the way of wujimon

MM,

First off, the Way of Energy by Kam Lam Chuen is a great book and one that I often recommend. In fact, it's listed as one of my "Life Changing Books". 

Regarding the "sinking down", I've asked may teachers over the years about their thoughts on the topic. At first, I just muscled my way and sank down in a deep wushu (kung fu) style horse stance. However, over time I've begun to realize that maybe the goal isn't necessarily to see how low one can go in zhan zhuang, but to try and maintain good alignment.

Regarding alignment in zhan zhuang, I will refer you to what I consider one of the best articles written on the topic. The post is from Rick of Wujifa and he wrote an EXCELLENT article on Zhan Zhuang Alignment.  In fact, I have visited Rick and felt FIRST-HAND what correct alignment feels like and TRUST ME, you don't have to be in a low stance to get it. In fact, Rick adjusted my posture while I was in a very high stance (maybe 20 degree bend in knees) and I felt the BURN in my legs and almost began shaking. This type of correction can only be experienced through the transmission of touch with a good teacher. If you don't have regular access to a good teacher, check out a Chen Xiao Wang workshop and ask for Pizza ;)

I'm reminded of a comment made by Rick of Wujifa: "You are where you are, and that's where you start."  If you feel yourself falling backwards, then don't go that low. Go to where you feel stable and aligned.

Good luck.
w.

ps. For other readers out there, feel free to chime in ;)

When I first started doing zhan zhuang, I was basically told to stand with my feet parallel, raise my arms about shoulder height forming a ball,  and relax. That’s it.  "Hold this position for 40 minutes", said the instructor. I was then handed the book The Way of Energy by Kam Lam Chuen . No other real correction was given beyond that. What this lead to was my own approach of external, school of hard knocks, eating bitter style of zhan zhuang. What do I mean by this? My goal was to hold the posture for a specific length of time, no matter what!  At first, I couldn’t hold the posture for more than 5 minutes, so I use tools to get my mind off the pain. I started off by watching TV during zhan zhuang, then I slowly moved to listening to music and now finally I do neither. From time to time, I play a bit of ambient music when the day has been rough ;) It wasn’t until I started training in traditional Chen Style Taijiquan that I received my first corrections on zhan zhuang.  During class, I received my first corrections of “zhan zhuang” tweaking.   Afterwards, my eyes were opened to a whole new layer of taijiquan.  For more on these tweakings, check out my post on Zhan Zhuang Adjustments where I outline some of the corrections.  Then, I happened upon a Chen Xiaowang seminar that focused on zhan zhuang and silk reeling where more zhan zhuang tweaking occurred.  What I took away from all these adjustments was: being off my a millimeter can cause one to miss the target by kilometers.  The minutia of the corrections are yet another reason to seek out a qualified instructor.  A lot of the corrections will often require a hands-on touch (post: The Transmission of Touch). I recently took a weekend trip to visit Rick of Wujifa where he covered some of these zhan zhuang corrections (more on the trip in another future post).  More importantly, Rick has put together a formalized method for alignment in zhan zhuang and he calls 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4.  I had heard about this before, but was completely blown away by the method after experiencing it's effects in-person with Rick.  At a high level, the first 1,2,3,4 address the basic alignment between the feet, knees, hips and shoulders.  The second 1,2,3,4 addresses the alignment between the kua, tailbone, chest and head. Zhan zhuang is used to develop connection within the body.  What does connection feel like?  For me, connection and correct alignment resulted in a feeling of intense burning in the thigh, similar to my previous post on The Burn.  Additionally, I felt as if my arms just floated in the air.  Yes, I know, sounds a bit ‘woo-woo’ (to quote Rick ;)), but I kid you not.  How could simple minute adjustments have such a dramatic effect? I want to extend a gracious hat tip to Rick (twitter: @wujifa) for further opening my eyes on what it means to be connected.  Additionally, I feel that many people will benefit from his explanation on alignment.  Below is a snippet of his post, but I would implore you to click through and read all about Wujifa Zhan Zhuang Alignment.

When practicing Standing, or Zhan Zhuang, getting good alignment is one of the common difficulties for beginners. The method for Zhan Zhuang alignment in Wujifa is called “One Two Three Four, One Two Three Four”. The two sets of One Two Three Four are different and complementary sets of alignment points. The first set of alignment points are: 1. The feet are parallel. 2. The knees are over the feet. 3. The hip/inguinal crease/kua are lined up over the feet and knees. 4. The shoulders are lined up over the kua, or inguinal crease. … -- Source: Zhan Zhuang Alignment | Wujifa

I just finished doing a 10 minute zhan zhuang session following the instruction of Kam Lam Chuen.  My first exposure of Zhan Zhuang was through Master’s Lam’s book, The Way of Energy: Mastering the Chinese Art of Internal Strength with Chi Kung Exercise , borrowed to me by my college taiji instructor. The video below includes a warm-up exercise, instruction on a standing posture, and a cool-down exercise.  I picked up a couple of pointers on arm positioning on the wuji posture, so all is good! During the session, I still felt a bit of tension in my right hip, but not nearly as much as I did a couple of days ago.  Additionally, I noticed some dissolving in the my shoulders that felt like a bit of tingling under and in between my shoulder blades. Whenever I feel this, I am reminded of how much tension we can carry with us throughout the day. If you have never done any zhan zhuang before, now is the perfect time to give it a try. Watch the video and follow along.  Be sure not to stop holding the posture until the cool-down exercise is covered!

Wow, I can't believe it's already the end of January! Instead of making New Year resolutions, I decided to just add small new habits throughout the year. Every evening, I have a very limited amount of time to squeeze in activities. In between family time and bed time, I have at most 2 hours.  Not a whole lot of time, but by putting in the big rocks first, I have been pretty successful in fostering new habits.

One of the big rocks in my life include taking care of household tasks like bills and financial planning. I am one of those guys that used to track spending down to the cent during college.  This habit has stayed with me and I will touchbase and process my inbox every other day. This includes taking care of any bills, balancing finances and any other household need.  When I am finished with these tasks, I will work on progressing one of my projects or just chill out (surf the web, read email, watch a TV episode, etc) depending on my energy level.

The other big rock I have if general fitness, which includes heading to the gym.  I will do my workout on my 'off' household tasks days.  This habit actually started towards the last quarter of 2008, but has been solidifying itself in January.  My workout includes cardio exercise to increase my overall cardiovascular health and conditioning as well as some light weight and body exercises.  I have definitely noticed a shift in my energy level and I am getting physical feedback from the conditioning as I am more tone in areas that were not as tone before ;)

The 2 big rocks above usually take a bit over 1 hour to complete which leaves me with less than an hour for other habits. Starting this year, I wanted to regularly meditate, whether it be sitting (zazen) or standing meditation (zhan zhuang).  I have been quite successful in making this a habit, though it was difficult at first. Before, I would try to set a lot of goals concurrently but by focusing my energy on the creation of one new habit at a time, the success rate is much higher. I must give some kudos to the Zen Habits blog for this approach!

By the time I am done with meditation, it's bedtime! That's it.  Well, you may think that doesn't sound like a lot is being done.  You're right, while it's not a lot, it is what I can accomplish in my limited amount of time!  However, I did want to squeeze in another new habit and that is doing Yoga.  Instead of doing Yoga during the evening, I incorporated the Sun Salutation into my morning routine and it has worked out beautifully!

I was talking with a buddy of mine on the phone recently and he commented on how it looks like I am keeping to my New Year resolutions.  I told him the answer was quite simple.  All I did was set limits on what was essential and remove the fluff.  For me, this meant removing video games, more specifically World of Warcraft (WoW) from my daily routine. For those not in the know, World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that can really drain a lot of time if one is not careful.  Before, I would spend roughly and hour or so a night playing WoW, which left very little time for anything else and would often affect my rest time.  I still have a lot of friends who play WoW in real life and while they are having fun in the game, my own priorities have shifted a bit and I am feeling much happier and healthier with my new habits.

What's next? For the month of February, I want to make a new habit of doing taiji silk reeling exercises or some type foundational training exercise on a regular basis. This could include things like Chen taiji single/double handed silk reeling or Hong Practical Method positive/negative circle or even Yang style movement. In other words, incorporate jibengong (foundational exercises) into my daily routine.  Wish me luck ;)

One of the things that Chen Xiao Wang (CXW) emphasizes in standing meditation (zhan zhuang) is ‘listening behind’.  That is, during our standing if we put our attention too much forward, it may cause too much agitation.  Therefore, he says that it’s good to ‘listen behind’ to balance out the energy.

To assist myself last night, I logged onto Pandora.com and created a station based on Liquid Mind.  I then positioned myself so the computer was behind me.  The soothing tones really put my mind at ease in that quiet place.  I made sure my stances wasn’t too wide nor too low.  Then I just stood.

Breathing slowly, I did counts of 25 for 4 postures.  In the beginning, I had to start over counting a couple of times because I was wondering if the music was too loud as I did not want to wake my sleeping son next door.  During the standing, I did notice I was trying to rush the counts a bit. There were other things I wanted to do during that time, but told myself I should be meditating instead ;)

Walking into work this morning, I almost slipped on the slushy pavement. I put my foot down heel first and was able to regain my balance before toppling.  Perhaps it was due to all that Chen taiji heel sliding step I used to practice, or maybe it’s just having better balance overall ;)

Last night’s standing session consisted of 4 postures held for 25 breaths each. I only lost count once and that was during the universal post posture. I was doing standing in the same room that my wife was playing video games, and I got side tracked for a bit.. my bad. But, if you’re “good”, then you should be able to do meditation anywhere, right?

Read the rest of this post »

Walking into work this morning, I almost slipped on the slushy pavement. I put my foot down heel first and was able to regain my balance before toppling.  Perhaps it was due to all that Chen taiji heel sliding step I used to practice, or maybe it’s just having better balance overall ;)

Last night’s standing session consisted of 4 postures held for 25 breaths each. I only lost count once and that was during the universal post posture. I was doing standing in the same room that my wife was playing video games, and I got side tracked for a bit.. my bad. But, if you’re “good”, then you should be able to do meditation anywhere, right?

Read the rest of this post »

I think it's rather strange that my knees are sore pretty much ALL the time, regardless of what activity I am doing! In fact, even sitting in an office type chair, my knees feel rather tender, sort of warm and tingly. In light of this, I have decided to think about the possible 'everyday strains' on the knee.

At night, when I sleep, I used to sleep with one leg crossed over the other. I then began to notice this resulting in a slight strain in the knees, shifting them a bit sideways.  So, I changed my sleeping position to just legs straight, however I am beginning to notice a potential strain on my ankle as the blanket can push down my foot. I could either pull up the blanket so it doesn't put too much weight on my foot or I could sleep on my side (not preferable, though may try).

I commute roughly 2 hours round-trip 5 days a week. I noticed that sometime my left foot is placed very close to the seat, resulting in a slight strain on the top of the knees due to the knee being over the toe.  I have been trying to put my foot on the provided foot rest as that seems to reduce the strain a bit.

When sitting at my office chair at work, I have noticed that if I begin to tense up, I will often have both of my feet really close to the base of my chair. Again, this puts some unnecessary strain on the knees.  If I am too relaxed, I my cross my ankles, putting some strain on the knee.  My solution has been to try and do some active sitting where I do not use the chair backrest and I sit on the forward 1/3 of my seat cushion. Not only does this provide some exercise for the back, but it also forces me to look a bit more at my posture (strain in shoulders, placement of feet, relaxed kua, etc).

I would like to provide a little shout out to ZenMindSword for providing a bit of thought on my knee issue.  I think in regards to zhan zhuang, I still try to root downward in my training. I will have to continually remind myself NOT to do this.  I must have slipped back into old patterns ...

Up until recently, I was mainly 'the observer' during my zhan zhuang sessions, that is, merely observing and witnessing any arises thoughts without attachment. However, this has become increasingly more difficult as a lot of changes are happening right now in my home life.  For example, we are preparing for a move out of our current home into another house. Sometimes during zhan zhuang, I would think about a task that must be completed and then would think of another associated task, then another; until, I would finally realize that my mind has been running around like a mad man.  This would often result in not being very relaxed and feeling a bit agitated at the end of the session.

Previously, I used to practice breath counting and would work my way up to 100 without losing focus.  Lately, I have modified things a bit and now do sets of 25 breaths.  How does breath counting work? Here's a nice summary:

We begin working on ourselves by counting the breath, counting each inhalation and each exhalation, beginning with one and counting up to ten. When you get to ten, come back to one and start all over. The only agreement that you make with yourself in this process is that if your mind begins to wander - if you become aware that what you're doing is chasing thoughts - you will look at the thought, acknowledge it, and then deliberately and consciously let it go and begin the count again at one.

Source: Zen Mountain Monastery - Zen Meditation Techniques

Easy, eh? The key practice about this one is to start back at 1 if the mind drifts away from the counting. I can honestly say during my last standing session, I did not start over once!  Right now, I am employing this technique in 3 zhan zhuang postures: (1) wuji, (2) universal post, (3) hold the belly. Over time, I will incorporate all 8 yiquan postures, but 3 works well for me now.

The really cool thing I noticed instantly about the breath counting is that it really brought to my attention some tension spots on my body.  I carry quite a bit of tension in a small spot about the size of a tennis ball in the back side of my right shoulder and right lower back.  Additionally, I felt quite a bit of tension in my right wrist.  A lot of these make sense for me as I sit and work at a computer a majority of the day and I am right handed :)

Another cool thing is that after I finished the 3 postures, 25 minutes had passed! Instead of using a timer or a clock to gauge my training, I use my own body.  I am sure that over time, this may extend even longer as my breathing deepens.

Last night as I was in the zhan zhuang 'embrace the tree' posture, my wife walks over to me and turns her head a bit sideways. She then proceeds to correct my hand positioning. First, she adjusted my left hand as it was sticking out farther than my right. Then she adjusts my right hand a bit higher and finally, she taps me on my left shoulder. Wow.. what an eye opener.

After my standing correction a couple of years back from Chen Xiaowang, I was mainly focusing on aligning my center line, that is making sure the line formed by my nose and belly button where centered between my feet. Amazing how I was unable to note that my hands were not aligned correctly. Luckily my wife did note that my centerline was fine and my back was fine.. whew.

There is a chart in The Way of Energy that lists some sensations and things that can happen during one's zhan zhuang. One of them is one hand being higher than the other.. yup, that's me. Another one that I had a while back was some shaking. This was probably about 5 years ago, but I remember after a standing session one of my classmates noted that my hands were shaking. I told him I did not realize it since I had not felt the shaking and I was doing zhan zhuang with my eyes closed. Eventually, the shaking surpassed and now I just stand funny.. :)