Spectrum

The very first acupucturist I ever recieved a treatment from was a Buddhist monk who had retained for 11 years at that point. 1994.

I called that the X-Pattern. We use it to warmup on the floor to. It encompasses the core movements of grappling through relocating the hips through the cross tension lines commonly developed in taji and stance training. (shrimping/ebe/hip-out) On the ball the x-pattern happens when the opposite hand and foot transpose positions, I think that's what you're talking about? The hips will rotate through a range (most likely an arc or figure 8) and the core is adjusted to boot. I love the physioballs, endless ever corrective curves balanced between three bodies in motion; and still. For back strength balance on about diaphram level and slowly inch both hands and both feet off for a 'float' ... keep the play alive and it's not work at all. Spectrum

I think you're over-reacting a bit to that statement. I think he means simple things like not practicing to soon after eating, not practicing while drunk, not practicing certain things right after sex... seems like common sense training to me. You don't go dead lift 250lbs right after a 3 hour s3x-fest. You don't go run right after eating a large pepperoni pizza. Honestly I would much rather talk about all the wonderful things we CAN do as chi gung pracitioners, and not how the practice gets in the way of "living". Kung Fu isn't about quantity, it's about quality. Some type of moral or ethical code is intrinstic to all forms of chi gung, unless of course... <enter dark jedi music...> Peace, Spectrum

Nice progression. Ride it! Sounds about right. Something like Release attachments. Avoid excesses. Cultivate natural harmonies.

Hey Japhy if you get a chance soon take that bent stick to the pool and see what happens. Its unreal. Really. Im thinking we need to put some of this on film soon. The tube effect is outstanding, i was following this thing around the pool for an hour, the life guard on duty was getting a kick out of watching all the little spirals. Like dolphin lines. Just more experimental flight time. Maybe get some video this week and post it up. Pretty fun movement toy in the pool. No wrong way! _Spectrum

Rereading my post i realize it was inspired by what I quoted about eliminating one sense as the key. Pondering the idea some more brings up some things I feel I should share. If anything the idea that anything that could potentially be a key, starting the internal inquiry process, barring monkey minds endless dialog, could potentially result in realization. Egg "We're going down there!" Jack Burton "Down where Egg!?" Egg "Where is the Univese?" My very First lessons involving senses that I can remember included a darkend room. 0. Sit quietly in a dark room, any room, and observe every sound you can here from inside to outside. Verbalize to your partner. 1. Locate partner by sound while he walks around and pauses briefly in different positions. 2. Locate stationay partner by sound after you have spun around a few times and have lost orientation. 3. Physically locate partner after each relocation. 4. After light returns, discern any change in the room, purposeful or not. 5. Porposefully make one change in the room while lights out. Partner identifies. 6. Porposefully make a variety of sounds in which partner identifies. I.E. teakettle lid opening, doorknob twist, dust whisp across a mantle. These exercises seemed to exercise a variety of senses usually subjegated by vision and on the peripheral of awareness in general. This is just one group of exercises. There are endless themes which good methodology builds upon once a foundation is established. Spectrum

Interesting wording here in relationship to the cultivation of jing chi and shen. Expound further on your practices if you want.

+1 for the Doc

An interesting quote from "Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere" : "Vertical posture reflects the height of ones aspirations, horizontal posture the source of their life."

Empathy is natural. Empathy involves the dynamic flux of personal identification w/ others. Empathy is very important in the process of healing.

Longevity arts are Accumulative. Less is More. In the right proportion practice produces maximum benifits w/ the least fatigue. If you go beyond your personal mean, you deplete more then you gain. I'm not sure how "reversal" relates to this. Do your Work; Dharma. Spectrum

Man that's still going on! Don't know if this is relevant but a certain Master Wang of the YiQuan lineage had a spiral health dance he realized. Totally freestyle. Formless form. Circle Walking, the 8, the 9 palaces, these are all meaningful expressions. So Beautiful.

"The Power of Limits" by Gozgi. A book about Proportional Harmonics and the limitness boundaries created by the golden mean. The Art of music and life. I notice Taoist method often involves such proportional approaches to training methodologies. Spectrum

Why should students necessarily bother to seek a teacher? Just this book divulges the celestrial mechanism. Even if you wear out iron sandals there is no place to search once you've got it, you expend no effort at all.

Novices obviously need to learn the basics... but I think the thing that seperates intermediate from advanced is understanding those basics as they apply to the whole; including timing; for martial and/or health benifits. Spectrum

Acupucture, Tui Na, Acupressure, Massage, Reflexology can all help keep things moving. There was another thread here on TaoBums where members were talking about using a soft gym ball up and down the ren and du channels to help w/ a diagnostic and work the areas they felt were stagnate/ing. Ultimately, just like a medicine, you're body will learn and adapt the new information to it's own. We have amazing adaptabilities as humans, learning from our environment all the time. Spectrum

Nice wrist action. Is there a sticky for small fundamental exercises somewhere? Little nothings seem very Taoist.

"the first step is the choreography, the alphabet, so to speak." I've heard two mutually supporting theories here, one that all the moves reference wu ji, and the other that wu ji references all moves. If I'm not mistaken, in the Taoist internal arts these are the manifestations of stillness in motion, and of motion in stillness. A simple personal example is after I get done surfing for a few hours, I still feel like i'm moving even when still, due to the microcirculations of water between wetsuit and body, yet without a center point in which this movement, or movement memory, to orbit, no perception of these subtle circulations would exist. There is a wonderfully strange balance to the spectrum of practices available to the student of internal arts; similar to the space between a walk and a jog. The line is thin, but the gait and stride possibilities endless. The subtle adjustments one makes after learning to flow w/ the form outweigh ANY postural adjustments a teacher could make before this simple landmark in ones practice. Someones own attributes of relaxation (development of Sung; and the importance of doing standing meditation after taiji if your "serious" about cultivation; i.e. WHAT are you cultivating if not the experiences of movement and stillness and the profound effects on mind/body that 30min of moving meditation brings 5 min of stillness. It outweighs any number of corrections to "the stillness in motion" that it seems higher level taiji practitioners look for in form, and I venture you say is one small window into the method and medium in which progress is made. "I personally like to 'get' a move before I move on to the next. However, I've also seen and experienced teachers who milk students this way." Me too. Some type of simple application is nice just to keep the gears turning for understanding why the flow is happening the way it is, learn and forget comes to mind; good body mechanics don't lie. Pushing Hands is good for getting a feel for the movement of momentum that two people create, and the angles involved in deflecting incoming linear forces into curves. Teachers who avoid push hands should be avoided. "has the sets done in 3, 5, 9, etc. reps." Da Liu "Tai Chi Chuan & Meditation" on his chapter on tai chi chuan movments talks about applying the 3 sequenced movements which occur L/R in the Yang 108 to odd numbers between 1-10 to shorten of lengthen the form both in physical space and in time duration. For example the repulse monkey sequence (3) can be shortened to (1) for a smaller space/time or (3-5-7-9) for a larger space/time. If you consider your artform however spontaneous to function in the opening and closing of a mandalistic space; I think this has profound implications for the 'energetics' of practice, paralleling music in compositional nature of the classical forms. Come to think of it standing still at any time during practice is a good thing. Spectrum

tt 4 pics

Just feeling it out. It seems at least humorous because of the Golden Mean connection to music and harmonics, a way to crack a qiqong joke to yourself or something. Because really, it's just the idea, it's not neccessarily the medium, there are a variety of instruments; the language I chose to prose suggests theres poetry in it all, but it's just a bent stick; <chuckle> That is something that he sent you a chi whiz. He puts just a little extra something into those. 'the devils in the details' . Love traveling to places to move. Elsewhere did a nice job of this in his "detours" art endeavor. http://www.dailyastorian.info/main.asp?Sec...amp;TM=73789.63 In my own solo practice I've relished the solitute on and on, the quieter the better. It seems once the physiology of qi qong is observed for a while, practicing at a variety of times of day and year in various zones proves an endleslly worthwhile method of Taoist meditation. Mountain breezes feel different then the ocean mist which is different then being at home in the morning sun rising in the babbling water. In group practice I usually pay attention to the teacher or the person w/ the best technique until I get the essense then go solo but in sync if that's the flow. Just drop in (litterally!) on any type of class you can find reference to wu ji in the description. If this core position is founded and developed, all permutations of techniques arrise from this in internal chinese martial art. The recognition of this by internal practitioners often results in part of class devoted to standing meditation and adjustments/alignment/integration process. I avoid practicing w/ people who will let people stand w/o adjustments, although pain is a good teacher, pain w/ bad posture is unsafe. The teacher / guide facilitates group safety as well as individual progress! Also two person exercises that are kinesthetically educating low investment contact like pushinghands play, but being able to F-E-E-L what living movement feels like in dynamic exchange is working more towards a certain kind of creative or descructive dance, not just the recitation of the form; but breathing life into the what-if's with what is. This is spontaneous, and dare I say a self corrective method of sharing movement, so often it turns into a pushing match though. Forms have a lot to teach in the classical sense of somatic education, to transend the form and break the rules ergonomic routines are avoided and you can constantly have fun and learn new things about movement, dance, art and music. Once you play the scales play jazz. The principles of that DVD really embody a practical foundation for exploring the movement possibilities w/ any of the spiral fitness sticks; specially those little Chi Blenders he's sending out to folks it appears. On the dvd you can see how those mantis concept ideas evolved out of Rob's martial study and connections. Speaking of videos Rob just sent me a couple more examples including a 40+ minute instructional introduction on Spiral Fitness that I think will be on sale soon at his website; I asked him about making some advance promos for the Tao Bums. He just wants to share the movement, I busted a gut a couple times at the vid; lol nutty professor. An initial review of this DVD is that the content is consistant with the rest of his ideas, and the format is a nice mix between short interview clips, jam sessions w/ music and short voice overlays w/ explainations of each of the Kung Fu La Hoops and the Idea behind them. A little chatty from a cup and a half of a new coffee blend. Time to go to the pool and practice some taiji in a Heated Rehabilitation Pool! Spectrum

I was taught tongue to the palette on the upcycle of du, tongue released and behind lower teeth on the downcycle of ren. The note on saliva is worthy. Don't spit. I've had nausa if I practice to soon after eating, or have experienced strong emotions like a argument or getting upset over something and then practiced. Good training to you, Spectrum

When I was first learning we would circle up and go through each exercise for a number of repetitions (a weidan chi gung), doing each movement for a few repetitions seqentially, as each movement made better sense, the transitional movements between them began to take shape... You're in a good position to use the 8 brocade as a warmup to any other daily activity, it's a good general form; probably why it's a popular one. It's short, and as soaring crane said there are a lot of variations, of this one, and in chi gung in general. The number of repititions is up to you and your teacher. If no teacher I would experiment with a number in which you "feel" the essense of each movement without losing your flow; then transitioning to the next movement. Less is more; regularity and quality over quantity. When we wake up in the morning we naturally reach our arms out, breath deep and stretch into the day... chi gung is so natural... the sideeffects are limitless. Good training to you! Spectrum

Amen. Preach it. It's funny that the Yang 103/108 is long enough to focus the attention and quiet the mind rather effectively when practiced at the proper speed. s - l - o - w . The effect of whole body movement on mind is profound. The circular grace of continuously reeled silk spirals cyclically through breath and body. After 30 min of continuous movement, it's rather like taking off a pair of roller skates... hopefully we continue to carry around our kinesthetic learning through the day into other activities.... these types of training quandaries abound; not enough time to "train"; but I think here your observation comes into play, if during our practice we cultivate yi, then certainly that awareness easily translates into the everyday routine... I met a gentleman who asked right away about the wrist movements of tai ji quan. I was surprised at this question right off and he went on to say that his wrist was bothering him from playing the violin so much... but.. he went on to explain, he had only been recently performing the movements correctly, it seemed what was at first just back and forth... became a small spiral in which the wrist rolls through the movement. I'm always looking for little details like this, and it was an honor to share in his discovery. To answer his question I said I felt one of the landmarks of anyones tai ji practice is a certain relaxation of the wrist, where the wrist and hand become the edge of the moving center. Sometimes the most profound is found in the most mundane. Inquire answers unspoken questions. Kindest REgards, Spectrum

hold that thought i'll be right back

Funny7 when you go back and look at something a year later you wonder what it means yourself... "Circles of mandala linguistic movement rings" means two things at least: - the personal rings which move inward and outward from ourself, non-verbally, through thought and action. - the group rings which form through authentic relationship and collective activities. A group of dancers, painters, singers, martial artists; collective meditations in artistic mindsets and mediums. "non-verbal language" means any communication process; not isolating language to a single medium. Easy examples are dance, music & martial arts. "...influences to the individual growth through a collective group activity" Again another two way street. Moving in two directions (or more) simultaneously is the begining of important types of movement vocabulary in the arts; so here the influences group to person, and person to group. For example everyone being in tune in a choir can help someone else find their voice. group to person. The influential nature of peers during times and states of suggestability can shape the course of your path. Likewise personally reactive or responsive states effect and are effected. The natural reflex to congregate and share is older then a lot of what modern culture calls "art". "So just get together and move" To many people take movement for granted until they are unable to move without pain. I think it's important to be serious enough to show up to practice everyday; but also to be light hearted enough to enjoy it once you're there. Spectrum