difference. I felt very grounded and rooted in my movements. I was not doing the minor adjustments to my stances, I was not checking my transitions, all of it just flowed and moved very smoothly. The brush knees were executed without hesitation and adjustment during each transition. Overall, the form felt much, much better.