NattyontheWay

Hello All, Here is a question I asked my teacher in the practice log that he is helping me to create. I've been going for about a year now, very glad to have started. Anyway, i thought it would be interesting to see your opinions. a little explanation: 'Low Horse' is holding a low horse stance with the arms raised above and in front of the head, hands meeting at thumbs and and index tips. CTS is Connective Tissue System (ligaments, etc.) this is an active practice day, the minimum is 20 minutes of meditation or a slow passage through the form. please comment, 302 - 19 Oct Low Horse: 2:10 pushups: fingerpad on same wood floor: 10 before hand posture collapse crunches: holding V: 60 count form: 16:12 'objectively' short, but it felt great! Balance was greater than usual, posture stayed longer - felt smooth over the bumps on the ground on which i was moving...workout before form seems to improve form. Because it gets the body awake? Does the CTS need to be 'woken' up? Does it get stronger when challenged?

I would say to find a teacher. It's difficult to learn this stuff well from a book. The personal explanation, the measure of what a student is ready for, can only be got from a teacher that knows you and can guide you. Some things can only be grasped intuitively and an actual person interacting with you can do this best. Though I suppose it would be silly to rule out any book...

I agree. This is real stuff, not only imaginary, and so it can be anything if handled in certain ways, including dangerous. Any time you get a painful/bad feeling reaction to this, stop doing and seek trusted advice. These practices are interaction with a very fundamental level of the body/mind, so changes affect everything else, like tinkering foundations stones at the base of a pyramid, so we should be very careful and observant when we fiddle around.

Well, I study a form that my teacher and his call Old Yang Combat Taiji. From what I have gathered, Yang Lu Ch'uan's taiji as it was after leaving the Chen village, but before he adapted it to be taught to officials and the general public...We are not given much of a story, which I think is good because it helps keep our tendency to get invested in prestige or comparison in check. It seems hard to talk about 'what form' without straying into 'first', 'better', 'improved' and all other kinds of judgements that try to put one form above another in a way that makes dialogue tough and taoist consideration even more so...so i hope no one hears those judgements...I don't know how many 'moves' it has, because whenever anyone asks we are told that it depends on how we are counting. There is a strong emphasis on martial application in our school. This can be a challenge to the relaxation/taoist mind that we work towards, but I appreciate the tension. I think as Westerners, my fellow students and I feel a tension there that does not need to exist - the Western Gate, as one of my sometimes teachers calls it - a barrier to understanding Eastern traditions that we must somehow get by/through. I do feel that the acknowledgement of the martial helps with piecing together intent and movement, and has begun to help in the direction of energy within the form for me. It provides a context, I suppose is a simpler way to say that. It seems very yang compared to some other styles. I have studies a little Chen, which felt a bit more pronounced roundness. I liked the way it felt. I feel a very interesting difference from Hsing I, which I've studie more than styles other than my main taiji. I don't have much detail about that system, because I have not gone very deep into training, but it's a much more taut feeling, more aggressively FORWARD. Part of that feeling is probably my lack of skill, but i do think there is a significant difference. Thanks for the welcome...

Thanks for the welcome. That's a very happy looking danbian you've got going on there.

Thanks. It's beautiful.

Well...a friend of mine that I very much trust told me to look in here. I'm still exploring but it all seems very promising. I like the graphic of the guy doing what looks like 4 corners with wolves looking on. the more I study taoism/taiji/qigong, the more it improves my life...and by that I mean bringing peace and success with less effort more often... Wonderful. When I started learning, I felt it was something that I'd been trying to do my whole life, only without guidance I was not finding what I wanted. It's like drinking water, learning these things. I hope that we can learn from each other. Many thanks, Nate