awakened tai chi

do try this at home

either do tai chi
whatever form you like

or fake it
move your weight from one foot to the other,
and in each shape of your feet, create a corresponding arm shape

here's the waking up part

on the foot where you have the weight:
pick a toe
sense that toe, and that whole leg up to your hip
and your pelvis
and your spine
and your ribs
and your opposite shoulder
and your opposite arm
all the way out to the corresponding finger
of that hand

so,
you shift your weight to your left foot,
your hands are in a certain configuration
you pick your left big toe
and then sense that toe
and everything between it and the right thumb,

then shift your weight to your right foot,
have the hands where you want them,
and sense everything from right big toe
to the left thumb

then keep shifting and either stay on one pair for awhile,
or work up and down your fingers each pair of moves,
but eventually you'll get all the way to right little toe and left little finger
and everything in between
and left little toe and right little finger
and everything in
between

then work your way back
or start at the thumb/ big toe again

this takes a lot of attention
this wakes up your inner connections 
big time

this is
mindfulness 
in action

not on a meditation pillow

and not trying to do the tai chi "right"

but doing the tai chi,
or whatever faking creating you are doing,
doing this movement 
awake

waking up in movement
is the easiest way to
bring our attention to now

and this version ups the game
to a LOT of attention
in each movement

and hey:
guess what, gravity is a fairly big
deal on this planet

as is
having two legs

and mindful
is full
of mind

this gives your mind a lot
of fullness

enjoy

( oh, yeah>.. it's "hard"
and we certainly can't sleepwalk through it..


enjoy
wake
try
go slower
attention is more important than effort
and
some light and skilled
effort at reigning in our attention
is certainly
useful


here
there
everything
cheers
chris

Tai Chi upgrade

If you know tai chi,
and want to radically improve the awareness/ mindfulness
benefits
try this:

start the form as you usually do
with extra attention on whether your weight is on
your left foot
or your right foot

gradually expand your awareness
so that each time you weight is on your left foot,
you add on as well
attention to your right hand,
and vice versa

do this as fully as possible:
all fingers, all toes,
the meat of the hand, the fullness of the foot
the wrist, the ankle

and in the foot
attention to where your weight is being placed

keep doing this and then add on:
selecting one digit of the "lit up" hand ( which is the
hand opposite the foot pushing down into the Earth)
select one finger of the "lit up" hand
and put attention on that finger and the equivalent toe
of the opposite/ weight bearing foot

And switch in the next posture
as your weight shifts to the opposite foot

Like this:
left foot on ground, right hand lit up: chose the thumb and the big toe
right foot bearing weight, left hand lit up: choose the little finger and the little toe

toward the middle of the foot,
those toes are "harder"
but that is the fun of it
in a way

and you'll forget to keep this
awareness game going,
maybe,
and just come on back
and "light up" your brain
as you do tai chi

Qigong part two, balance is not falling over, lengthening is reaching to heavens above and Earth below

Stand on the easiest foot

Bring the other foot back, and lightly use your toes to balance

Form a ball with your hands in front of your standing leg, opposite hand of standing leg on top

Reach up with top hand, down with other hand, arch your back, breathe out and lengthen

Come back to the ball near the hip of your standing leg with the other hand on top, ie same hand as standing leg

Then lengthen up and breathe out

Rest and do this to the other side

Now,
the advanced version

Stand on one foot; I'll say left to make it easier

Bring your right knee up toward your chest and your hands in a ball, about six inches apart,
right hand on top

Bend/ fold in a bit, so your stomach in back,
shoulders head and sternum down
pelvis tilted up (as in tailbone under, sex toward nose)

From this fold/ round/ crouch: breathe in
I know it's weird, but do it, breathe in,
and

breathe out
and lengthen,
right leg behind you and still in the air
right hand easily high above your head
arch your back
look up easily without shortening your neck toward your hand,
left hand down

Breathe in
and come into a crouch again
still on your left foot,
right knee forward again,
this time a ball with the left hand on top,

Breathe out,
lengthen left hand high, right hand down,
right leg back again,

Do this back and forth about 3 times.

Then switch to standing on your right foot
and reverse everything

this will do ya
good

ciao
chris

Let's make up our own chi kung / qigong

In English, a q is always followed
by a u
sort of a poem,
that

but qigong is fancy,
no u
and still the q

and what is qigong

Well, in wiki, you can read this WIKI QIGONG

I'll just say that when I studied Tai Chi
with Ben Low
one of the foremost students of Cheng Man Cheng
(see this video
I'm you'd like to enjoy the form I learned)


Ben said that the way we did Tai Chi
slow,
putting all our weight one foot at a time
mindful all the way out to the fingertips
relaxed body
straight spine

that was qigong

I took a few classes from a friend in
Sonoma
and the part that impressed me most was how
much it reminded me of a book title of a book
I've never read,
something about how
Conductors live Longer

To me the conductors and the qigongers
like to wave the arms up above the head

this is rarely done
this is
"good for"
all sorts of things:

breathing
using the lower back
posture
understanding how to push down to raise up
ribs
head
neck
eyes (if you look up now and then at the hands
floating up)

So, here we go:
Try this:
stand mainly on one foot
say your left, whichever is easiest

put the other foot back
and just touch with the toes of that foot for balance

in this position,
raise from waist level your right hand forward and up
in a graceful arc
arching your back just slightly as you do this
and push your left hand down and a bit back on your left side,
breathe in or out
as you do this,
or better:
try both ways

after lengthening out like this
bring your hands together near your lower belly
and switch,
so the left hand floats up high and
your right hand floats/ pushes downward

go back and forth like this
more and more
feeling the entire length
from grounded left foot
up to the fingertips of the floated up hand
and also feeling all the way to the fingertips
of the pressing down hand

if you want to get fancy
and fold in a little rounding
your back and lowering your head
as you bring your hands together
and then arching out as you separate your arms
and float one hand up
be my quest. (guest,
got waylaid by the q syndrome,
and be my
quest,
is a nice little twist on the "habitual'
isn't it?)

do this a number of times

rest

and then switch the
forward
weighted foot
and do all this with your weight on the right side

something like high at your hand
and the sky
beyond

*****
if you can get to an outdoor place
and bare foot
yourself

all the better

tai chi and life potency

TAI CHI AND POTENCY
Or: the joy of two arms
two legs
a smile
a spine
a pelvis
ten toes
ten fingers
a belly
two eyes
two ears
and
AWARENESS

On November 22, 2008, I  wrote, and had some nice pictures
of going through the tai chi form
as a series of tucking in, coiling and rounding
as a pulling in and getting ready to strike

alternating
with
arching the back, pressing from the ground through the
lengthened spine,
uncoiling
striking


Here's the link: Tuck and Coil, then Unfurl and Strike

So what more is there to say?

Tai Chi is fun.

I have another essay on why Tai Chi is grand for you,
with the usual suspects:
going slow,
connecting to yourself,
finding and knowing the use of all four limbs in space,
use of the pelvis,
use of the spine

And here I must interject that tai chi,
like yoga,
is often taught as rigidity
in the sense of demanding a "tucked in" pelvis,
which requires a tightening of the abdomen muscles
which feels like "strength"
and isn't

its a tightness that prevent injury
sort of
by preventing any movement

but, the minor problem
is
preventing movement
is preventing life

(he says, rigidly sitting at a chair
typing into his computer,
okay,
okay,
life
is funny:

and hey you: reading at this computer,
get up now
and do a little tai chi
make it up

any position will do,
just know where your arms and legs are
and then have an idea of the next position of your arms
and legs
and move there

hint:
tai chi is fancy walking
it's always shifting
from right to left to right foot

okay
up,
you and me and all of us and
play the tai chi

game

))))

okay
this is life: moving the legs,
moving the arms

and life is nothing
without being awake

and this is the real trick in standard tai chi
with its obsession with the form

perfection is death in a way
getting better and better and better
even by taking the detour of making it worse for awhile
is life

so how to be awake in tai chi:
feel the power from feet to finger tips in each
pose

feel the coiling in
and preparing for power in each transition

feel the softness in the power
feel the power in the softness

this could be mumbo jumbo
or
it
could be a lot of fun

shut down your computer and do tai chi
or pretend tai chi
for the next half an hour

treat it all as a breathing
and skeletal awareness meditation
and
be aware of everything you see
and hear
as you do
all this

good

and maybe this as the final treat

round,
breathe in,
get ready



breathe out
push out belly
push into ground and hands

brush knee this is called,
one hand pushes forward
one by the other knee

"tucking the pelvis under"

"tucking the tailbone under"

in Tai Chi

in Yoga

in whatever

lots of people
recommend this

I don't

unless you are coiling into
to expand/ punch/ push
outward afterward

loving of moving, tuck in/round, and spring out/ arch

folding in,
as in bringing belly in
tilting pelvis toward chin
round the back,
bring arms in



then, rotate to the front,
arch back,
tilt pelvis a little so butt toward head
(just a little)
head upright
spine long
push through feet and hands
and Earth




round,
breathe in,
get ready



breathe out
push out belly
push into ground and hands

brush knee this is called,
one hand pushes forward
one by the other knee


the whole of Tai Chi
except reverse Monkey
can be done as a series
of breathe in, contract, coil, round

and press up and out
expand / push/ pounce

Distinctions: Yoga/Tai Chi and the Brain vs. "normal" Tai Chi and Yoga

Some classes start soon
Saturdays,
Sundays,
Monday at 9:30 AM
in the morning

They are called Yoga / Tai Chi and the Self / Brain

First:
what is the Self?

It's the real you,
the real me,
the one who is in us,
and always free,
always aware,
always present,
always open to the experience
and the wonder
of being alive.

Some yoga classes talk
of this,
and very, very few follow through.

So be it.

The major distinctions
on a watching what we do,
how does it feel to do it
level are these:

In the yoga class,
there will never be one
RIGHT WAY
to do any pose.

Every pose will have variations,
among which you can discover
who and how you are in your
body at this day
of your life.

In the yoga class,
the pose gets to be the focus.
That's fine, in a way.

In a way,
it forgets that postures
are just positions we take
on the way to something else,
and that core to human
life is movement.

Every pose in Yoga/Tai Chi and the Brain
will have an element of movement.

In most yoga classes,
you are given
a pose,
and expected to put yourself in
that pose,
whether you are ready or not.

In Yoga/Tai Chi and the Brain
every person,
or every level will have something
to learn and to discover.

In most yoga classes "teaching"
doesn't think about "learning,"
which is:
students learn something.

In Yoga/Tai Chi and the Brain
the goal
in all parts of the class will
be to create situations of learning.

This makes "most yoga"
sound kind of punk,
doesn't it?

Oh, well.
"most yoga"
is still wonderful, as a way to get out
of a sedentary life,
and especially, if you are naturally
athletic, will give you useful
and interesting ways to get stronger.

Even there though,
"most yoga" encourages far too much
use of extra effort,
and it's really too long a story beyond saying this:

human bodies were designed to be unstable.

that instability is the key to amazing mobility.

"stabilizing" the core, or the this or the that,
comes at the expense of mobility and
really being able to use yourself
well.

And Tai Chi.

Well,
the normal way is a fixed
pattern,
done only to one side.

In Yoga/Tai Chi and the Brain
we will learn to move both ways,
and we will learn variations
within that pattern.

In "most Tai Chi," huge effort
is put,
again,
on getting the form "Just So,"
while giving lip service to relaxation.

In Yoga/Tai Chi and the Brain
the emphasis, will be on discovering
and loving your body,
and what it can do,
and what it can't do,
and the possibilities
that come open as we begin to move through
the tai chi
form.

Again,
sorry
for the snobby sound.

"Most Tai Chi"
is miles better than doing nothing.

And I hope
you'll find Yoga/Tai Chi and the Brain
a useful adjunct to your ongoing practice,
in either Tai Chi or Yoga,
or a
great way to begin a much
lighter,
and I think,
far more useful
practice
for yourself.

Who knows?

The experience
is always in each of us,
in each moment.

This is good.

Even now,
this now,
is the only one we have.

This is good.

Come experience
your Self
and your Learning
and your pleasure,
if you so wish.