Unknown Zhan Zhuang / Yiquan / Standing Posture

[rideforever]

Does anyone have any information on this posture, where and how and for what it is used and it's function

 

Edited April 14, 2019 by rideforever

[Starjumper]

He's doing it wrong

[Pilgrim]

13 hours ago, Starjumper said:

He's doing it wrong

Oh? How so?

 

Just wondering because to me the feel is unbalanced too much right channel and a weak base or foundation.

[Aetherous]

I often try to analyze what different postures do, not from any particular teaching's perspective. Here's what I think about this one:

It's utilizing the throat and mouth level, corresponding to all issues related to speech and communication (can be anything related to that - even communication of qi throughout one's own body, or even becoming better at keeping our word). Hands in prayer posture, with the fingers pointed up - so there's a going inward to the center (inner self), a joining of polarities of left and right, as well as an uplifting effect related to the throat and the center (due to the fingers directing qi upward). The wrists are very extended, which I think opens up our energy, or "opens you up" to the outside world (think about an introverted person with their shoulders slouched forward, their arms crossed, fingers closed and wrists bent in...versus someone who is smiling with open gestures, and wrists extended open). The elbows are bent at a severe angle, which I think creates a kind of false blockage, so that once energy is flowing through there it flows through faster (similar to if you ever went down a waterslide, when you hit a point that curves, you speed up)...causing qi to flow through the arms to the hands more strongly once the exercise is done. Feet are on the ground at roughly shoulder width, so it's cultivating the person's ability to "stand their ground" and "stand on their own two feet", and increases/raises qi. Eyes are closed so the effect is more internal.

I imagine it's helpful for someone to practice who has to deal with a lot of situations they really hate to be in, where they feel like their throat tightens up as a result of feeling stuck and not free. Doing the posture might change their life situation, because they'd have more inner strength to be who they want to be and do what they want to do, and they'd be more likely to speak their mind honestly.

[Mudfoot]

For being a version of the anjali mudra, it is performed very high. 

It is more common to do it at heart level. 

 

Some descriptions about it talk about a joining of right/left to create a balance. 

 

I would not now for sure, this is a closed circuit mudra (hands touch) and all mudras in my tradition are open circuit (hands apart). 

 

I'm sure Winn has a point with it though. 

 

Any stance can work with the central channel, in many cases that is just a matter of developement. The question might be, what kind of work is it aiding you with in the central channel? 

As @Aetherous wrote, hands at the throat level indicates working with something in that area.

Going up, down, in or out? 

We can't see what is happening inside him. 

[rideforever]

Interesting information.  I myself use the posture to be in touch with old emotions.

I took a quick screenshot but it was as he was settling into the posture at the start.
MW also describes breathing vertically up and down the central channel.

Edited April 13, 2019 by rideforever

[Starjumper]

14 hours ago, Pilgrim said:

Oh? How so?

 

Just wondering because to me the feel is unbalanced too much right channel and a weak base or foundation.

 

I was just being sassy.  Every posture does some energy task, stupid as it may be, and I didn't feel like comparing it to the 'right' way.

 

What it boils down to is that he is holding his shoulders up, which means he has tension in his shoulders, which means he doesn't even know shit about the basics.  Same thing like that kid who teaches FP chi kung, he can wave his arms around but he always does it with tension in his face, which is worse than tension in your shoulders ... and don't ask me about Hairy Lieman.

 

 

Edited April 13, 2019 by Starjumper

[Mudfoot]

2 hours ago, Starjumper said:

 

and don't ask me about Hairy Lieman.

 

What about that dude with the thunder and lightning nei gong, was it Harry Lyeman his name was? 😂

[Mudfoot]

26 minutes ago, GSmaster said:

whatever his purpose was.

If his purpose was to get attention on TDB, he succeded. 

[Starjumper]

4 hours ago, Mudfoot said:

Quote

and don't ask me about Hairy Lieman.

 

What about that dude with the thunder and lightning nei gong, was it Harry Lyeman his name was? 😂

 

That sounds close, but since you asked:  Whenever you see 'The Grunter' just think to yourself:  "A high pressure asshole makes a high pitched fart", and then laugh in his face, spraying is ok too.

Edited April 13, 2019 by Starjumper

[silent thunder]

25 minutes ago, Starjumper said:

 

That sounds close, but since you asked:  Whenever you see one of 'The Grunters' just think to yourself:  "A high pressure asshole makes a high pitched fart", and then laugh in his face, spraying is ok too.

Oh god, you just reminded me of a doozy!

 

One of my workmates came back to our bench from the bathroom and I joked to him...

"well... everything come out alright?"

 

"oh yea, it always comes out real easy... i usually shit like a shotgun blast... shitting takes about 0.7 seconds.  The real trick is not shitting until I'm fully seated, because if I don't get a good tight seal around the seat, shitting takes under a second but the subsequent cleanup can be 20 minutes or more..."  lmfao! 

[freeform]

It looks like a paused photo during a moving exercise...

 

But I f it’s a standing posture for any sort of Qi Gong or Nei Gong  then it’s so full of errors (from the perspective of classical practice) that it’s not worth dissecting.

[Mudfoot]

5 hours ago, freeform said:

It looks like a paused photo during a moving exercise...

 

But I f it’s a standing posture 

@rideforever can you give us the answer? It is probably not yiquan, nor any other zz in a chinese system. It looks as Michael is going to lift his hands above his head, which would explain the shoulders.

 

Many styles would advocate rotating the shoulder blades rather than tensing them in this part of the movement as to open up the shoulders nest, but that is difficult in the beginning and easily overlooked if you just are taught to raise the hands. 

[rideforever]

2 hours ago, Mudfoot said:

Michael

 

It's static, but like I said I took that screenshot as he's settling in.
It's part of 3 static postures to open up channels, which include breathing techniques, they come from Master Huang from the Beijing Army Hospital who was a qigong doctor.   It's on MW's QE4 DVD, bone breathing and rooting.

[Mudfoot]

11 minutes ago, rideforever said:

 

It's static, but like I said I took that screenshot as he's settling in.

Might explain the critique in this thread. It is not the actual stance, but a caption of a transitory move. 

[rideforever]

4 minutes ago, Mudfoot said:

Might explain the critique in this thread. It is not the actual stance, but a caption of a transitory move.

 

He says something about having some tension in the arms and elbows for which perhaps the shoulders are little tensed.

[Mudfoot]

You could open (pulse) the joints and activate the arms (would feel like tension when you work with the sympathetic nervous system ) in this stance with the shoulders down. 

 

It is a common move in Shaolin Luohan Kung Fu, with both useful inner mechanics and applications. 

 

But again, nothing says that is the purpose in the captured form. 

[Mudfoot]

25 minutes ago, GSmaster said:

 

We could discuss the qualification of the guy to teach dao.

You mean make a pinjata out of him? 

[freeform]

36 minutes ago, Mudfoot said:

You mean make a pinjata out of him?

 

When you see those people that enter the ‘X Factor’ type contests - convinced they have the voice of an angel but get laughed off for their awful singing... is it the crowd making a pinjata out of them? Or did they make a pinjata out of themselves?

[freeform]

21 minutes ago, GSmaster said:

Does he teach the same thing?

 

Yes he teaches a the Healing Tao system - although even further ‘adapted for westerners’

[freeform]

8 minutes ago, GSmaster said:

did anyone meet him personally, or, paid money for healing dao seminar.

 

Yes 

 

He's a really nice, friendly guy.

 

Good businessman. Likes to enjoy life - and does. Loves being at the top of the ‘Qigong industry’. Enjoys the romanticism of Daoism.

 

He’s not a charlatan - in that he thinks what he’s doing is ‘authentic enough’.

 

But no humility.

 

I’ve met people who’ve been teaching these arts for literally decades come to one of my ‘classical lineage’ teachers and realise and admit (most importantly to themselves) that they’ve actually never done anything authentically internal ever before.

 

Michael does some pretty spectacular mental gymnastics to avoid that.

 

And speaking of gymnastics - he can’t touch his toes...

 

[rideforever]

All the criticisms of MW may be true.

But something else that is true is that he is an awakened being and has a very advanced knowledge of the internal structure of the soul, and that he is happy, and has happened to cultivate himself whilst being joyful at the same time.  I believe he was at university in California in the 60s, so he has that feeling about him.

Of him you can say .... "he made it".

 

( But that doesn't mean he doesn't over-tense his shoulders or that he can touch his toes, or that he hasn't got personal flaws. )

 

The reason I say all this is because for instance in his Blissful Breathing Qigong (QE3), which is supposedly a minor part of his structure, I happened to notice that one of the movements not only awakens and embodies chakras in the forehead, but then surrenders them vertically downwards to the dantien, and also integrates the horizontally with consciousness at the back of the head.  Wow.   I only know of one other person on the planet who even knows such things are possible, let alone someone who turned the entire practice into a supposedly simply qigong movement.

MW himself probably doesn't even realise that is what is happening, because he knows through his movement, and he knows a lot.

Somehow the mixture of being in China a lot, being a journalist, and being a hippie, has worked out for him.

 

Funny thing is I hate people who smile a lot so I don't do much of his work at the moment, but the most important thing right now  I do comes from him.

 

Edited April 14, 2019 by rideforever

[Mudfoot]

He is very into Wudang methods nowadays, isn't he? 

 

 

[freeform]

1 hour ago, Mudfoot said:

Wudang methods

 

Sadly also completely empty these days

[freeform]

2 hours ago, rideforever said:

( But that doesn't mean he doesn't over-tense his shoulders or that he can touch his toes, or that he hasn't got personal flaws. )

 

These aren’t personal flaws. They’re just normal characteristics in most of the human population.

 

But these shouldn’t be characteristics in a Qi Gong teacher.

 

Just as a shaky hand shouldn’t be a characteristic of a heart surgeon.

 

2 hours ago, rideforever said:

he is an awakened being

 

If you mean ‘awakened’ from a Daoist perspective (a Zhenren) - then no, he certainly doesn’t appear to have the qualities.

 

But if you mean in some other more general way then maybe...

 

You’re certainly right in that he’s ‘made it’ in his business life - making a good income doing what he enjoys - that’s most people’s dream. He can even just message his email list when he needs a new girlfriend! Definitely made it!

 

He hasn’t succumbed to the creepy sex guru stuff as much as many other HT instructors have (at least to my knowledge)... so in my eyes he’s actually a great guy - just not a great Qigong teacher.