After learning several Taiji forms and practiced for several years, some friends often ask this question: How do we progress to the next level?
I am thinking... it depends.
It depends on what motivated you to learn Taiji in the first place and what motivates you now to move to the next level. You must ask yourself how you would be different from today if you would achieve the next level.
1. If you think of Taiji as a gentle form of exercising and do not want to spend too much time on understanding the internal meaning, I suggest you just keep practicing the form for the rest of your life. You will definitely get the benefits out of it.
2. If you are interested in performing Taiji in addition to the health benefits, take more lessons to perfect your postures, transitions and make your movements more graceful.
3. If you are curious about various Taiji styles. You may try learning other forms and styles with different teachers. You may compare the differences among various styles to find out the root of Taiji.
4. If you are amazed by the gongfu (or Kungfu) that Taiji masters possess like Chen Xiaowang, you will need to find the masters, learn from them and develop your strengths and gongfu.
5. If you want to get further health benefits such as reducing stress, experiencing internal connections and smoothing internal energy flow, you need to understand the principles of Taiji and put it into practice. You will have to practice Taiji daily, observe yourself, focus on your intention and feel the internal qi.
6. If you want to apply Taiji principles to your life for happiness and success, you will have to go a step further. You not only have to feel the internal qi, but also use the qi to energize you and train yourself new ways of reacting to the world. This will take a long time. However, nobody can do it for you except for yourself. You should do some readings, exchange ideas with your pals and most importantly, use your brain to think and your body to feel.
In any case, keep practicing!
When Master Li Deyin visited NJ this May, he told us a story about seeing a 94-year old gentleman doing Taiji in a cold day without wearing many layers of clothes. The old man's postures and movements were not perfect but he was so immersed himself in the form. He looked so healthy and at ease. Mr. Li reminded us keeping up the practice was so important for getting the health benefits.
11 comments:
I often get told stories of old masters practicing in the winter without coats. I guess my level is not there b/c I still wear a coat when I practice ;)
As for the topic, I think people will always quest for deeper knowledge after doing something for a while. To me, it's a natural progression, but that track is generally defined, as you outlined. Either head down the martial path, or the energetic path. To me, either one of these will yield health benefits if practice with correct structure and body mechanics.
As for myself, I often get tempted by the carrot stick of the martial, but ultimately I think the energetic path will yield the best results over time. I recall a quote that the goal of practicing taiji is so we can enjoy life after we realize what the meaning of life is :) I'll have to dig up that quote and post it.
"...either one of these will yield health benefits if practice with correct structure and body mechanics." and a positive mindset.
I am currently learning the traditional Yang Style 115 Form. Previously, I learnt the Simplified Yang Style 24 Forms.
For me, I m more in towards your point number 5 i.e. reducing stress, experiencing internal connections and smoothing internal energy flow.
Presently I do feel tingling in my fingers. Sometimes i feel a cold shiver down my spine.
I feel strongest tingling in all my fingers when i raise my hands over my head and then scoop in a semi-circle downwards and end at the navel.
Actually, I do not understand about this tingling sensations and the cold shiver. Maybe you can enlighten me.
Thank you.
I do have the warm and/or tingling sensation in my fingers sometimes when I practice Taiji but have never experienced chill in the spine. Many years ago, I practiced Qigong, another type of exercise for the better flow of internal energy. I was told that tingling sensation was caused by the flow of Qi. Based on the instructor, everyone has Qi (an internal energy flow). The Qi is disoriented if you don't do any type of practice for the internal energy. When you do this type of exercise, the Qi starts flowing in a more organized way and you can feel it.
Here is an experiment:
If you open both of your hands, relax and make the hands shape like the covers of a cup, then face the hands to each other. Slowly open and close your arms to increase and decrease the distance of the two hands. Your hands will move like a piano accordion. Do you feel the tingling in the fingers?
The sensation feeling will go away after the practice. I usually feel relaxed after experiencing the tingling sensation.
In many articles about Taiji, the tingling sensation is mentioned:
What is Tai Chi
http://www.soton.ac.uk/~maa1/chi/taichi/whattai.htm
Qigong: The Next Yoga?
http://www.taichitom.com/Next-Yoga-Sweat-Free-Workout-Giving-Up-Perfect-Pecs-Boomers-Embrace-Qigong-Tiger-Woods-Secret-Weapon.html
Qi: The Journal of Traditional Eastern Health & Fitness
http://qi-journal.com/Taiji.asp?-Token.FindPage=7&-Token.SearchID=Taiji%20Basics
“More advanced classes place more emphasis on the visualization and actual movement of "Qi" or "energy" within the body during the routines. This "Qi" manifests itself in various ways...sometimes with a tingling sensation, a wave-like sensation, warming of various body parts, an electric shock sensation, light pressure on the skin, spontaneous shaking, etc.”
Qi Sensation - Discussion
http://shikon.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=35
Thanks for the interesting links on Qi. They are very informative.
Cindy, would you mind starting a post on the important points to note of each form of the Traditional Yang Style TaiChi?
This morning, when I did the Qi Shi, I realised that my hands are heavy to raise. All this while, I never felt this way. And I also felt as if the muscle in my upper arm is lifting it.
I don't know if I had done it correctly but this is something new I experienced today while doing the Qi Shi.
Correct me if I am wrong, I think most Taichi books do not tell you how you should feel while doing each form.
It would be good if you can share your experience on the forms in these areas : how to breathe, correct height of hands, placement of legs, turning of waist, etc.
Apologies if I m asking for too much but I m really interested in Taichi. Your shared experience in Taichi will be of benefit to a lot of us.
Thank you in anticipation.
Hi! ayeo99,
I am glad those links are useful to you.
I will write more to share my understanding of Tai Chi. The forms I have learned are Tai Chi Forms 8, 16, 24, 32 and 42. They are mostly based on Yang style but are also mixed with other styles like Sun, Chen, Wu, etc (in 32 and 42).
I can see that you pay attention to what you feel during the practice. It is good to be observant for two reasons: 1) Focus on your feeling so that you can work from inside out. 2) As you observe yourself, you will mostly like to relax more or use a better posture, therefore, to make the Qi flow better. Please note that these are just my opinions.
I can't explain the phenomenon you have observed, i.e. heaviness in the arm muscles. I am intrigued about your comment "I also felt as if the muscle in my upper arm is lifting it". During our practice, our instructor constantly tells us to imagine using one part of body/arm to lead other parts. For example, when moving up both arms in the opening position, using upper arms to lead the movement. Moving one part of the body should leads to the movement of another part (i.e. continuously linkage of body parts to let the Qi flow).
I would say, to let muscles in the upper arm to lift your arms and observe that you feel.
I agree that most Tai Chi books don’t tell you what you should feel. I guess it is because it is difficult to describe and everyone is different.
Breathing is very important in Tai Chi. I have explored it a little bit and will share my experience in later posts.
Keep practice and observe yourself. If you are so interested in Tai Chi, I would also encourage you to think about the application of the Tai Chi movements. It is fascinating, too.
I forwarded your comments to some friends in our club. Here are some comments from an experienced practitioner, Don. He also writes Taiji on his web site. You should read his article. It is very informative:
http://www.dontow.com/3.html
Here are his comments about your post:
From her (I just assumed that it is a woman) description, she seems to be saying that she never felt this heaviness until that morning. If so, then it could be that she did something the day before that tired her arms, or her mind was tired that morning. Or it always felt the same, but she just didn't notice it until that morning.
In my own practice, I don't think I ever felt a very large difference in the heaviness of my hands while doing the Qi Shi form, although in doing the various forms from day to day, sometimes I do feel some differences in the ease of doing it or the steadiness of my hands, legs, or body, etc. There are always variations in one's body and how one feels physically and mentally. That is why the performance of a competitive swimmer (or any other type of athletes) could have non-negligible differences from day to day.
I also like to comment on a couple other items she raised. With respect to breathing, there is no uniformity in how that is taught in beginning Tai Chi classes. Some teachers will not teach breathing at all in an introductory Tai Chi class, except only to say that you should just breathe naturally. When I teach, at the beginning I also tell them just to breathe naturally. But usually around half-way through the 24 Form, I start to teach them when to breathe in and when to breathe out. However, even though I would mention to them the difference between our normal breathing via the chest and the abdominal breathing via the lower abdomen, in such an introductory Tai Chi class I do not stress it. I just want to let them know if they ever want to continue with Tai Chi and Chinese martial arts, breathing techniques will be very important.
With respect to turning of the waist, I try to emphasize to them its importance, both in doing warm up exercises and in doing the forms, such as Wild Horse Shakes Its Mane. However, this is not easy for a beginner student to learn.
In teaching the 24 Form, even to older adults, I always explain to them the martial application(s) of each form. This is not to teach them to use Tai Chi to fight, but to show them where did these forms originate from. Furthermore, if they see the applications of each form, it would help them to understand better the correct way of doing a form. From my experience, I think that the students do appreciate seeing this and they find it interesting and worthwhile.
Hi Cindy,
Thanks for forwarding it to Don. By the way, I m a man :-)
Thanks for sharing too, Don.
I m sure that the heaviness of the arms is not due to a tired mind or any tough work i done the day before.
I only felt it one day when I completely relax my arm and while breathing in and raising my arms slowly. Last time, what i did was just raise my arms quickly using my whole arm. One day, I felt really relaxed and just relaxed my arms and did the Qi Shi. I then realised that the slow in- breath corordinated with raise of the arm makes my arm feel heavy. And also I feel that my upper arm is raising it. Try it.
Cindy and Don, can you also share with me how to breathe during the cloud hands?
I m getting more and more intrigued with TaiChi and the breathing during each form. I don't know if you consider me a beginner but I have practiced Taichi for 2 years and is now starting to feel the Qi in my fingers.
Yes, I was taught the martial application of some forms and that helped a lot. I agree with you on this, Cindy.
The other thing I would like to understand is this : how to sink the Qi to Dantien? When do I know I have successfully sink it to the Dantien? Does it make you very heavy when you sink the Qi to the Dantien to the extent that people cannot lift you up?
As you can see I m very curious about Taichi, hope it's not to the extent that I make you angry. If I do, please forgive me.
Thanks!
ayeo99,
You are asking a lot of interesting quesitons.I can share my experience with Qi and breathing in future postings. It has been very difficult for me to understand how Qi sinks to Dantian. I still don't think I get it. However, I do try to use Yi to lead the Qi to the Dantian area and the entire body. I do Taiji Quan Form 8 before I go to bed at night. I usually do about 10 min standing post before that. When I do the Form 8 routine, I can feel my body is relaxed and filled with warmness. I don't do Form 42 or other forms because they will make me excited instead. Form 8 is very simple and easy so I can focus on using every part of the body to form a chain of continuous movement and feel the Qi flow.
For most part of the practice, I breath evenly although I try to follow the rule of thumb, inhale when opening the arms and exhale when closing the arms.
Thanks, Cindy.
I look forward to your future postings.
Meanwhile I will still continue to practice my forms.
I, of course, a newcomer to this blog, but the author does not agree
Believers and practitioners ascribe a lot of positive health benefits to spiritual healing. Such health benefits include relief from stress, pain, body aches and insomnia, and improvement of blood pressure, blood circulation and organ function. These, plus all improvements on disease symptoms, are linked with the easing up of a person's emotional and mental load.
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