Tai Chi Journal

Yet more on Wu Chi

It's Sunday. Today I skipped the Fundamental Movements and did the first nine Strength and Motion exercises from Step-by-Step Tai Chi, followed by the low-back stretching and abdominals-strengthening exercises from Backache: What Exercises Work.

I can report that my back and knee problems have been much reduced, though there's still some resicual stiffness and soreness. This, even though I've continued to exercise without a day off in three days.

Last night, I even tried some Tai Chi Walking, all the while being somewhat fearful it would make me sorry this A.M. But that didn't happen! Hallelujah!


I also took my first look at two books on Chi Gung I recently bought. Both are by Master Lam Kam Chuen, author of Step-by-Step Tai Chi. The Way of Energy is from the same publisher as Step-by-Step Tai Chi, and, like it, is filled with useful illustrations of the various positions and movements. Chi Kung: Way of Power is not as profusely illustrated, but its text seems relatively streamlined and straightforward. The two books complement one another nicely.

From them I learn that Chi Gung is not a bit simpler or less intricate than Tai Chi. It puts more emphasis on static positions such as Wu Chi, but it also utilizes movement. There is a close relationshipe between Chi Gung postures/movements and Tai Chi postures/movements. For example, Wu Chi leads off Tai Chi form, and also Chi Gung meditation.

Chi Gung is, however, the more esoteric. It specifically addresses Chi, its quantity, and its movement within the body.


I have already learned from these books some things that carry over into my Tai Chi practice. For example, in these books, as contrasted with Step-by-Step Tai Chi, Master Lam makes it clear that in the basic Wu Chi position — the "First Position" of Chi Gung — the amount of bend in your knees is not great. You simply "unlock" your knees. "You can," Master Lam says, "bend them ever so slightly." Still, you must "make sure they don't stiffen into the fixed, locked position."

Also, the arms dangle out away from the sides of the body. The illustrations in Step-by-Step Tai Chi are from the side and don't make this clear.

Also, to get the "ideal posture" with respect to the chest, you "exhale completely and allow your chest to drop."

Also, you simply "relax your hips and belly. Let the bottom of your spine unfold downward so that neither your belly nor your bottom is sticking out."

By "unfold" I take it that Master Lam means this:

(a) When you unlock your knees, your pelvis, if locked, may tend to follow your thighs forward and wind up folded upward, so let it relax and roll backward slightly, so that it unfolds downward..

(b) Or, if the pelvis is already relaxed and not following your thighs forward, it may tend to get locked in a bottom-stuck-out position. In that case, your spine winds up too folded downward. So unfold it upward by rotating the pelvis forward a bit.


Another thing I learned from the Chi Gung books is that in proper Wu Chi posture, the point on the crown of your head by which you imagine you are suspended by a "golden thread" is vertically in line with the top tips of your ears.

In turn, the Bai Hui (pronunciation: "BY HWAY"; meaning: "hundred meetings") point on the crown of your head is positioned vertically right above your Tan Tien, the point 3 centimeters below your navel and one-third of the way into your body, moving from front to back.

This is the point also referred to in this earlier post as the dan tien point (pronunciation: "DON TYEN"; meaning: "elixir field"). It has been said that in some meditation traditions you "contemplate your navel." To some extent in Chi Gung you conteplate — or are at least mindful of — your storehouse and pump for Chi, the Tan Tien.

The axis from Bai Hui to Tan Tien is, accordingly, plumb, meaning precisely vertical. This axis extends to the line between your feet which connects the points upon which your weight is centered. I assume these are the Bubbling Spring points I mentioned in my earlier posts. In terms of the front-to-back dimension of your feet, they are slightly forward of the middles of your feet. However, in terms of side-to-side weight-bearing, "the wright of your body rests in the middle of the soles of your feet.


In the Wu Chi posture, you are said to be "standing like a tree." These books tell me why. Imagine a line at the level just below your kneecaps. Above this line, your body can be imagined as the trunk and branches of a tree, "resting calmly between the earth and the sky." Below the line are the tree's roots, holding you firmly in position.

This is the imagery of which you are mindful as you do Chi Gung. It holds before you an awareness that you are solidly in contact with the earth as you are being stretched toward heaven by a golden thread attached to the Bai Hui point atop your head.


Now, after you have been long enough in the Wu Chi posture, you may move on during your practice session to the second Chi Gung position, Holding the Balloon. The way it is described is instructive.

From Wu Chi, you raise your arms into a particular position such that in your imagination you are holding a filled balloon to your chest. Your hands rest on this imaginary balloon — which can be thought of as somewhat squashed by your arms and hands. Your armpits rest on tiny imaginary balloons underneath them. Your elbows rest on slightly larger imaginary balloons.

The arm-raising comes after "a huge [imaginary] balloon takes your weight behind you, like a beach ball on the sand," Master Lam says. "Imagine you are simply resting your bottom on the edge of a high stool," he says, after he has just said, "Your knees bend as you sink downward. Your head, torso, and pelvic girdle remain gently aligned, exactly as they were in the first position."

And your separated thighs, because your knees are bent even more that in Wu Chi position, "gently hold one balloon in place."

This Holding the Balloon position, in terms of what is done with the lower body, is accordingly a more exaggerated crouch than basic Wu Chi. This is something of a revelation to me: that these basic postures vary with respect to the degree of crouch. Up to now, I had assumed they were all the same.

And so I was crouching too much for Wu Chi, and carrying that exaggerated crouch over into Tai Chi Walking. Bad mistake!

Enough for now!

posted by eric @ 11:04 AM