Monthly Archives: July 2008

Being Effortless With Fong Ha

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So many years have passed where I just barely missed the opportunity to train with Fong Ha. This year, fate must have been working because were finally got a chance to connect.  Fong outlined the following sections for practice:

  • Cultivation
  • Manifestation
  • Utilization/Verification

Cultivation

Be Mindful. Do it effortlessly.

Mindfulness is defined as ‘an awareness of one’s thoughts, actions or motivations’ [via wikipedia].  When we stand in zhan zhuang, are we comfortable? Are we exerting too much effort?  Is our breathing calm, are we in harmony?

The three gems of qigong: (1) Harmonize the body,  (2) Harmonize the breath and (3) Harmonize the mind.

Each day of the workshop began with roughly 1 hour of cultivation time, aka silence time. On the second day, we were treated with a second session of silent cultivation time… :)   This time can either be spent sitting or standing, whichever one prefers. Each session starts with the three harmonies listed above: body, breath, and mind.

While sitting, if you feel the inclination to stand, then stand :)   The eight postures of yiquan were covered as well as some hands on corrections by Fong.  I was actually surprised at some of the corrections as my elbows were raised more than I had normally done or my forearm was adjusted at a slightly different angle than I had normally practiced.  Once adjusted into position, it was up to my internal training discipline to harmonize the posture :)

Throughout the workshop, there was a strong emphasis on internal training and self awareness. Internal training is how we feel. Do we feel calm and comfortable? Do we feel good and full of energy? If not, adjust accordingly.  Self awareness is believing that our body is inherently capable of adjusting itself into equilibrium, we just have to quiet our mind enough so that we can listen.

Other cultivation activities included the 8 Piece Brocade (Ba Duan Jin), Yi Jin Jing, and the Taiji Ruler.  Each day ALWAYS began with ALL of these activities.

Manifestation

Fong gave a great analogy relating to cooking about fire and a pan.  Consider cultivation as the fire and our body/mind as the pan.  With these two basic ingredients, we can cook an unlimited amount of dishes (chinese, italian, steak, etc). Likewise, manifestation can take the form of yang taiji, yiquan, karate, etc.

A yiquan exercise called Shi li is basically moving, but without stepping. Are we able to maintain the body integration and central equilibrium when we move our upper body?  An example would be to rotate ‘the ball’ in the standard zhan zhuang posture in various elliptical paths (ie, over-under, expand-contract, etc).

Moca bu builds upon shi li but includes stepping footwork. The basic idea of moca bu is that we should be able to stop at ANY given point and still have our own central equilibrium. This includes forward and backward stepping patterns. Generally this is done with one of the 8 yiquan postures, but over time can incorporate some of the shi li work with the moca bu stepping.

Again, all manifestation builds upon cultivation.

Utilization/Verification

Utilization and verification combines everything learned in the cultivation and manifestation sections. This section primarily consists of various 2-person partner exercises.  An example exercise would be to allow the body to internally harmonize oncoming forces (ie, person pushing on my shoulder).  Additionally, the standard taiji push hand patterns can be used or the yiquan sensing hands activity can be used.

3 additional principles were introduced that relate to this section:

  1. Don’t lean on others and don’t let others lean on you
  2. No collision
  3. No separation

Don’t lean on others basically means to not give up your own central equilibrium. Don’t let others lean on you basically means do not allow others to affect your central equilibrium. Simple, right? ;)   If we lean against a wall, we are giving the wall our central equilibrium. If the wall is taken away, we fall. So care must be taken not to lean on others.

If someone leans on us and we fight back, that is using force and results in collision.  The goal so practice is to be effortless … So basically, we do not allow others to lean on us and we do not use force, hence no collision.  Practically speaking, if someone pushes my chest and I fight back, that is collision. If someone pushes my chest and I either step back or turn away to not allow the person to push me (aka lean on me) then I am not in conflict with the person, I am not using effort and I maintain my own central equilibrium.

Note, that when I touch someone, I am touching their central equilibrium. As long as I am in contact, I can feel the other person’s central equilibrium, hence no separation.  The tricky part is the idea of no separation applies to BOTH parties in the exercise.

Overall I had a great time and I am glad I attended the workshop.  What I really enjoyed was getting exposed to another perspective of taiji.  We have all read about being relaxed and using no force, but what does this really mean?  I am grateful for the opportunity to learn what this means, but I am even more grateful of being able to *feel* what this means from a kind and generous person like Fong Ha.  I would highly recommend his books and DVDs or even better, his workshops for anyone interested in learning more!

Relax the Jaw for a Better Night's Sleep

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4

Since about my sophomore year in college, I have been afflicted with TMJ Syndrome. Maybe ‘afflicted’ is not the right word, but this *thing* has been with me for a while. Basically, I keep my jaw clenched during the night and sometimes throughout the day, resulting in pain and soreness.  The pain started getting so bad that at times I was unable to eat or open my mouth very wide.

One of the first things recommended to me was the use of painkillers to mask the symptoms. For a period of time, I was taking 800 mg of ibuprofen 3 times a day! Just for comparison, the recommended dose is 200 mg every 4-6 hours!  A bit later, I did some blood tests and they noted traces of the medicine in my system and warned of the potential impact to my liver, so I stopped taking pain medication.

Another solution that was recommended to me was the use of a mouth guard.  Basically, this is a dental appliance that you wear at night. The appliance is designed in such a way to have little spacers that stay between your top and bottom sets of teeth, thereby keeping your mouth slightly open and not allowing the jaw muscle to fully clamp.  This worked for a while until I got sick of repeatedly going into the dentist’s office to have them adjust the appliance.

However, one of the dentists actually began trying to recommend some natural options such as placing a warm towel on my jaw for a little bit before bed or meditation.  Additionally, she recommended eliminating caffeine and sugar from my diet and try to do more stress reducing activities.

A lot of times, the TMJ makes itself more apparent during times of stress, other times, I either just don’t feel it or I am numb to it, however I know it’s always present due to the common ‘clicking’ of my jaw.  Last night, after a session of zhan zhuang, I was laying in bed and began to notice how tense my jaw was.  Then it dawned on my, why not practice some of the zhan zhuang visualizations on my jaw?  Laying on my back, I started doing some abdominal breathing and then began visualizing the tension in my jaw melting downwards and out the back of my head.

The whole ‘melting visualization is a technique I use during zhan zhuang to release the tension in my shoulder, back and arms. While not a surprise, the more I visualized the melting, the more I felt my jaw relax.  Additionally, the more I visualized melting downward, the more my whole body became relax and I started having this sort of ‘sinking into the bed’ sensation.  The ‘sinking into bed sensation’ is a technique I employ during my 20 minute power naps if I need a pick me up. I would basically stay in this ‘sinking bed sensation” for the full 20 minutes without ever really falling asleep, almost like a form of self hypnosis, however I would ‘awaken’ fully refreshed.

I am not sure why it took me so long to make the connection between zhan zhuang and TMJ but I am glad I did. I will now work on ‘melting away the tension’ throughout the day :)

Relax the Jaw for a Better Night’s Sleep

Posted on
4

Since about my sophomore year in college, I have been afflicted with TMJ Syndrome. Maybe ‘afflicted’ is not the right word, but this *thing* has been with me for a while. Basically, I keep my jaw clenched during the night and sometimes throughout the day, resulting in pain and soreness.  The pain started getting so bad that at times I was unable to eat or open my mouth very wide.

One of the first things recommended to me was the use of painkillers to mask the symptoms. For a period of time, I was taking 800 mg of ibuprofen 3 times a day! Just for comparison, the recommended dose is 200 mg every 4-6 hours!  A bit later, I did some blood tests and they noted traces of the medicine in my system and warned of the potential impact to my liver, so I stopped taking pain medication.

Another solution that was recommended to me was the use of a mouth guard.  Basically, this is a dental appliance that you wear at night. The appliance is designed in such a way to have little spacers that stay between your top and bottom sets of teeth, thereby keeping your mouth slightly open and not allowing the jaw muscle to fully clamp.  This worked for a while until I got sick of repeatedly going into the dentist’s office to have them adjust the appliance.

However, one of the dentists actually began trying to recommend some natural options such as placing a warm towel on my jaw for a little bit before bed or meditation.  Additionally, she recommended eliminating caffeine and sugar from my diet and try to do more stress reducing activities.

A lot of times, the TMJ makes itself more apparent during times of stress, other times, I either just don’t feel it or I am numb to it, however I know it’s always present due to the common ‘clicking’ of my jaw.  Last night, after a session of zhan zhuang, I was laying in bed and began to notice how tense my jaw was.  Then it dawned on my, why not practice some of the zhan zhuang visualizations on my jaw?  Laying on my back, I started doing some abdominal breathing and then began visualizing the tension in my jaw melting downwards and out the back of my head.

The whole ‘melting visualization is a technique I use during zhan zhuang to release the tension in my shoulder, back and arms. While not a surprise, the more I visualized the melting, the more I felt my jaw relax.  Additionally, the more I visualized melting downward, the more my whole body became relax and I started having this sort of ‘sinking into the bed’ sensation.  The ‘sinking into bed sensation’ is a technique I employ during my 20 minute power naps if I need a pick me up. I would basically stay in this ‘sinking bed sensation” for the full 20 minutes without ever really falling asleep, almost like a form of self hypnosis, however I would ‘awaken’ fully refreshed.

I am not sure why it took me so long to make the connection between zhan zhuang and TMJ but I am glad I did. I will now work on ‘melting away the tension’ throughout the day :)

The Catalyst and the Goal

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6

I am a solo practitioner of taiji. After about 6 years of formal instruction, life events came about that makes attending formal classes difficult. However, from time to time, I try to attend a taiji workshop to get the ball rolling.

My wife doesn’t really think I need to attend workshops as “I have more than enough material to work through on my own”, but she understand my reason for attending. The main reason for attending a workshop is to be exposed to new material and alternate insights. The secondary reason for attending a workshop is to provide myself with a little catalyst to ignite my personal training.

Working backwards, the workshop event acts as a little disturbance or change in my normal routine. Sure, I can do the standing and do the forms, but nothing like an upcoming workshop to jumpstart things.  I notice that I will often train “double-time” in preparation for the event.  I want to make the most of the event and it’s best to be prepared ahead of time.

I have done enough forms where I can easily pick up on the choreography. For me, workshops are not about learning choreography, but about digging deeper into the nitty gritty.  A lot of folks believe that one will never learn taiji through workshops and for the most part this is true as I believe taiji to really be a solo exercise. It’s really up to the practitioner to put in the time and take the appropriate steps, drink the water, etc. NO teacher or person can do that for us. To me, teachers are like guide posts along the path and can help in steering one in the right direction. They can nudge and encourage, but it’s up to us to push the pedal.

In roughly 3 weeks time, I will be attending a workshop with Fong Ha covering mainly yiquan and yang taiji. As such, the emphasis of my own training has been on yiquan standing postures and yang taiji. In fact, when I spoke to the event organizer and inquired about the material to be covered, he basically said, “be prepared for roughly 1.5 – 2 hrs of meditation work”… This is a metric I can work with and have tried to prepare myself for it.  I want to make sure I have the basics down pat before I get to the workshop so hopefully I will receive correction on material beyond the basics.  This type of approach for me has worked well in the past and I believe it is truly the best way to prepare.

Now, my goal for attending these workshops is to gain new material that I can work on and perhaps get some insight into my current material.  I have achieved this goal with each and every workshop I have attended. While the quantity of materials received may be small, the quality is large and has definitely shaped my own practice and training over the long run.

All this talk of catalyst and goals reminds me of a quote I recently ran across:

When an archer is shooting for nothing, he has all his skill.
If he shoots for a brass buckle, he is already nervous.
If he shoots for a prize of gold, he goes blind or sees two targets –
He is out of his mind!
His skill has not changed. But the prize divides him.
He cares. He thinks more of winning than of shooting–
And the need to win drains him of power.
(Zhuang Zi 19:4)

From: Tabby Cat as commented on Formosa Neijia: From Practitioner to Competitor

I used to be part of the martial arts tournament circuit quite a bit back in the day, but that was mostly for Tae Kwon Do and Wushu.  Just like a workshop, the tournament provided me with a catalyst to jump start my personal training. I worked hard to place well in the event, knowing that I was representing not only myself, but also my teacher and my school.

Form competitions resulted in a further refinement of my form based upon the judging criteria, mostly choreography and aesthetic appeal. Sparring competitions provided a forum in which I could test techniques and gauge my responsiveness in stressful and unpredictable situations.  While this is all and good, with taiji I have no desire to enter competitions. To me, these goals do not align with my reasons for training in taiji.

I will end this post with one of my favorite kung fu movie quotes:

Chen Zhen:
The object of matching is to beat down the opponent.

Fumio Funakoshi:
Wrong kid, the best way to beat the opponent is to use a gun. … The goal of studying martial arts is to maximize one’s energy. If you want to achieve that goal, you must understand life and the universe. … Fighting is for animals.

- Interaction between Chen Zhen (Jet Li) and Fumio Funakoshi in Fist of Legend