Standing Meditation

I over looked this book by author Lam Kam-Chuen because the people on the cover look like they are wearing pajamas and the title translates the word Qi as Energy, and I've had quite enough of that.

The surprise is that The Way of Energy is a good summary of Zhan Zhuang, or standing meditation, and I recommend it to beginners.   The pictures are clear and the instruction straightforward.

In the biography section of the book he explains that his teacher, Yu Yongnian, was a dentist who studied in Japan before the revolution in China.  In the fifties his teacher was involved in the creation of the modern (TCM) Traditional Chinese Medicine-Qigong curriculum.  The book includes a short section about research his teacher did on the various stages people go through when they are learning to stand still.  When someone with knowledge of history reads this kind of stuff we think of the Nazi doctors.  But who knows they could have all been willing members of his work-group.

Kam's teacher's teacher was Wang Xiangzhai, the famous unconventional martial artist who invented Yiquan.  My first teacher Bing Gong, was a disciple of Kuo Lienying, who was a contemporary of Wang Xiangzhai and also studied with him.  The material in this book is very close to what I teach about standing practice from a martial arts point of view-- it is also the best qigong practice there is for health!

The second half of the book teaches the Eight Silken Brocade which is a very common muscle tendon lengthening warm-up, now almost universally referred to as ancient qigong.

The book is better than most, but it has a few problems.  The funniest of which is the last page ridiculously  titled "First-Aid."  The last line of the book is:  "If you get a burn go the your cupboard and pour soy sauce on it!"  --Ah the lost art of editing...

Hot Water

Part of my Daoist transmission was on ritual bathing. Proper bathing is very important to good qi circulation. In Chinese the word shou, (the character is in the sidebar) means long life. But another Chinese word is sometimes translated as long life too, yangsheng.

Yangsheng (nourishing life) is actually a catagory which includes many different types of practices. It is in fact the idea that gongfu, nutrition, herbs, incense, bathing, resting, stillness, qigong, bodywork (tuina), and proper sleep, are all connected and meant to be practiced together, as one thing. Sometimes scholars call this daoist hygiene practice. The practice of just one of these with out the others really has no precedent in Chinese history.
Today I went to a new Koren style public bath in San Francisco. It has a great hot tub with jets, a steam bath with herbs(my favorite), and a sauna. There is a great spot to sit down and scrub your whole body. They supply everything including a toothbrush, q-tips and a razor. I got a foot acupressure treatment too. Ahhhhhh! It's called Imperial Spa, there is parking at the KFC.  To be honest, I'd driven by the place several times thinking "mafia," but turns out it's really nice. I bought 10 entrance passes for $120.
Last weekend I went to Tassajara Zen Mountain Hot Springs for the annual NoRace. I hobnobbed with the big mucky mucks of Californian Zen, the food was great the the baths are the best in California. Highlights: Impressed by Ernest L. Brown of the San Francisco Goe Institute, he said, "You are entitled to half the board. Anytime you consider taking more or think about defense, you have created an opportunity to lose territory." And of course my childhood role model David Chadwick was his usual buoyant self.

Three Daoist Paths

What do these three things have in common?
1. Taking a step and putting your foot down with out any agenda or plan. (Like in Bagua zhang)
2. These pictures and videos of the Goddess Mazu, in Taiwan.
3. The Chinese word for fist: quan. (By linguistic extension it also means a martial arts routine which can be performed.)
The answer is they are all different parts of a processional religious tradition. This tradition of performance and ritual cuts deeply across western conceptual categories of meaning.
A few days ago I wrote about Paulie Zink, and the difficulty I had making sense of his monkey style Daoist religious performance training. When we think of African religion, a dancing ritual expert is not so hard to imagine. How about a Chinese dance that is so full of unseen power that if word spreads it is about to be performed, people run home and lock their doors?
Kristofer Schipper in his brilliant work The Taoist Body, explains that people trained in monkey gongfu also played the monkey god (who steals the peach belonging to the Queen Mother of the West) in ritual performances which had a strong religious function for Chinese communities. Such performances were part of religious celebrations, festivals and processions associated with local temples and sacred history. He also talks about Daoist puppet masters:

"Puppets are rarely called in just for the show; their power is such that they are considered invaluable aids in the battle against evil influences. A troupe is called on to exorcise these influences in the event of disaster such as fire, flood, drought, or epidemics. They also come to purify newly built houses and temples or to consecrate important offerings, either to the gods or to the orphan souls. This is because the puppets do not just represent the gods: they are the gods."
"As a rule, a marionette ensemble consists of thirty-six bodies and seventy two heads. Together, these add up to 108, which corresponds to the total number of constellations. The puppets, therefore, represent all the essences of the universe. Before the play begins, the marionettes are consecrated in the same way as the statues of the gods and the tablets of the ancestors. They are thus infused with the spiritual force of the gods they represent. So fearsome is their strength that when they chase away demons with their chants and dances, and assail invisible devils with their miniature weapons, no one dares to look. The orchestra plays, the master puppeteer recites sacred formulas, the puppets move about, but the place in front of the stage remains empty and the common people stay home behind closed doors afraid that , in a panic, the demons might take refuge in their homes, or even it their bodies."

When a puppet god puts his foot down, does he have an agenda? Or is his foot embodying the Daoist idea of wuwei: nothing is done, yet like water, nothing is left unnourished?

Student Performance

My fourth and fifth grade students at Mission Education Center in San Francisco performed this week for the rest of their school. They really rocked the school yard. The show is a demonstration of 19 weeks of training once a week for 45 minutes. Check out the video!

Weakness

How do internal martial arts work?

One way to explain it is that they improve alignment and thus improve the efficient transfer of force through the body. Alignment, in this sense, is not static alignment, it is functional alignment while in motion.

This type of 'improvement' involves moving in a smaller range. Internal martial arts measure 'range' in many different ways, but for the sake of example we can simply think of 'joint range.' When we use a smaller joint range we do it because we are looking for that percentage of joint movement which is most efficient at force transfer. We then practice movement routines which use that smaller range until they become integrated or familiar.
Perhaps surprisingly, what happens when we do this practice is that we feel vulnerable. When we move outside of our efficient range, we notice the potential for misalignment or even injury. The more actual potential to transfer force one develops, the weaker, and more vulnerable one feels.

This is not the weakness one associates with being sick, over worked, or deficient. It is the weakness we associate with sensitivity and adaptability. I posit that all increases in power are do in some part to a reduction in range of movement while in motion.

As students improve they often exclaim something to the effect of, "I'm completely unstable on my ankles!"

Fighting between student's

One way I deal with violence is to get the students to list all the possible reasons for fighting.

To protect one's body, to protect someone else, to protect property, to take property or land, to get revenge or vengeance, to protect one's honor, to humiliate someone, to intimidate someone, as a form of rough play, or in a matched fight or performance.

I then try to examine these reasons historically, so students know that they are part of what is, and has always been, normal. I sometimes pull out a twenty dollar bill and ask if students know who this person is. President Andrew Jackson got into at least 30 duels (to protect his Honor) (some say as many as 100), he also abducted his wife and chased her former husband into the woods with a knife.

Discussing duels helps students understand why they want to fight, why it's normal, and also why it is inappropriate. Most fights at school are attempts to humiliate or intimidate someone. If students understand this they are much less likely to get into fights.

Once we have had this discussion, I can sometimes stop a confrontation between students by asking them if they would like to perform a fight to the death for the rest of us.

Paulie Zink

Paulie Zink is the foremost proponent of Monkey Style Kungfu. Unfortunately he doesn't teach or perform much of the kungfu anymore, which is a big disappointment to his fans, like me.
Here is a letter I recently sent him:

I was delighted to attend your Taoist Yoga weekend at the Marin Bay Club last month and I’m just getting around to writing you a paragraph about the Daodejing so that I might receive a certificate.

My training is in Dance and Martial arts and I’ve always found yoga sort of silly; the same way I feel about weight lifting. What’s the point if you are not expressing an idea or a feeling, what’s the point if there is no ‘applicatio next day. However I convinced myself that I would at least go back to the Bayn?’ So the first day of your workshop I went home thinking I wouldn’t come back the Club on the second day and take a steam bath. Then my feelings changed.
One thing is that I noticed Don, doing the video. We used to dance in a troupe together many years ago, and I wanted to tease him about all his work as a porn star.
Another thing that changed my mind is that I started thinking about the whole teaching you received and it’s context, not just the limited focus of the class.
I teach traditional Chinese martial arts, and what is now generally referred to as qigong. I have spent a fair number of years studying Daoism. The five central practices of Zhengyi Dao (Orthodox Daoism- the oldest and most traditional/central) are zouwang (sitting and forgetting), jindan(golden elixer), ritual, daoyin, and dream. I noticed an alter for the "Three Pure Ones" on your website, so you’ve probably heard this before.
Although I do not teach it, I also learned a very traditional form of daoyin. It seems like it would fit very snugly with the material you teach. Although I didn’t learn them, I was told that daoyin also includes animal postures that are used with ‘fixed staring’ to develop the four phases (not five, this material was said to pre-date the five phases standard). The system I learned is small enough that it can be done in a tea crate or a small cave. My understanding is that it is for long solo retreats. It involves repeating vigorous sets of stretching, rolling, bouncing, pounding, flicking, rubbing slapping and sitting still.
I’m intrigued by what appears to be the combination of this hermit Daoyin with performing arts. I have the strong sense that it developed to peek the interest of children. Since I teach a lot of children I immediately experimented with teaching some of the animal postures and movements you taught. Children do indeed love them. What would it take to get you to make a video for children? I imagine it would emphasize the different types of ‘animal walks.’ My sense is that if you showed each animal in an animated way first, some children would be enticed to do the practice necessary to get ‘there.’
All this raises an interesting question. Daoism, is a religion which does not proselytize. Daoists have been known to share and teach widely, but it would really be a violation of precepts to try to convince someone to become Daoist. Yet, as a performer, someone might be able draw students to them with genuine interest in Daoism and offer something healthy or entertaining to a general audience.
There are specific Daoist precepts against Clowning as a profession, still I find it plausible that in the interest of keeping the true depth of Daoyin alive through the ages, Daoists decided to create a Daoyin lineage of performers who could make a living ‘in town.’

I have chosen to comment on Chapter 5 (Wangbi sequence) also known as Chapter 49 (Ma Wangdui sequence):

"Heaven and Earth are not humane but ruthless.
To them the ten thousand things are only straw dogs.
Likewise the Adept is not humane but ruthless.
To the Adept all living beings are but straw dogs.

The space between Heaven and Earth is very much like a bellows.
Empty yet Inexhaustible.
When pressed it puts forth great supply.

Great Learning leads to exhaustion.
Far better to remain at the center."

This is the chapter that Hanfeizi used to justify the first ever strong central government (Qin), and because of that it is impossible to imagine a China with out it.
Xiang’er says this about chapter 5: "The Adept models himself on heaven and earth. He is humane to good people, inhumane toward evil people….Thus people should accumulate meritorious actions (gongfu) so that their jing and shen communicate with Heaven. In this way, when there are those who wish to attack and injure them, heaven will come to their aid. The common run of people are all straw dogs; their jing and shen are unable to communicate with heaven. The reason for this is that, as robbers and thieves with evil intentions dare not be seen by government officials, their jing and shen are not in touch with heaven, so that when they meet with dire extremities, heaven is unaware of it."

I interpret this to mean that most people are so careless with their bodies that they experience life as an internal battle. With in this battle they are in retreat, thus they avoid experiencing things as they actually are. This commentary has a real ‘smackdown’ quality to it, yet it also tends to ‘hit the nail on the head.’
The straw dog replaced the black dog as a sacrificial form of communication (supplication, exorcism, or renewal). The black dog replaced larger animal sacrifices (elephant/bull), which were practiced in an earlier era where humans were also sacrificed to the gods as a form of communication. Shang Dynasty battles usually ended either with the enslavement or sacrifice of prisoners. Virgin girls were offered to the great rivers that facilitated the creation of Chinese civilization.
So the chapter says: All living things are locked in communication with heaven & earth, the same way a bellows functions only because it is part of the entire atmosphere, which is itself a sort of bellows. Just like a straw dog has accumulated all the past history, stories or myths which give it meaning as a sacrifice—so too, all living things accumulate a story which gets carried along. "We are all just a story and a body" (Yang Chu from the Leizi). Daoist Adepts recognize the difference between a body and a story-- and in this sense they are ruthless!

The last line, about Great Learning, is repeated in other chapters of the Laozi. I take it to mean: Life is not a struggle and the world is not in crisis.

I have read all the books on your reading list and thought you might enjoy a copy of the a reading list on the same subject I recently gave out to students. (I have included it as an attachment)

More importantly I would like to hear your thoughts on children and Daoyin. I was surprised and intrigued to hear that you only practice daoyin twice a week. What does that mean? Are you doing no daily practice? Or are you doing some other practice? I love my life in the city and I find it hard to imagine life on a ranch with out ranching.
--warm regards,

Scott P. Phillips

Plans for Youtube Lectures

Now I have another idea that I have to start working on. I want to do youtube lectures with my own mix of music, dance and martial arts. The first subject I thought would be Bagua walking; its true origins not just the unlikely stuff that we hear repeated over and over in every book, article or school.
I’d also like to do one on the real meaning of gongfu, meritorious action. And also on the real meaning of quan (fist): a routine done to commemorate any public event, but which grew out of religious processions for specific local deities between and with in villages.

Also look for more book reviews. Here is a must own reading list that I made up for the Library at the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Topics include Daoism, History and Martial Arts.

Youtube Single Whoop(ed) Video

So I finally put up a cool video with my self and Greg Mooney mixing it up. Check it out at http://youtube.com/gongfuguy

Being Double Weighted

I have said that I would write about double weighting in Taijiquan push hands (tuishou). I probably need to do a whole article but I just picked up a copy of Erle Montaigue's Power Taiji (Paladin Press 1995). Here is his website, and he has a live webcam form correction service. I'm impressed.
Here is a quote from the book:

8) "If you think that your push-hands is good and you pride yourself on not being able to be pushed over, start from the beginning again because you have not learned taijiquan. You must use this exercise to help each other to understand some very important principles of taiji. If it becomes a competition, then you are only learning push-hands and not taijiquan."

Double weighting can have many meanings, but here he is referring to a kind of defensiveness that can develop from improper practice.
This defensiveness is both physical and psychological. At the physical level I sometimes call it “defending the middle.� One can actually get good at not being pushed by sinking in between ones feet, hunkering down, and then letting the upper body and the head move freely around. This is a big mistake because you can delude yourself that you are getting good, you can convince yourself that you are winning. In reality your opponent has to ‘up the ante’ if they want to win, and if they are nice they won’t.

There are four primary push-hands movements: peng, ji, lu, an.
If you stay with these movements your practice will improve. There are also four secondary push-hands movements: cai, kao, lei, zhou. When your partner makes a mistake and leaves peng, ji, lu, an, you must respond immediately with cai, kao, lei, or zhou. The problem is that if your partner responds quickly, so must you. Zhou, for instance means use the elbow to pivot, throw or strike. In slow motion, that’s fine, but moving fast you risk really hurting your partner. Nice people will just lose.
Someone who has taken this wrong path is very difficult to convince they have made a mistake. Usually they will be convinced that they are superior to you.
If my readers want, I will link to Youtube videos of people practicing “defending the middle.�
Since this a totally new blog. I await your responses.