ChiDragon

Chapter 73 1. One who was brave and courageous then killed. 2. One who is brave but not courageous then survived. 3. These two types of bravery one benefits and the other does harm. 4. This was detested by the Principles of Heaven, 5. And who knows why? 6. The natural principles are: 7. Without striving is a better way to prevail; 8. Not speaking is a better way to answer; 9. Not being summoned but come at one's own free will; 10. Tolerance is a good deed for planning matters. 11. The net of heaven is vast and wide. 12. Its mesh is sparse but yet nothing slips through. 第七十三章 1. 勇 於 敢 則 殺 , 2. 勇 於 不 敢 則 活 : 3. 此 兩 者 或 利 , 或 害 。 4. 天 之 所 惡 5. 孰 知 其 故 ? [是 以 聖 人 猶 難 之 。]<--- Out of context. 6. 天 之 道: 7. 不 爭 而 善 勝; 8. 不 言 而 善 應; 9. 不 召 而 自 來; 10. 繟 然 而 善 謀 。 11. 天 網 恢 恢 ; 12. 疏 而 不 失 !

則(Ze) in the Chinese sentence structure is equivalent to the "If.....then" statement in English.

First of all, I am glad that we do have some high level TaiJi practitioners here to take place in the discussion. BTW I was only establishing the foundation for rooting; but I have never mentioned when should it occur, in what time frame, nor in push hands. Basically, I was saying how to do rooting. However, it is important to have good rooting during a counteraction. For instance, in push hands, it was a common knowledge that we should relax at first. Initially, if you don't move, I don't move; if you do move, then I move first. As soon I felt the Jin in the opponent's hand, at that instant, I would react by Fa Jin on my legs to lock myself onto the ground to keep my centroid dead center with my body. While the opponent was moving, his centroid is off and his rooting was not as firm as mine because his centroid was not dead center with his body. By the definition of FA Jin, spontaneously, the muscles are tighten or contracted. If the muscles were not contracted, then you cannot Fa Jin. The opponent was vulnerable to be thrown off balance because he was not centered with his body. While he was moving, his own weight and center were moving along in the same direction, if I pull him in the same direction, then the resultant force would be the summation of his body weight and my pulling force which will make him move faster to get off balance. Hence, his centroid was much greater off center within the balance limits.

Taomeow... Yes, the weight has nothing to do with the skills. It was just the way you had presented your story. It seems to me that you were assuming I knew not much about Tai Ji. I think we all knew what we were talking about; but we just weren't saying what the others to hear whatever was in our minds. If we have used the common terms and understanding, then we would have no problem understanding each other. Push hands was based on this idiom(translation in thoughts only because the Chinese measuring units are different than the western.): 四兩撥千斤: Using 4 oz. to push a thousand pounds. This is a good indication that the weight has nothing to do with the practice but the skill. What I am tyring to say is that one must have a good rooting foundation to stay in balance in order to use the weight of the opponent to counterbalance him. IMO we knew all this already, it was just we aren't communicating by using the proper terminologies. Edited to add: Do you know you and I are doing push hands right now...??? In a way, we're feeling the Taiji knowledge from each other....

oops...sorry. My line of questioning had started something else again, shamed on me.... 1. A 300 lb guy has no problem to push anybody away without the push hands practice, is it there...??? To be fair and reasonable, one would push hands with someone in equal weights or within the close proximity. At high level competition, the highly cultivated practitioners do not have to put the opponent onto the ground to prevail. Indeed, they can simple have their hands touching and standing still just by feeling the Jin of each other to determine who has more strength; then they backed off with a smile in their faces. In fact, only they knew who the winner was. 2. A person has to have a center in order to stay in balance. A center was called the centroid or the center of gravity of an object. All matter has a centroid. Otherwise, if you would like to speak in a spiritual world, then you can ignore the centroid if you like. PS... Anyways, without any dictionary entry, then there is nothing that was existed to be talked about.

"one touch and all is known" which is "listening to the Jin, 聽勁(ting1 jin4)" by feeling the the Jin of the others. PS... I don't know why the Chinese call it that(聽勁,ting1 jin4)...!!!

Their center is everywhere and nowhere...??? You can't see it, you can't feel it...??? Have you ever heard of listen to the Jin of your counterpart like 聽勁(ting1 jin4)...???

There are two methods of cosmic orbit. They are Microcosmic Orbit(MCO-1) and Macrocosmic Orbit(MCO-2). I had been study MCO-1 for sometime. At first, it was so hard to understand because of the terms used by the Taoists are so esoteric. It would be more difficult to comprehend if it was translated into another language. A Taoist or Taoists, hereinafter, will be referred and understood as a Taoist(s) in the Taoist religion. The understanding of MCO-1, finally, had come to my senses. Perhaps, one might not have been explained this way by someone else. The Taoist always have the own thoughts and putted in their own language that not anybody can understand. Here is the way I understood MCO-1 as of now. The following explanation, hopefully, will clear some of the mists in the air. The MCO-1 was a system developed from the perceptive point of view of a Taoist. From the acupuncture chart in the TCM, there is a Concept Vessel(CV) and Governor Vessel(GV). Please note that Dan Tian is Taoist term but not a TCM term. Dan Tian was designated, by Taoists, as a location of the lower part of the torso below the navel. The Taoists thought people are not so healthy because there was a channel between the CV and GV were closed. In order to prolong life, the channel must be opened. Since the CV and GV vessels are commonly going through the lower Dan Tian, the Taoist thought that if they breathe Chi into the Dan Tian which will open the channel for the both vessels. The Chi was going downward deep into the Dan Tian and go toward the back of the Torso. Hence, the direction of the orbit was said to be going from the Dan Tian to the GV around the head toward the front. Then through the the CV down and return to the Dan Tian. One complete revolution of the Chi in and out of the Dan Tian was considered to be one orbit cycle. The more number of orbits that goes around the torso, the person will be healthier. The driven factor of the orbit was determined by how many times that Chi was cycling through the Dan Tian. Breathing Chi deep into the Dan Tian was considered to be "abdominal breathing". Thus, the more times the Chi was breathed into the Dan Tian, the healthier the person will be. If one who thinks meditation without performing the abdominal breathing(NAB), one was not activating the MCO-1. Note: This concept will be referred as basis to answer all questions regrading the MCO-1 in the future. Please comment....!!!

Yes, it can be started on your own but it may not stop on its own. FYI There were many Taiwanese practiced but cannot stop on their own and ended up in the hospital under psychiatric care. Unfortunately, the western modern medical science does not have a cure for it....

NHJT... I see where and why your problem occurs. The instruction I gave you was for static Chi Kung while in a still position. However, the way you are describing was that you were doing something like sit ups. It doesn't matter how you breathe when you change the position of the head with a big difference in height; it will cause a big change in pressure. As a result, the blood tried to rush to your head but not quick enough. During the transient, your head was trying to stabilize the pressure which will cause lightheadedness at the time. Edited to add: The only precaution that can be made is do not change the position of your head in height so drastically to avoid lightheadedness.

Chapter 72 1. When the people do not fear of the governmental august, 2. Then, the troubles begin. 3. Do not trouble their dwellings. 4. Do not burden their lives. 5. Only when the government was not oppressing the people, 6. Therefore, the people will not be disgusted. 7. Because of a sage: 8. Knowing oneself but not being vainglorious; 9. With self esteem but not appraise oneself. 10. Hence, he dismiss the latter and preferred the former. Summary The government has certain authorities to carry out its responsibilities and obligations. As long the people are not oppressed, the government by not troubling their home or interrupt their lives, then the people will respect the government. However, if the people has no fear of the government, then the government is loosing its authority and respect. Thus the trouble may begin when people are uprising to go against the government. A good ruler will know his own ego by not abusing his authority and power. With his self esteem, he is putting himself behind but not before the people as described in other chapters.

Yes, GOOWDAY... 1 .天下之物生于有 有生于无 2. 道生一 一生二 二生三 三生万物 It makes lots of sense. For me to understand it better, I tend to translate 有(you) as the Visible and 无(wu) the Invisible. In Chapter 1, Tao is the Invisible and Visible. Hence, 道生一 is the Invisible(道) engenders the Visible(一).

Very good. It is nice to bring out the good points into the open. By lowering the enter of gravity, do you mean have the upper thighs bend 90 degrees with the vertical or parallel to the ground....??? If one can bend the legs 90 degrees and standstill to withstand any external pushing, then he is a grandmaster.

OK. Thank you...!!! The problem is in holding the breath. When you are holding your breath, do not try to breathe in unless you do exhale slowly. Anyway, while holding your breath, try to have to air to circulate in your trachea. You should feel that your trachea has a little tighten sensation in the chest area. You should have the feeling that the air is circulating in between the chest and the abdomen, up and down, but not passing up to the throat unless you exhale slowly. PS... I am holding my breath, now, so I can describe it to you. The way to hold the breath is, at first, to take a deep breath down to the abdomen and let it come up to the chest then hold and circulate. Indeed, I feel very comfortable this way. I'm holding my breath and compress it so it won't come up to my throat. If I let it pass my throat, then I felt like my breath was rushed to my head to plug up my ears and get lightheaded. If I hold it too long like so, my face turns red and felt a little dizziness.

1. I don't think that you are doing it correctly to start off with. As beginner, you do not hold your breath nor breathe from the lower abdomen. 2. Also, you should not hold your breath and force it down to the lower abdominal. I had post the breathing procedure many times. I will say it again just to remind myself also. 1. First, you will have to determine how deep can you go with your breath by taken a normal breath. Don't force the breath down but stop at where you feel it is comfortable. Then establish this as your breathing reference point. 2. Now breathe slowly down to the reference point each time. Until you feel more comfortable to go down a little bit deeper for a new reference point, then send your breath to the new reference point. 3. Repeat step two until your breath can go all the way down to the abdomen. Please remember, at the beginning, you shall never hold your breath nor force it to go down to a point more than you can. Just breathe slowly with your nose only. As long you don't hold the breath at this stage, you should not be feeling light headed.

"contracting all the leg muscles" Ok, I think this is the peculiarity in the Chinese language. It always sounds paradoxical if one taken it literally. When the book says relax or soong(松), general speaking as a novice, that is what one will do to build up the muscle tone. At the advance level, one will contract the muscles as required for the movements and relaxed again. The purpose of Zuan Zhuang to to be able to control the muscles by contraction. Thus, if you are relaxing your leg muscles all the time, then you are not really progressing to put your muscles into application. One would keep in mind, if one is not in action, then relax. When in action, one would want all the leg muscles to work for oneself for stabilization and balancing. Thus there is Yin; there is Yang. Well, I can tell you this. Everyone has a threshold where someone can be pushed him away. In order to increase the threshold, one can apply more strength(Jin) in the leg muscles by contraction to have a firmer stance for a greater resistance to withstand the external force.

Chapter 72 1. When the people do not fear of the governmental august, 2. Then, the troubles begin. 3. Do not trouble their dwellings. 4. Do not burden their lives. 5. Only when the government was not oppressing the people, 6. Therefore, the people will not be disgusted. 7. Because of a sage: 8. Knowing oneself but not being vainglorious; 9. With self esteem but not appraise oneself. 10. Hence, he dismiss the latter and preferred the former. Notes: 1. The latter was referred as "being vainglorious" and "appraised oneself" in lines 8 and 9, respectively. 2. The former was referred as "knowing oneself" and "with self esteem" in lines 8 and 9, respectively. 第七十二章 1. 民 不 畏 威 , 2. 則 大 威 至 3. 無 狎 其 所 居 , 4. 無 厭 其 所 生 5. 夫 唯 不 厭 , 6. 是 以 不 厭 ! 7. 是 以 聖 人: 8. 自 知 不 自 見 . 9. 自 愛 不 自 貴. 10. 故 去 彼 取 此 。

FYI... My sources are in my head. I knew the stuff or one might say I was brain washed since I was a kid. I knew zhan zhuang was troublesome for me too since I had mentioned last. FYI This was, only, the way used to be but not anymore. Before, the students were hand picked by their sifu to learn Kung Fu. Please remember, it was for free at the time; but the lives of the students were almost owned by the sifu, so to speak. Therefore, the first thing the sifu have the student to do was zhan zhuang. The sifu will come over to give the student a push daily. However, if the student was moved an inch by not locking his feet to the ground, then he was not qualify for the next lesson as part of the encouragement and punishment. Now-a-days, since the students are paying for their lessons, you think your teacher will let you just stand there for few months and collect a fee from you. Then you'll think that you have been cheated for your money, wouldn't you...???

I don't know is this an insult for me or not; but please let the record shown this has being taking place, here, quite often by this individual. However, no name has been mentioned here to protect his innocence.

FYI... My link: Embryonic Breathing(Tai Hsi, 胎息) The lady in the blue shirt is doing Yoga to the ultimate extreme. http://www.yyttx.com/ The Chinese characters, in the middle top row, is the Embryonic Breathing procedure(click on it to see the complete procedure).

That was what I have been trying to say all along in most of my posts, but I had been ignored and I was treated like some kind of idiot.

What you two afraid of....??? Some truth out of my questioning...???

I saw that. I was just wondering if he was a Physician, instead of a Mechanical Engineer, would he have second thought about the Embryonic Breathing...!!!

This Dr. is a Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering. Not a medical Doctor. Please don't get the wrong impression.