Self-discipline

Having to rely on self-discipline for motivation can sometimes be a little tough, but perhaps makes one stronger in the end. Today I completed my first ninety minute Zhanzhuang session, which is a goal accomplished [but not the end goal]. I have been struggling with the mind stuff for a few months now, but have lately been inspired by an article I was reading on the Internet about Tian Zhaolin. It mentions in the article about the various training that Tian Zhaolin had to do when he first started training Yang family Taijiquan and the discipline that he was subjected to around the beginning of the 20th century, "During the stake [Zhanzhuang] practice , should one of them move even the slightest, old Jianhou would quickly come over to strike that person sharply with his long-handled smoking pipe."

So in order to remind myself that I need to be diligent in practice I have started to think about what those guys had to go through back in the 'good old days'. Many of us have it easy in martial arts training these days and we are mere 'lightweights' compared with previous generations. Those guys were tough because the training was tough, and that is how martial arts should be I believe, after all the meaning of the Chinese word 'Gongfu' is 'skill acquired through great effort' is it not?

It was also interesting to discover when reading the article the many similarities between the training programme that Tian Zhaolin went through and the training programme that my teacher's students and I have to now go through. And as my teacher's lineage has no relationship with the Tian Zhaolin lineage [apart from sharing the same master/s of course] then for me that adds some authenticity to the descriptions and claims made in the text.

Anyway authentic training or otherwise, the most important thing is diligent practice of course, so it's 'nose back to the grindstone' and ninety minutes and onwards!

Self-awareness

According to the Yang family's own manuscript Taijiquan [太極拳] goes by another name, that is Zhijue yundong [知覺運動] or 'an exercise [system] for [developing] self-awareness'. What did the Yang family mean when they wrote those words?

Actually what made me think of all this was when I was reading a BBC article about Buddhist meditation. The article explains the processes and goals of meditation much more eloquently than I can, so I've included a short section for your entertainment.

"...successful meditation means simply being - not judging, not thinking, just being aware, at peace and living each moment as it unfolds.

In Buddhism the person meditating is not trying to get into a hypnotic state or contact angels or any other supernatural entity.

Meditation involves the body and the mind. For Buddhists this is particularly important as they want to avoid what they call 'duality' and so their way of meditating must involve the body and the mind as a single entity.

In the most general definition, meditation is a way of taking control of the mind so that it becomes peaceful and focused, and the meditator becomes more aware.

The purpose of meditation is to stop the mind rushing about in an aimless (or even a purposeful) stream of thoughts. People often say that the aim of meditation is to still the mind..."

Although Taijiquan [太極拳] practice is generally considered to be related to Daoism and not Buddhism, I believe the fundamentals, from a practice and philosophical point of view, share few differences and many similarities, and there is a clear goal written in the words above which I believe correlates directly with the notion of an 'an exercise [system] for [developing] self-awareness'. Once this 'self-awareness' is developed to a suitable level, it can be directly incorporated into the practitioners martial arts practice, and form the basis for the further development of relevant skills.

Another reason that made me think of the Buddhist and Daoist connection is that in Taiwan Zhanzhuang [站樁] is also know as Lichan [立禪] which when translated means 'standing Zen meditation'. This name implies a Buddhist connection, but I believe that the Taiwanese in general do not make such clear philosophical and conceptual distinctions between practitioners of meditation as perhaps we attempt to do in the West, and those distinctions are probably best left to the academics to mull and angst over.

Is it not more beneficial for us to just get on with the meditation than to apply our 'intellectual' dualistic prejudices to our own practice?

As Zhuangzi [莊子] considered after waking from a dream, "Am I Zhuang Zhou [莊周] who has just dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he is Zhuang Zhou?"

Peace and quietude

My teacher said to me recently that one of the keys to understanding Taijiquan is attitude of mind, this is one of the first things to learn. I have heard and read this many times from various teachers, but I think that today is the first time that I've really understood what it means, and how to achieve some level of stillness of mind. Not because of an achievement, but because of a failure. The failure came after I planned a ninety minute Zhan Zhuang session for this morning, but failed because I had not prepared my mind [I could only stand for twenty minutes, much less than normal]. Yesterday evening my wife and I had a small disagreement that made me feel annoyed, and that feeling undermined my chances of successfully completing the Zhan Zhuang session.

I realised that developing Zhan Zhuang is not necessarily about physical endurance [although I accept that it may be for some] it is about state of mind, meaning that in order to stand for extended periods of time, one needs to be in a state of quietude. I discovered that if the mind is vexed in some way then too many distractions upset the mind's ability to endure standing still for a long period of time.

The outcome is that I have to keep a good relationship with my wife [and others in life] in order to maintain a state of appropriateness. This is one of things that I really like about the style I'm learning now, the method requires that one's life be in order otherwise one cannot practice correctly or successfully. As we all know, one of the keys to health and longevity is to have a stable and regular lifestyle, and it appears that it would be virtually impossible to call oneself a practitioner of this style without that stability and regularity.

So as you can see the method encourages the development of good habits and good habits support the development of the method, sounds like a "win-win situation" to me, right?

How Long?

A rather appropriate Zen story I thought :-)

A martial arts student went to his teacher and said earnestly, "I am devoted to studying your system. How long will it take me to master it." The teacher's reply was casual, "Ten years." Impatiently, the student answered, "But I want to master it faster than that. I will work very hard. I will practice everyday, ten or more hours a day if I have to. How long will it take then?" The teacher thought for a moment, "20 years."

For this story and more click here

Emission control

As you may or may not be aware the free flow of semen and the random use of the male sex organ were highly frowned upon by Daoists. Not necessarily because they considered undisciplined sex to be immoral, but because the loss of semen was directly correlated to the loss of the essence of life itself. The simple equation being "the more you lose, the more likely you are to die young" and as a consequence lessen the chance of living long enough to become an immortal.

The Daoists were/are fond of many methods and prescriptions for nourishing life known as Yang Sheng zhi Dao [養生之道] in Chinese, which include/d fasting, strict dietary regimens, herbal therapy, breathing techniques, callisthenics, acupuncture, and moxibustion. These are all probably familiar to most Taijiquan practitioners, but I wonder if regular emission control should actually be a fundamental part of Taijiquan practice for all practitioners, as it would have been for the Daoists that created the martial art?

Actually it appears that the development of a strong healthy flow of Qi through the Renmai and Dumai channels is virtually unattainable without regular emission control. The Renmai and Dumai vessels run along the central axes of the human body. Renmai runs along the front while Dumai runs along the spinal cord.

Last year I went to a Chinese doctor in London complaining of lower back pain, he told my wife that the cause of the trouble was that my Kidney Qi, did not flow/function correctly and that was caused by improper use of my "little brother". At that time I was not clear exactly what he meant, but the more I read about the concept of Kidney Qi the more I can understand the importance of what he said.

According to the theory the Dumai channel originates in the male or female sexual organ, runs along the spine and connects to the kidneys and the brain, the two most important organs of the human body. If the two most important organs of the human body are not functioning correctly due to the overuse of another important organ, then it is not surprising that an imbalance can occur and illness manifest itself.

This is all very interesting, but as you can probably tell I'm still a novice when it comes to understanding this stuff, but the important thing for me to do is to get know my body and its function a little better in order to get the best from it. Learning a sense of awareness about oneself is an important aspect of Taijiquan practice that I'd forgotten about many years ago, and I'm now revisiting with a renewed vigour and enthusiasm.

Yang style convert

Contrary to popular belief there are still Yang style practitioners who can handle themselves and are teaching Yang style in its unadulterated form [or as near as you are likely to find in this day and age].

I have to tell you that where I come from "modern" Yang style Taijiquan is ridiculed for its ineffectiveness as a martial art, so I'm very surprised to find myself a "Yang style convert", but stranger things have happened I guess. Many changes have had to happen already since moving to Taiwan, so perhaps it was inevitable that this change would come too!

But in order to progress in this style one has to master the "esoteric aspects" before one can move on to learn the "hands-on stuff". Luckily, I have more patience now than in my youth, and more prepared to take my time to learn something new. I'm not necessarily looking for a "fast-track" learning experience, and I'm very happy to just go with it and see where it all leads.

:-)

Keeping it simple

In my "simple" world I like things [at least in their basic form] to be clear and concise, so that it's easy to get to grips with the fundamentals; thus I've created for your "entertainment" a clear and concise lineage diagram that shows the core Taijiquan masters that are considered to be the pioneers for all the modern stuff that we see and practice today.

I have purposely left out such personages as Wang Zongyue and various members of the Chen family and the Zhaobao people, as they did not feature in the initial popularization of the collection of martial arts practice that make up the broad Taijiquan curriculum. So much controversy surrounds their input that I've only tried to include [in the broadest possible way] the two main sources of the martial art, that is Chen Wangting and Zhang Sanfeng, along with the verifiable masters from the 19th century [Jiang Fa being a necessary exception that needed to be included I feel].

The pioneers that make up the bottom row of masters all worked hard during the formative years of the "Republic of China" [1911 onwards], and established Taijiquan as a formal martial art that could be taught to all comers, as opposed to a "secret" art that was generally passed from master to disciple.

This was actually a massive shift in emphasis of practice and actually [in my view] led to the mess we have today, of highly modified forms, dubious practices, and a whole spectrum of so called Internal Martial Arts that are squeezed under the collective banner known as Taijiquan; yet probably have little to do with the martial arts that were taught during the 19th century that made Taijiquan famous. But then without this situation few of us would have heard of the martial art, let alone have a chance to learn it, or at least a bit of it, even though we cannot tell now which bits are original or otherwise.

However, we have to live with what we've got, although it is interesting to ask how is it that no one now can emulate Yang Luchan's success with any of the current variants of the martial art?

Any mistakes, omissions and general boo-boos are all of my own creation and I apologise in advance for any offense they may cause!

Please click on the diagram to enlarge:-)