zhan zhuang on the 6th floor

[vivekji108]

Would it be ok to do zhan zhuang on the 6th floor of my apartment building?

 

It would work best for me.

 

I know that in nature with your feet on the ground is best buy can I still get great benefit from it by doing it on the 6th floor?

[Captain Mar-Vell]

...

I've been meditating upon this, as you know.

 

I live on the second floor.

 

I look upon some forms of meditation as sucking up energy from mudder earth.

 

If I am high above the ground, perhaps it comes to me as a cone, sucking up from a larger portion of the earth's surface area.

 

It also occurred to me that perhaps the Ancients built ziggurats and pyramids for this purpose.

 

To ascend to God.

 

The Tower of Babel.

 

To achieve meditative/yogic power.

 

Sit atop the tower and meditate.

 

This is all pure speculation.

 

I'm probably way off base.

 

But I couldn't live at the top of a high building.

 

I might get vertigo.

 

An' I ain't mentionin' da fear of flyin'.

...

Edited April 18, 2014 by Captain Mar-Vell

[CloudHands]

You may have a better feeling bear foot on the ground. But generaly gi gong/tai chi lessons take place in building so... I think that absolutly ok.

There's something most people on this forum and the practice I have go separate ways : for me the main practice is to relieve the body from muscular tensions. A tension is like a fire, you put your energy in it to grow it. This is energy loss.

So before to think how to cultivate we (the school I learn from) try to get loose, relaxed but steady. Endless job.

 

I speak about that because that's a purpose of the tree, put tensions on highlight and work to relieve them, breathing them (is "them" correct here englishly speaking ?) more than gather energy from the ground. I think it's very wise, at least at my level.

 

Wish you patience and dedication

 

(Gone to drink tea and do horse stance !)

[Captain Mar-Vell]

...

Yes.

 

The only thing to be "achieved" is utterly perfect absolute complete ultimate relaxation.

 

That's what I aspire to.

 

The ultimate chillax.

 

I simple dao man.

 

Hehehe.

...

[ChiDragon]

Yes, as long as you are barefoot or wear a flat sole, you will have the same benefits either on the first or 100th floor.

[vivekji108]

Thanks for the replies guys!

 

Sounds like I'm good to go:)

[soaring crane]

You could send your roots all the way through the building into the ground below.

[CloudHands]

You could send your roots all the way through the building into the ground below.

 

Is that something you do ?

Edited April 18, 2014 by CloudHands

[Apech]

I was taught zhan zhuang in an artist studio on the third floor above a Chinese restaurant. Worked for me.

[soaring crane]

 

 

Is that something you do ?

yes. Do you?

No matter where I'm standing physically, I'm always outside on the meadow, below the expansive blue sky :-)

And facing south

Legs grow through the floor, through the basement, through the foundations of the building, one meter deep, ten meters, a hundred meters deep into the Earth... And above, no ceiling, no roof, only heaven.

Edited April 18, 2014 by soaring crane

[CloudHands]

lol I face north if possible. I can't say my roots grows that deep, but workin' on it !

 

amazing

[Captain Mar-Vell]

...

Keep workin' on it, you get deep roots.

 

Deep, deep roots.

 

Deep down in Davey Jones' Locker.

...

[soaring crane]

I align my heart with the sun, and my kidneys with the Tundra :-)

 

(Actually, it's the standard practice in Soaring Crane form and I just let it carry over to everything I do)

[Captain Mar-Vell]

...

I align my heart with the tuna.

...

[soaring crane]

Or do mean tu na? :-)

[Captain Mar-Vell]

...

I'm like Humpty Dumpty.

 

Wordz mean whatever I say they mean.

 

And my wordz mean nuthin'.

 

Nuthin' at all.

 

One big fat.

 

Nuthin'

...

[soaring crane]

You mentioned Davy Jones and it reminded me of a visualization that sometimes accompanies the Daoist 'pelvic wave' motion (definitely related to ZZ).

 

Standing in the middle of a calm sea, legs extended down into the seabed, feet sunk deep deep in the mud.

 

Torso above the water, lifted high in the sky, head above the clouds.

 

The water surface at the lower belly, with long, rounded waves gently lifting and setting the basin of the pelvis.

 

The waves are the breath. Every new intake of air is a new wave that lifts you up to the crest of the wave, and every exhale is the wave leaving you, lowering you to valley, where you wait for the next wave to come.

 

You're facing the shore and the waves are coming from behind you.

 

And with each cycle, your legs grow deeper into the seafloor; your head moves closer to heaven; and your middle expands to the horizons.

[mYTHmAKER]

Doesn't matter. I also stand and practice on the 6th floor ( the recommended floor LOL)

When you practice you are sinking, relaxing into whatever you are standing on.

You are grounding to whatever is beneath your feet. You will benefit.

[thelerner]

You mentioned Davy Jones and it reminded me of a visualization that sometimes accompanies the Daoist 'pelvic wave' motion (definitely related to ZZ).

 

Standing in the middle of a calm sea, legs extended down into the seabed, feet sunk deep deep in the mud.

Torso above the water, lifted high in the sky, head above the clouds.

The water surface at the lower belly, with long, rounded waves gently lifting and setting the basin of the pelvis.

The waves are the breath. Every new intake of air is a new wave that lifts you up to the crest of the wave, and every exhale is the wave leaving you, lowering you to valley, where you wait for the next wave to come.

You're facing the shore and the waves are coming from behind you.

And with each cycle, your legs grow deeper into the seafloor; your head moves closer to heaven; and your middle expands to the horizons.

and this reminds me of Healing Tao's Ocean Breathing practice.

Stand, arms down, hands a few inches from lower dan tien like they're gently cupping it. As one breathe in: from lower dan tien imagine water expanding from infintesimal point larger and larger til it becomes like an ocean. Your arms move out, floating as the water increases until they are nearly shoulder high. As breath reaches its fullest you slightly rise on your toes, feeling your body floating in a sea of chi. hold there for a moment.

 

Then as the breath goes out, your arms slowly return down til they're a few inches from your center. The ocean of chi returns until it is an infinitesimal point. Repeat. Nice simple gi gung practice. Its the beginning of a Michael Winn Fundamental series I like.

 

You can probably find better descriptions of this online somewhere.

[Captain Mar-Vell]

...

Standing in the middle of a calm sea, legs extended down into the seabed, feet sunk deep deep in the mud.

 

There are lines in a Kate Bush song from Aerial.

 

You recall them here.

 

I don't remember the track right now.

 

Perhaps "The Artist," or something like that.

 

From Side 2 A Sky of Honey.

 

The songs merge in a most dreamlike way.

 

It's a beautiful album.

 

Go buy Aerial.

...

Edited April 18, 2014 by Captain Mar-Vell

[Cookie Monster]

.

Edited May 5, 2021 by Ocean Form

[soaring crane]

 

Anyway. I was going to say that vertical alignment to gravity is one of the points of ZZ and you get this above ground level.

 

I think that's a very cogent point, yes! And when you look at the size of the planet, six floors (or sixty or a hundred and sixty), is no space between us and the Earth.

[Captain Mar-Vell]

...

For Soaring Crane, some Kate Bush.

 

I think this is the one, but get the Album and listen to the whole CD.

 

It really flows together unlike any other album I've ever heard.

 

It is most dreamlike.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boHUhI1k8qM

...

[vivekji108]

Captain, you're such a troll.

 

Thanks everyone else for the informative replies