Tai-Chi Principles

Principles!
[Path to Mastery 3/4/10 – Wk25 D4 (Str 9.12.09)(Ph2 11.15.09)]

Continuing our Tai-Chi Journey:

Principles! It is the principles that make Tai-Chi what it is.

It was once explained to me that principles are those things that are always true. Even if the circumstances change, the principle remains the same regardless, such as gravity. It’s a principle that things will always fall down, not up.

There are principles that govern Tai-Chi. Thus, Tai-Chi is not a set of forms. Tai-Chi is a set of principles. There are many different Tai-Chi styles, but they all follow the same principles. You can make any martial art Tai-Chi as long as you use Tai-Chi principles. Thus, it may look different but in actuality be the same, and it may look the same but in reality be different.

There are many Tai-Chi classics on the principles that govern Tai-Chi. There are Tai-Chi principles on how to do Tai-Chi, how to learn best, how to cultivate your energy, how to do pushing hands, how to fight, how to cultivate your body, and many more.

On the whole, there is the self cultivation part of the system, and the interactive cultivation of the system. For simplicity, we will call it the meditational side, and martial side. The meditational side would be the Chi-Gong, standing meditation, forms (moving meditation), Nei-Gong (internal cultivation = energy meditation). The interactive side would be pushing hands, san-shou (free hand 2 person form).

Now, since Tai-Chi is an energy martial art, how well the energy flows through your body, and how well you can utilize it is the gauge of success. So, your sense and strength of Chi is your gauge. By the way, in case you are not familiar with Chi, just replace the word Chi with energy for now.

If Chi is your gauge, there are 4 areas of cultivation for it in Tai-Chi:
1. Breathing
2. Alignment (posture)
3. Relaxation (state of muscle)
4. Slow Movement (or synchronous movement)

When these 4 areas of cultivation are being done properly, you will know whether you are doing them correctly or not by how well the Chi is flowing and how strong it is.

I will start covering the principles in each area starting tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Principle's Principle!
[Path to Mastery 3/5/10 – Wk25 D5 (Str 9.12.09)(Ph2 11.15.09)]

Continuing our Tai-Chi Journey:
So starting today, I will begin our journey on the Tai-Chi principle governing the area of Alignment in our system.

Alignment governs the principles regarding posture.

I will first outline the Alignment Principles below. These may sound weird. These are transliterated as much as possible, because in my experience interpretation always leaves out too much information. Transliteration may not sound pretty, but you will get a better feel of the thinking behind it. Each word is a Chinese character. In case I needed to use more words to translate the character, I used colon signs. In case different words could be used to translate, I put the implied meaning in parenthesis. This means the Chinese character has both meanings.

Principles Governing Upper Body:
1. Empty Spirit Summit Strong
2. Tail Bone Centered and Upright
3. Contain Chest Raise Back
4. Settle Shoulders Drop Elbow
5. Squat (settle) Wrist Open (extend) Fingers

Principles Governing Lower Body:
6. Chi at Dan-Tien
7. Relax Waist and Squat Crotch
8. Round Crotch and bend Knee
9. Insubstantial Substantial Distinguish Clearly
10. Foot Palm Paste(Stick) Earth

Principle Governing the Whole Body:
1. Body Body Center Upright

Hope you enjoyed these names!

Now before we dive into these, I need to mention that there is one principle that governs all of these principles. It is the foundation cornerstone that governs all of the principles.

This principle says:

Shen Yi Chi Xue Li (Sprint Mind Energy Blood Strength(Muscle))

According to this principles, the spirit leads the mind, the mind leads the energy, the energy leads the blood, and the blood leads the muscles.

For practical purposes, the key thing to remember here for our study is Yi Chi Li.

This basically says that you should use the mind to lead the energy, and then the energy will lead the body. In short, these principles have little to do with your body. All the alignment needs to happen in your mind first before the body even moves.

Starting tomorrow, I will show how the principle of Yi Chi Li applies to all these principles. As we move on in our journey, it’s going to become clearer and clearer.

Principled Upper Body!
[Path to Mastery 3/8/10 – Wk26 D1 (Str 9.12.09)(Ph2 11.15.09)]

Continuing our Tai-Chi Journey:

So, today we will be covering the principles concerning the upper body.

Principles Governing Upper Body are:
1. Empty Spirit Summit Strong
2. Tail Bone Centered and Upright
3. Contain Chest Raise Back
4. Settle Shoulders Drop Elbow
5. Squat (settle) Wrist Open (extend) Fingers

Since the mind leads the energy and the energy leads the body, these poetic phrases are meant for the mind to lead the energy, so your body follows.

Empty Spirit Summit Strong is often translated as empty spirit reaches summit, or insubstantial spirit/energy reaches summit. When I learned this principle, I was told to imagine that there is a golden string attached to my crown and that your head is being pulled up by that golden string. (This crown in Chinese is called Bai-Hei. This is where your skull fused together. You can find it by drawing a line from the tips of your ears until they meet on top of your face.)

When you picture this in your mind, you will feel yourself getting slowly taller. It will feel as if your head rises like a tortoise's head lengthens out of it's shell. As the neck lengthens, you will feel your shoulders drop and your arms lengthen as well. If you stay with this sensation, you will feel your entire spine lengthen, and eventually you should feel like your spine is suspended in mid-air. In the beginning this may be a subtle feeling, but eventually it becomes a very distinct feeling. Often, people will feel their spine getting warm and then the spine loosening up.

The interesting thing about this whole phenomenon is that even though there were physical changes, it was initiated only by the mind. Just by imagining that the head was being raised by a golden string from the crown, your spine lengthened, your body relaxed and you started feeling more energy in your body.

This principle is called Empty Spirit Summit Strong, because when done right, you feel a very strong sensation of energy at your crown and it feels as if the energy is pushing you up or pulling you up depending on how you feel it, and the rest of the body is just hanging from your crown. Thus, the summit of your head, the crown is strong with the empty spirit, the energy.

There are exercises for the mind. There are exercises for the body. There are exercises for your energy. The power of Tai-Chi is that Tai-chi exercises the mind, the body, and the energy in one exercise. By learning how to visualize things in the mind, and then letting your visualization materialize through your energy and through your body allows you to let your mind and body unify.

You will find the power of this as we go through the principles and as you practice it more and more.

You will experience your concentration becoming stronger, your energy flow through your body becoming more distinct and powerful, and your body becoming more limber, stronger, and agile.

More tomorrow!

The Crown and the Tailbone!
[Path to Mastery 3/9/10 – Wk26 D2 (Str 9.12.09)(Ph2 11.15.09)]

Continuing our Tai-Chi Journey:

Yesterday we covered ‘Empty Spirit Summit Strong’. Today we will be covering ‘Tailbone Centered and Upright of the Upper Body' Principle.

All the upper body principles hinge on these 2 principles. These principles are really the opposite side of the same coin. They are the same principle described form the opposite direction: The first one from the top and the second one from the bottom.

Now after you implement ‘Empty Spirit Summit Strong’, when your spine is suspended enough, your tailbone drops. If it drops properly it will feel as if your tailbone is centered, and as if your tailbone extends between your legs all the way down and falls between your feet. This sensation is called ‘Tailbone Centered and Upright’.

Ideally speaking just by doing ‘Empty Spirit Summit Strong’, you should automatically get ‘Tailbone Centered and Upright’. So this principle doesn’t exist by itself but exists as a feedback to show whether you are doing ‘Empty Spirit Summit Strong’ correctly.

Now, if you have stiff back, and the energy is not flowing too well, then you do use ‘Tailbone Centered and Upright’ to let the energy flow and correct and lengthen your spine. You imagine that the tailbone is extending down toward the center of the earth, and you will feel your tailbone loosening up and dropping. Another method is to imagine that there is a weight attached to your tailbone and it is pulling you down. In other words, from your belly button up, you should feel you are lengthening up, and from your belly button down, you should feel your tailbone is dropping.

When your tailbone drops between your legs and connects with the center of the earth, you will feel your feet are rooted to the ground. You will feel as if you are anchored. This is because you are! When the tailbone drops properly, it transfers the force coming down your spine through your legs to your feet in a manner so that any force coming into you is transferred straight to the floor. This phenomenon is called rooting. When this happens someone can push you and it will only secure you stronger to the floor. You won’t have to dig your heel in or use any strength. The natural structure of the body when held properly will do it by itself.

When you implement the first principle, ‘Empty Spirit Summit Strong’, it allows your upper body to hand and rest from your suspended spine and deeply relaxes and let go. Energetically, it connects your crown to the universal energy around you. This is referred to as connecting to the Heavens.

When the second principle, ‘Tailbone Centered and Upright’ is implemented, then the body is balanced and supported and thus can again deeply relax. Your body cannot relax without having a firm foundation and being well supported. For instance, if you are trying to balance yourself while standing on a ball, you will find it very hard to relax. The reverse is also true. When your tailbone is dropped, it actually produces a sensation as if you are sitting on a stool. You feel very relaxed and settled. Energetically, the sensation that your tailbone is connected to the center of the earth allows you to connect to the energy from the earth and allows your energy centerline to open up between your crown and your tailbone. Eventually, it is the tailbone that connects to the earth center but your Hui-yin point (your perineum) that connects to the center of the earth, and that is when your centerline truly opens up.

That is enough on the tailbone! More tomorrow!

Chest and Back!
[Path to Mastery 3/10/10 – Wk26 D3 (Str 9.12.09)(Ph2 11.15.09)]

Continuing our Tai-Chi Journey:

Once you take care of your head and tailbone, you take care of your chest and back.

The principle today is called ‘Contain Chest Raise Back’. When the empty spirit is strong in the summit of your head, the crown, then the neck lengthens followed by the rest of the spine. When that happens, your collar bone rises and your chest lengthens. Now, as the spine lengthens, your back becomes expansive. When you back expands, and your collar bone rises, your chest relaxes and recedes. This explanation may not be clear just from reading it, but when it happens you will know exactly what I am talking about.

Now here is the mental imagery that will help you get this principle in case you had trouble with the explanation above.
1. Imagine that your crown is being pulled up by a golden string.
2. As your head is pulled up by the string, and you feel your neck lengthen, you should feel your chin being pulled in. In case you don’t feel this, your neck is too tight. Relax, and tuck in your chin.
3. As your head rises and your chin tucks in, imagine that your back is up against a wall, and your spine is becoming so straight that the head shifts back so it is touching the wall. The key here is that as your head shifts back to touch the wall, you are very likely to raise your chin. Be sure to avoid this. Check yourself against a reflection to make sure you are not raising your chin as your head shifts back.
4. Then imagine that the crown of the head aligns with the center of your body all the way to your Hui-yin (perineum). When the head shifts back, it sits directly in line with the spine and the pelvis. This allows for your back and shoulder muscles to relax since the muscles no longer need to work in order to pull your head up from falling.
5. Now imagine that your shoulder blades are drifting apart from each other. If you look in a mirror, you should see your shoulder blade edges disappear and your back becoming an expansive roundish surface. You should kind of feel as if your back is that of a turtle shell. When this happens, your collar bone will feel as if it lengthens, and as your collar bones lengthen, you will feel your chest relax, and the relaxation sinking to the lower abdomen (This is called Chi Sinks to Dan-Tien, however the specifics will be covered later in the lower body principles). As the back expands, the chest, which consists of ribs, have enough space to just hang naturally from the spine, while the shoulders have drifted apart to either side enough to create more space in between. This creates a feeling as if everything is just hanging from the spine.

If you have been paying attention, you would have noticed that both ‘Tailbone Centered and Upright’ and ‘Contain Chest Raise Back’ are really the same principles as ‘Empty Spirit Summit Strong’. This will be a reoccurring theme as you study Tai-Chi. You will notice that the principles are really just describing different aspects of the same thing. This is what is fascinating about Tai-Chi. Tai-Chi can become as detailed as you want, but can be as simple as to be described with just one principle. Hope you are curious as to the rest of the secrets that make up ‘Empty Spirit Summit Strong’!

To be continued tomorrow!

Shoulders and Elbows!
[Path to Mastery 3/11/10 – Wk26 D4 (Str 9.12.09)(Ph2 11.15.09)]

Continuing our Tai-Chi Journey:

Today you will find out how Shoulders and Elbows come off of a strong summit!

So here is the visualization method for ‘Settle Shoulder Drop Elbow’:
1. As you let your head rise using the golden string, you feel your neck lengthen, and eventually the rest of the spine.
2. At some point, when the spine is erect enough, you will all of a sudden feel the shoulders drop off your neck. Yup, that’s right. You will realize that your neck was scrunched in between your shoulders or vice versa. As you pull out your neck from between your shoulders, the shoulders lengthen and then drop away from the spine. Now, if this is not happening, most likely your chin is not tucked in, your throat and neck are too tight, and your head is not set far back enough for it to be balancing on top of your spine so the extra tension that’s been holding it from falling off will let go.
3. Now in addition, as the neck is lengthening, you can imagine that the shoulders are like the round asian roof tiles and that they are lightly settling down to the bottom. Then, imagine that your shoulder tips are starting to drift away from your ears, and as they start to drift away, feel (imagine) your collar bones lengthening. This will drop your shoulders and let them rest.
4. Now imagine that someone grabbed the skin on the tip of your elbow and started gently pulling on it so that your humerus (your upper arm bone) started lengthening away from your armpit. You may also imagine that there is a weight attached to the elbow and it is hanging away from your shoulders. This will allow your shoulder to drop even further and relax even further. It will also create a hollow sensation in your armpit, and if the elbow is sufficiently extended enough, and your shoulder blades are apart from each other as you learned in ‘Contain Chest Raise Back’, then you will feel your elbows connecting to your stomach through your rib cage along the line of your lats.

Now in reality, when the ‘Empty Spirit Summit Strong’ is properly implemented, the elongation of the spine will cause the shoulders to drop and settle naturally, and the elbows will naturally extend out as the back becomes expansive from the shoulder blades and clavicle (collar bone) hanging away from the spine as it extends. Also, ‘Contain Chest Raise Back’ is a function of the elbows extending out and thus creating the shoulder blades to drift apart from each other so that the effects of ‘Contain Chest Raise Back’ can happen. In short, ‘Contain Chest Raise Back’ and ‘Settle Shoulder Drop Elbow’ are exactly the same principle in which one describes the condition of the Chest and Back, and the other describes the condition of the Shoulders and Elbow when the Spine is properly lengthened.

Starting to see a theme here? We’ll see tomorrow!

Wrists and Fingers!
[Path to Mastery 3/15/10 – Wk27 D1 (Str 9.12.09)(Ph2 11.15.09)]

Continuing our Tai-Chi Journey:

‘Squat (settle) Wrist Open (extend) Fingers’ is the name of today’s principle.

So last week you found out how your tailbone; your chest and back; and your shoulders and elbows were coming off of your Empty Spirit that had made your Summit Strong. The challenge today will be to show how your wrist and fingers are also connected to the crown of your head, or the ‘Empty Spirit Summit Strong’.

Typically the visualization for this principle is simple: Imagine that your finger tips are attached to a string that comes down to about your shoulder height and is secured to the ceiling. Then imagine that you drop your wrist down, while your fingers are not moving because of the string. This is called ‘Squat Wrist Open Fingers’.

Should be done, right? Not quite. The visualization that is most often given as dropping the wrist is actually incorrect. It actually is dropping the forearm. That is correct. It should be both the elbow and the wrist that is dropped. You should imagine that you are standing next to a tall railing and that you are dropping your forearm as if your wrist is trying to squat on the railing while you are keeping your finger tips in the same place.

The visualization usually given for fingers is for your fingers to extend, or your finger tips being pulled up by a string. That is only partially accurate. A more accurate visualization is that of your fingers opening up as if they were the petals on a flower opening up, with the center of your palm being the center of the flower. Your palm has to open up and you have to feel your fingers opening up from the palm out. The fingers will extend, but you have to feel the fingers expand as well. A good way to imagine it is as if you fingers are spreading over a basketball (without your fingers spreading out from each other too much). If you feel webbing expand between your fingers and you feel the width of your finger expanding, while your fingers are getting longer, you have the right feeling. Most of the time people describe this as just extended, but the actual meaning is open.

So how is this related to the spine? Well, this is where to me it gets fascinating. Try this. Drop your wrist while keeping your fingers open. Start feeling what your shoulder feels like. Now drop your elbow while maintaining your fingers open and your wrist dropped. You will notice that when you had just dropped your wrist while not dropping your elbow, your shoulders probably didn’t feel as settled. When you drop the elbow, you probably felt that the armpit was hollower and felt that the shoulder was more relaxed and more settled. Now, while maintaining the elbow and wrist in place, make your fingers go limp. You will notice that the top of your shoulders became tight and the arm will feel heavier.

The placement of your wrist and your fingers affect how well your shoulders can relax, and thus affect ‘Settle Shoulder Drop Elbow’. As we have been discussing, ‘Settle Shoulder Drop Elbow’ is just another description of the physical body when the spine is properly aligned.

Isn’t it amazing how the body is connected in such a way that parts of the body that are seeming completely separate from each other have such influence on each other? So here is another revealing truth about the principles. The principles are not a technique to use the body as a tool. The principles are a feedback, a standard that helps you recognize whether you are natural or not. So, imagine this: the tip of your crown is hanging from the heavens and you are like a puppet hanging from above, you let the rest of your body hang. This is when there is no extra tension, how your chest and back would sit, how your shoulders and elbows would sit, and how your wrist and fingers would be.

Didn’t think there would be so much to wrist and fingers did you?

Chi Sinks to Dan-Tien
[Path to Mastery 3/16/10 – Wk27 D2 (Str 9.12.09)(Ph2 11.15.09)]

Continuing our Tai-Chi Journey:

Starting today we will be covering the Alignment principles concerning the lower body. Today’s principle will be ‘Chi Sinks to Dan-Tien’.

Let have a quick review. There are 4 areas that need to be trained to enhance and cultivate your energy. We call these 4 cultivation areas the BARS: Breathing, Alignment, Relaxation, Slow/Synchronous Movement. Currently we are covering the Alignment principles. Within the Alignment principles, we have covered the principles of the Upper Body:

1) ‘Empty Spirit Summit Strong’ (Covered on 3/8)
2) ‘Tailbone centered and upright’ (Covered on 3/9)
3) ‘Contain chest Raise Back’ (Covered 3/10)
4) ‘Settle Shoulder Drop Elbow’ (Covered 3/11)
5) ‘Squat Wrist Open Fingers’ (Covered 3/15)

We also discovered that all these principles are just one principle, each describing different aspects of the same principle.

Now, there are also 5 Lower Body principles:

1)’Chi Sinks to Dan-Tien’
2)’Relax Waist and Squat Crotch’
3)’Round Crotch and Bend Knee’
4)’Insubstantial Substantial Distinguish Clearly’
5)’Foot Palm Paste(Stick) Earth’

Let’s start on our journey of the Lower Body principles. The first of the principles is ‘Chi Sinks to Dan-Tien’.

Two words that need to be explained, Chi and Dan-Tien. Chi is the Chinese word for air or energy. The Chinese character for Chi is the symbol of rice with steam rising from the rice. The steam is the Chi. This kind of gives you and idea of how the Chinese view Chi. I would like to note that even though the word Chi means air, it is closer to the meaning of energy and not oxygen as we are accustomed to thinking nowadays. It is important to note that when this word formed way back when, they did not have a concept of this gas called oxygen.

Here is a better way to get a feel for the word Chi. Imagine that these Taoists are observing what the breath does to the body, and how the energy interact within the body and outside the body. They realize that the energy is invisible, and they also note that whatever they breathe in is invisible. They also note that depending on how they breathe, their body heats up, softens, and this heat or energy circulates around the body. They don’t know what it is, but they know it is invisible and it has power. They have to call it something. So guess what, they call it “Chi’.

So, from a modern perspective if you look at the word Chi as the catch all word for the phenomenon of energy you have an idea. Chi describes all the different sensations or phenomenon that you get to experience in the body that is not visible. I think the new hip modern word to describe this in English is energy. When you see the world Chi, you can safely substitute the word energy.

Dan-Tien is another one of these mysterious words. Dan is the word for red, and Tien is the word for field (like farm land). The Character for Dan is the world Sun and Moon put together. It is supposed to symbolize the essence and source of all energy. So Dan-Tien is the field where Chi can be cultivated. Dan-Tien is the field of Chi. The location of the Dan-Tien is 3 finger width from your belly button from the front view. From the side view, it is a third of the distance of the cross section from the front of your body.

Here is the visualization:

1) Imagine that the crown of your head is being pulled up by a golden string. Yup, that’s right. ‘Empty Spirit Summit Strong’!

2) Once you feel your spine is suspended, imagine your forehead opens up. You may imagine that the area a little above the space between your eyebrows has a dot, and that dot expands into a big circle until it spreads to your temples. You should feel as if there is a glowing ball right behind your forehead as if there was another eyeball. Some of you may know this is called the 3rd eye, or the 7th Chakra. In the Taoist system this is called upper Dan-Tien. There are 3 centers, or 3 Dan-Tiens in the body. The upper, middle and lower Dan-Tien. The middle Dan-Tien is center of the Cest. The lower Dan-Tien is the Dan-Tien mentioned above. The word lower Dan-Tien is used when the other 2 need to be mentioned.

3) Place your tongue on the roof of your pallet behind your teeth. Make sure that the tongue does not touch the teeth.

4) After opening the upper Dan-Tien, use your mind to guide a line down the center of the front of your body. As you guide your mind down, you will notice that there is a heavy sensation that follows. Guide it down until you reach your Dan-Tien. You will feel the heavy sensation sinking to your Dan-Tien. When the sensation reaches your Dan-Tien, you will feel a sinking sensation and the insides of your lower abdominal walls letting go. That letting go makes the lower Dan-Tien, or the abdominal walls feel like a full hot air balloon.

In the beginning, some of you may feel this sensation and some of your may not. Stay with it and you will feel the power of this exercise as your cultivation of your Dan-Tien deepens. If you don’t feel this in the beginning, keep up with the visualization, but at the physical level, when you perform ‘Contain Chest Raise Back’, you will feel your chest relax and the relaxation sinking to your lower abdomen. That is another way to do this. Continuing on the same theme, if ‘Empty Spirit Summit Strong’ is done is properly, and ‘Contain Chest Raise Back’ happens, and then you will feel ‘Chi Sinks to Dan-Tien’.

Aren’t you curious how the rest of the principles are tied to the same principle?

Relax Waist Squat Crotch
[Path to Mastery 3/17/10 – Wk27 D3 (Str 9.12.09)(Ph2 11.15.09)]

Continuing our Tai-Chi Journey:

I hope you got a kick out of today’s title ‘Relax Waist and Squat Crotch’.

So, yesterday I covered the nature of Chi, and the existence of the Dan-Tien. And then we reviewed how ‘Chi Sink to Dan-Tien’ is related to the rest of the principles that have been introduced so far.

If you thought I covered all the secrets of ‘Chi Sink to Dan-Tien’, you are mistaken. Yesterday, I only covered the visual aspect of the principle. I couldn’t tell you all the secrets even if I wanted to because I don’t remember all the details unless they are triggered by some stimulus. I am a natural walking secret! ;) Moral of the story? Ask lots of question until it’s been all covered.

So, here is how the rest of the secret of the ‘Chi Sink to Dan-Tien’ was triggered. As I was contemplating how to teach ‘Relax Waist and Squat Crotch’ in relation to ‘Chi Sink to Dan-Tien’, I remembered I needed to cover some more details before I could do it. Lame isn’t it? I know.

Here we go:
1) Perform ‘Empty Spirit Summit Strong’. Now you should have mastered this concept. If you don’t know what I am talking about, go back and read the blog on 3/8.
2) Perform ‘Contain Chest Raise Back’.
3) Perform ‘ Settle Shoulder Drop Elbows’.

When you do this, you should by now feel your chest is relaxed and your lower abdomen is feeling full from your relaxation having sunk to your pelvis. This is nothing more than your diaphragm relaxing and the breath dropping lower and your organs relaxing and resting on your pelvis as they should. Now, we covered portions of this yesterday. Here is the extra information. When your chest is sufficiently relaxed, you will feel your rib cage dropping. It will feel as if your rib cage is dropping into your abdominal wall. When your elbow is dropped or extended properly, you will feel that your elbow is connected to your solar plexus. Only then will you feel as if the solar plexus is empty. To add some more detail, you should feel that your solar plexus area is relaxed and as if it is hollow inside. Some consider this to mean ‘Contain Chest Raise Back’. This may be because ‘Contain Chest’ is also translated ‘Hollow Chest. Any way, at this point, you should feel as if you have a Buddha belly.

When you reach this point, then you will feel your lower back letting go. Waist in the oriental concept is not the belt line. Waist is your lower back. It is the entire area that is between your ribs and your hips (pelvis). When your lower abdomen engages, and your rib cage relaxes to the point it hides in your abdominal walls, you will feel that your lower back lets go and relaxes. This is because you lower back is supported. In short, ‘Relax Back’ is the description of ‘Chi Sink to Dan-Tien’ from the back. Key to remember, you cannot achieve either ‘Relax Back’ or ‘Chi Sink to Dan-Tien’ without ‘Drop Elbow’.

Now to the Squat Crotch. When you lower back is relaxed, you will feel your sides below your armpit relaxing all the way down to the side of your legs. When that happens, you will feel your pelvis relaxing. When that happens, bend your knees a little bit and sit on your legs. Just imagine that you are sitting on a high stool. Make sure that you feel as if your hip bones are facing forward and you will feel that the curve in your lower back disappears. When the lower back flattens, this is called ‘Upper and Lower Body Become One’ or ‘Top and Bottom Mutually Follow’. More on that later.

As you get better, your legs will get straighter and straighter and eventually you will be able to squat with your legs straight.

When you achieve ‘Relax Waist Squat Crotch’, then you will feel as if your pelvis is floating across the air as if you are a hover craft when you walk or do the form. The level of your head will stop bobbing up and down, and level out. Your balance will be steady, and you will feel rooted and settled at the same time.

Tomorrow, ‘Round Crotch Bend Knee’!!!!!!!!

Round Crotch Bend Knee
[Path to Mastery 3/18/10 – Wk27 D4 (Str 9.12.09)(Ph2 11.15.09)]

Continuing our Tai-Chi Journey:

One of my students and good friends told me that I only get away with some of the things I say because of my Asian accent. I think these Crotch subjects definitely qualify for those subjects that I can talk about naturally because I have an Asian accent. So listen to these words with an accent. It will sound more authentic!

So, we are on a roll with Crotch principles. Yesterday I covered ‘Relax Waist Squat Crotch’, today we will be covering ‘Round Crotch and Bend Knee’.

So far we have been covering the principles from simple straight forward visualization principles that allow you to lead your chi. As we covered in the very first day of the principles series, all the principles are covered by one, and only one principle. Which one is it? You thought ‘Empty Spirit Summit Strong’ didn’t you? Go back and check the blog on 3/5, principles principle.

If you did remember correctly, congratulations! The principle of all principles is ‘Yi Chi Li’, which stands for ‘Mind Chi Strength’, simply meaning that the mind leads Chi, and that Chi leads your muscles. Visualization is one of the most effective ways to lead your energy.

The body is a very complex organism. To consciously coordinate all the different parts of the body moving together while making sure your timing and all the different angles are correct is too much for your brain to handle, especially if you are dealing with an opponent. Visualization allows for a simple mind picture to simplify the coordination of all the different aspect of the body. Here is an example of this concept. I had a friend who was learning how to run. She would keep pounding her heel into the ground, and she had trouble because of it. She received advice from her friends who were consummate runners and she even received advice from professionals. They taught her the mechanism of running, of how to land with the heel and to go heel-toe, heel-toe. They taught her how to coordinate her arms and legs. It wasn’t helping and she was frustrated. I told her to just keep her eyes on the horizon and start running at a comfortable pace, and to forget the body mechanics. I told her to imagine that as she started running towards the horizon, the horizon was coming towards her. As the horizon came towards her, it started merging with her feet and that as the horizon merged with her feet, it started pulling her forward. I told her that the floor would come towards her and merge with her feet and she would start flowing towards the horizon as if the floor and she were one.

You should have seen her face the next day. She was ecstatic! She said that her feet stopped pounding and she started flowing! Now she is an excellent runner. This is some of the Tai-Chi visual principles for running. If you stop to consider, it is not easy to control the body when you are going at a fast speed to precisely land and smoothly coordinate the heel toe transition. Most of us learned how to run when we were kids and hardly think about it anymore, but if you actually consciously try to run heel-toe heel-toe, you will notice that most of you will get stiffer and start pounding the floor too. This goes to show how much of even our simple movements are highly complex movements that we don’t think about it anymore because we mastered them when we were little kids. The visualization takes the burden of having to individually coordinate the different parts of the body and simplifies things.

Today, we will depart from the straight forward extension principles. Today we will create balls!

So, here is today’s visualization practice:
1) Imagine your crown being pulled up by a golden string (Ok, maybe one simple extension).
2) Now as your spine lengthens, and your shoulders drop away, imagine that there is a tennis ball in your arm pits creating a hollow sensation in your armpits. When this happens, you will feel your arms lengthen. When that happens imagine your arms on the side are comfortably resting on a large ball as if you had a giant Buddha belly.
3) When you perform ‘Contain Chest Raise Back’, imagine that your upper back and your lats are part of a giant ball and is expanding. This should make your chest feel so relaxed that you can imagine that your chest cavity is empty and there is an empty ball sitting in your chest cavity.
4) ‘Chi Sink to Dan-Tien’ should make your Dan-Tien feel like a ball with a black hole at it’s center.
5) Now that Chi is in Dan-Tien (A shorter way to translate ‘Chi Sink to Dan-Tien’), you should feel Relax Waist Squat Crotch.
6) Yesterday I explained that your legs should be bent and your tail bone dropped, and your small of your back should flatten out as your lower abdomen becomes engaged. When this happens, you should feel as if there is a ball supporting the inside of your legs. This is called ‘Round Crotch’. If you don’t feel it, imagine that you have a tube of balloon that comfortably rounding your legs and supporting the inside of your legs. Now you should not round it in a exaggerated manner. It has to be natural. It is the sensation of feeling a ball of energy between your legs.
7) The knees should be bent comfortably. You should feel the natural springiness of your legs through the bent legs as if they are springs. The knees being bent should make you slightly bow legged, but only enough to make the knees be directly above your arches. So, if you are standing shoulder width apart or more with your legs, you bow them enough so that seen from the front, you knees are directly above your arch. This creates direct support from the ground for the knees, and since the knees are not at odd angles, they are well supported. This is what creates the sensation of having a ball between your legs. This is called ‘Round Crotch Bent Knees’. It is this principle that creates the rooting power and the springy power generation that make Tai-Chi powerful as a martial art.

The application principles which we will be covering later talk about how the power is generated in the legs, control by the waist, expressed through the fingers. The ‘Round Crotch Bent Knees’, is analogous to the root of the tree. The trunk above the root can only shake as vigorously as the strength of its roots. As you train this principle, these words will become clearer to you.

Insubstantial Substantial Distinguish Clearly
[Path to Mastery 3/19/10 – Wk27 D5 (Str 9.12.09)(Ph2 11.15.09)]

Continuing our Tai-Chi Journey:

‘Insubstantial Substantial Distinguish Clearly’ means that your weight is either on one foot or the other.

Pretty boring right? Why would they even have such a lame principle after all those deep mysterious and powerful principles?

Nothing beats simplicity. What was simple at one time has depth a year later. The principle Yi-Chi-Li, when I first learned it was the blandest principle ever. I mean seriously, I thought to myself, who doesn’t know that already? How can that be a secret? Now I know it is a secret, and now I understand it is the best kept secret.

‘Insubstantial Substantial Distinguish Clearly’ is the same. For now, use it as feedback to let you know whether you are getting the other principles correctly or not. When you shift from one foot to the other, when you are done with the move, if you are well centered, you should be able to pick up the other foot without moving your upper body at all. If someone was just looking at your upper body, they should not have been able to tell that you picked up the other foot. If your hip has to tilt to one side or the other for you to be able to do this, that means your stance is no good. By learning to shift clearly to one side and the back to the other, you learn how to keep your structure balanced while shifting from one leg to the other.

Now of course there are a lot of moves where you don’t shift all the way, and your weight distribution is only 60:40 or 40:60. The deeper meaning of ‘Insubstantial Substantial Distinguish Clearly’ is that you engage only one leg at a time. When you shift forward you push with your back leg only. When you shift backward, you push with your front foot. This creates unified power. The rest of the body is relaxed so it doesn’t fight itself anymore. A good example is that of the unbendable arm. Try this with a partner. You stand with your feet a shoulder width apart, and implement ‘Empty Spirit Summit Strong’ and ‘Chi in Dan-Tien’. Then extend the arm out from your center, and relax it. Then in your mind extend the arm as if the fingers are going to lengthen until they touch the wall opposite you. Then try to have your partner bend your arm. You will find that it is either impossible for your partner to bend your arm, or it is extremely difficult to do so. Now, clench your fist and tighten your arm and keep it stiff. Then have your partner bend it. You’ll notice it is a lot easier to bend the arm. This is because the bicep and the tricep were both engaged and they are antagonistic muscles to each other. In the same manner, if the body is relaxed then the body will not fight itself, and when you are shifting you only engage one leg or the other, the direction and power generated from the body is streamlined and clear.

Last, the reason you should not stand equally on both legs is because when you stand more to one side or the other, it creates mobility. You are not a sitting duck. Because you are relaxed, when you stand on one leg and you get pushed, you flow from one move to the other naturally.

Flow is what creates energy. By maintaining ‘Insubstantial Substantial Distinguish Clearly’, you learn how to create flow while being relaxed and maintaining your core integrity!

Foot Sole Stick Earth
[Path to Mastery 3/22/10 – Wk28 D1 (Str 9.12.09)(Ph2 11.15.09)]

Continuing our Tai-Chi Journey:

‘Foot Sole Stick Earth’. Straight forward.

This principle means that you have to feel as if the sole of your foot is stuck to the ground as if it is a suction cup. I had to look up the dictionary to be sure but ‘Sole’ apparently indicates the part of the foot between the ball of your foot and the heel.

This is interesting because in Chinese, the word sole that they use means the whole bottom of the foot. But interestingly enough, the Tai-Chi Classics say that your bubbling well should be stuck to the floor. The bubbling well is the place of the foot that goes in when you try to make a fist with your foot. When you imagine that you are standing on your bubbling well, you will feel as if your sole is a suction cup. So for our purpose, sole works not only fine, but might even work better.

Here are some key things to know about ‘Foot Sole Stick Earth’.

It’s not about the foot, but your knee. ‘Huh?’ Did I get your attention? I hope I did. That’s right. It’s not about the foot. It’s about how you position your knee. This is the secret. If you position your knee properly, you get the ‘Foot Sole Stick Earth’ phenomenon.

Now as you stand shoulder width apart, visualize your knee lining up with your bubbling well. That’s it. That is the secret. If you do this simple step right, this is what gives you the rooting power and the sensation of your sole sticking to the floor.

If you are not sure what the bubbling well is, line your knee up with the balls of your feel and stand on the balls of your feet, while your heel is still touching the floor. You may wonder how this creates a suction cup feeling if you are not standing on the whole foot equally. When the knee is over the ankle, the foot and the leg up to the knee creates a very secure base. When the base is secure, everything above the knee can relax. You will find out that if your knee is aching from practicing it is often because your knee was not balanced over your bubbling well, and the weight was not falling on the bubbling well/ball of your feet. This alignment secures the knee.

Once the knee is secure, your thigh and hamstrings relax, and you will feel the ‘Chi Sink to Dan-Tien’. Without a secure base, without support, you cannot properly relax. It’s like laying down on your back. When you are laying down in a good bed, you can feel the entire body relaxing and then just basking in the pleasure. This is because your entire back is supported and your muscles don’t need to engage as much to keep the body balanced. The same is true when you are standing. When your base is secure, it helps you to be better balanced and thus be more relaxed. The more secure your base, the deeper you can relax.

For training purposes, you can stand heavier on your heel. Standing on the heel will bring more structural strength and muscular tension. I often find that people also get their knee pain this way. However, it is a good supplemental training since it trains different aspects of your structure. Standing on the whole foot will calm you and deeply relax you more, but your stance will be higher. This is a good one to practice if you are feeling like you need rest. Last, you may practice with your weight primarily on the balls of your feet and your toes. When you are on your bubbling well, unlike being on your heel, it creates jing, springy power. When you are on your toes, the springy power and mobility amplifies. On any given day, your body will tell you which method you should use to train that day.

Now, one important note is that the alignment of the knee and the bubbling well is not a physical alignment. There is a physical alignment, but it is more a feeling that your knee is aligned with the bubbling well. There is a connection you should feel from the bubbling well to your knee. Another thing you should mind is that you should never stress this connection physically. For instance, in the beginning it is fine to stand on the balls of your feet where you feel a lot of pressure on the ball of your feet. But as you get more secure in your sense of the connection, you should lessen the physical pressure until there is no physical pressure and only a sense of connection with no extra physical burden. Tai-Chi is a mental martial art. The mind intends it and the body follows the intention, so as a general rule, your intention and visual perception, and your kinesthetic sense of internal connection will increase but your physical stress will always decrease. The body will feel more and more relaxed, lighter and lighter, and movements will become easier and easier. You will feel an intrinsic sense of strength coming from deep within almost as if you are a highly pressurized balloon. This is one of the reasons Tai-Chi is called an internal art.

In short, less is more. Always remember, less is more. Start with concrete and then try to do less and less. Have fun with ‘Foot Sole Stuck Earth’.

Body Body Centered Upright
[Path to Mastery 3/23/10 – Wk28 D2 (Str 9.12.09)(Ph2 11.15.09)]

Continuing our Tai-Chi Journey:

In the last 2 weeks we have completed the Alignment principles concerning the Upper Body, and the Lower Body, five principles each. Now there is one principle left for the whole body: Body Body Centered Upright.

Body Body? Well, if I translated it instead of transliterating it, it would simply be Body. The Chinese word for Body is Shen-Ti. Both words mean body. The first word, Shen, describes the bulk or the mass of a body. The second word, Ti, describes the form or the type of the body. Both words put together describe the human body.

So, the principle means that the body is centered and upright. Boring right? I mean this is so obvious. This is what we learned from our 4th grade elementary teacher but promptly decided to ignore. It just didn’t seem that important and besides it wasn’t cool to be centered and upright. We may have gotten laughed at.

Well, the Chinese had an art for making something not only very interesting, but very cool. They even went one step further. They showed how this one principle holds the secret to the universe. Curious yet?

To start with, the concept, centered, within this context means you are in the middle when seen from above. Next, upright is from the context of seen from the side. Having this background, now you get a clear picture that you are supposed to be centered, in the middle from the top view, and upright form the side view.

But what’s in the center? What is upright? Often times it is considered to be the spine. This is not a bad start. Eventually, however, one’s training will loose its depth unless ones move towards the real center. The real center is the line that is in front of the spine, connecting the crown of the head and the perineum. To be centered is to mentally align the crown and the perineum. When this happens, the main energy highway in your body is established and your whole body straightens around this line. Once it is straightens, it starts radiating in all directions and the column starts expanding, and the energy spreads evenly though the whole body.

When you get this sensation, it is pretty cool. For some of you, this sensation will be very strong and immediate, but for some of you, you will have a tough time feeling the center line. This will depend on how much blockage there is in your energy channel. As you do the form day in and day out, within 90 days doing the form daily, with the center line in mind, you will see a profound change. Mark it on the calendar and see for yourself what happens. You will be amazed.

When you feel the energy spreading, you will start feeling your aura expanding, and eventually you will start feeling the boundaries of your aura clearly. That is a good place to be. As you walk around, you will feel your boundaries and when your energy is low, you will feel them less and less and more of your body. This becomes a good gauge of where you are with your energy level.

So, we covered centered. Where are we with upright? In the very beginning, when you first learn the form, you learn that upright means to keep the spine, or your center line we discussed above vertical. This however, is only to train the sensitivity to keep the center line straight. Often times people don’t have a sense for the center line and when they bent from the hips, the spine bends and thus the center line bends as well. Eventually you learn how to maintain the center line even as the spine bends, but one should establish a strong center line before that can happen. This often takes years. So, don’t start bending your center line before you start getting a clear sense of your center line.

Once you get a clear sense of your center line, you naturally move in a way where your center line is uncompromised. In the beginning you will have to hold the structure to cultivate the center line, but eventually the center line empowers your body and holds the structure. You will feel a well of energy supporting your structure from within. When that happens, you will feel a sphere around you emanating from the sphere and you will feel your center line hovering in the air, between your legs and arms. You will feel yourself naturally moving around from the center line and you will notice that the center line does not need to be vertical. It can be at any angle as long as the spine is straight. In the beginning like all things this feeling comes and goes. But when you have this feeling, this is when you feel your opponents push into your structure and bouncing off of your center and your field. You literally feel the negative vibes of other people bouncing off of your aura. Now this is a much better incentive to keep your spine straight then the one you received in 4th grade isn’t it? I can’t even remember what mine was.

Seek Movement in Stillness
[Path to Mastery 3/24/10 – Wk28 D3 (Str 9.12.09)(Ph2 11.15.09)]

Continuing our Tai-Chi Journey:

So, we close one chapter and open a new chapter in the realm of principles. We finished the alignment principles, and now we will go into the movement principles.

When you are true to one principle, all the other principles are working. If you find only one principle working in your body at a time, that means that your understanding of that principle and all the other principles is lacking. All principles are one and the same. This is the beginning of understanding.

There are 5 movement principles we will be covering:
1.Seek Movement in Stillness
2.Seek Stillness in Movement
3.Mutual Connect without Interruption
4.Top Bottom ‘Each Other’ Follow
5.Insubstantial Substantial Distinguish Clearly

Seek movement in stillness is a very simple principle, but it is one of those things that gives you more juice the more you chew on it.

At a fundamental level, seeking movement within stillness is the same as seeking the movement you feel when you do the mental visualizations. When you are standing in a standing meditation posture, you are standing still, yet, when you picture ‘Empty Spirit Summit Strong’, then you feel your body shift, move and change. There is movement within stillness.

If you do not feel that there is movement inside your structure then it is dead. When it is dead, you do not have movement, for movement is life. Anything that is dead has no power. To seek movement within stillness is to seek life.

When you stand and you feel stiff and like a statue, then you are a sitting duck. There is no energy within you, and you are still just waiting to be broken. Yet, when there is movement and flow within, you are like a live branch, green and lush inside underneath the bark, flexible, springy and full of life. It cannot be easily broken and it has power.

Once you get the fundamentals of the visualization, you enter the stage of breath and if you breath properly, you will feel hot air or energy moving through your body as if you were a hot air balloon. Sometimes, you will feel like molten lava flowing inside you, and you will feel like you are sweating from inside. When this happens, you have true intrinsic energy. This may take some time to cultivate.

When the inside moves, you will be grounded, relaxed and ready to move anytime. The inside will move first so that even when there is no movement you can generate a lot of power. Since there is movement inside you, you can generate power as if you are moving without moving. That is the true advantage of this skill. You have the power of movement without movement.

So, where to start on this journey of ‘Seeking Movement Within Stillness’? Start with standing meditation. Practice the Alignment principles while standing until you feel you are flowing all over even though you are not moving. But simplest of all, imagine you are standing by the edge of a swimming pool and imagine you are about to jump in. This state of getting ready to jump creates potential energy within you that is ready to be converted into kinetic energy anytime. As you stand in a manner readying yourself to jump, you will feel the energy filling your body all the way to the crown, it will open your body. Once your body is open, you will feel your energy flow through and around your body. When you ready yourself to jump, your Bubbling Well opens and your Dan-Tien opens. This seemingly trivial detail is the secret to mastery. Pay a attention to the details and your path won’t wander.

It is said, a few inches off ends up being a thousand miles off. Tai-chi is a lifetime of play. Do not hurry. Enjoy the journey where you are. Pay attention to the details and that is the short cut.

Seek Stillness in Movement
[Path to Mastery 3/25/10 – Wk28 D4 (Str 9.12.09)(Ph2 11.15.09)]

Continuing our Tai-Chi Journey:

Seeking Stillness in Movement… isn’t that contradictory to seeking life? Yesterday we talked about Movement being Life. So, if you seek Stillness in Movement, isn’t that the same as seeking death within life?

Seeking Stillness in Movement is seeking quietness within movement. It is seeking a continuous steady flow. We recognize a continuous steady flow as grace.

In Tai-Chi there is a concept and a training method that is called silk reeling. There are Tai-Chi styles where there are separate exercises that are called silk reeling and then again there are styles where they use the form to practice silk reeling. The concept of silk reeling came first before the exercises were developed, so you may practice silk reeling either way. The important thing is what it means so you may seek it in your practice.

When you reel silk from a cocoon, it has to be done with a steady hand. If, at any point, you vary the pulling speed or the strength of the pull you damage the silk. So you are not allowed to pull suddenly or hard. From the perspective of the silk cocoon, it is one uninterrupted continuous pull. You have to train the form with the same idea. It is said in the Tai-Chi classics that the Tai-Chi form is sometimes referred to as the long form. The reason it is called that is because it is considered one long continuous move. When you do the form, you are not doing a lot of different moves. You are indeed doing one long form, continuous, steady, and uninterrupted.

For some of you this may seem too abstract. On a more practical level, you may consider this as carrying over the structure and flow you learned during standing meditation to moving meditation, the form. As you do the form, you have to carry the same principles you maintained during the standing meditation practice. Since you seem still when you are doing standing meditation, and you are carrying it over to movement, you would be seeking stillness within movement. This principle is deeper than this, but this is the right entry point to a whole new world. You will see the rest as you walk down this path. Once the journey starts, follow the journey, do not hold on to the doorway as truth. If you hold on to the entry point, you will never experience the journey.

As your training in this principle deepens, eventually you start understanding how this applies in relation to another person. Until you gain the continuous connection within, you will not be able to understand the secret of the explosive power in Tai-Chi.

I have heard that infinite patience is immediate results. This is definitely true in Tai-Chi. Train with infinite patience, and you will understand what it means to have immediate transformation.