My body, I think, is starting to adapt to the new training elements. The leg routine is physically challenging but no longer destroys me. In fact, I can comfortably walk over six or seven miles now (my wife and I typically go for walks in the evenings), even after turning (30+ minutes) and doing stepping strikes and forms, so I think it has improved me. Furthermore, I can turn for more than half an hour again without extreme force of will being invoked, which I suppose means that my upper body is adjusting nicely to the gripping exercises and, particularly, to the zhan zhuang, and its crazy demands on my frontal deltoids and rhomboids. I wish I could say I can feel my energy level rising, but I feel mostly the same, if not a little calmer and more centered. Qi-related sensations have returned to my standing practice and meditation and even somewhat to my turning, though, so perhaps that's a symbol of progress, as is my highly increased ability to stand for longer periods. I sort of lament the fact that I don't have a high-level instructor in neidan exercises, though. If He Jinbao counts as one, then he's not offering any direct, overt instruction in the matter, nor is he doing any 'hands-on attunement' of the inner situation. It's said "when the student is ready, the teacher shall appear," so perhaps I'm less ready than I'm inclined to believe.
Since I am going this so alone (meaning without frequent direct contact with a teacher), as are most of the practitioners of Yin Style Baguazhang in the world right now, being that He Jinbao is only accessible to us for a very small fraction of the year, I've decided to stop 'practicing' bagua. Henceforth, there will be training and there will be research; the two being related since in any experientially based art, true training is an act of research. My first project is a detailed investigation of the most basic exercise in Yin Style Bagua, or at least the first one that I learned: the static Lion Opens Its Mouth standing posture, as well as that posture's role while turning. I sat contemplating last night what I would write about if I was asked to thoroughly describe the Lion representational posture, and I realized that my understanding of it must be somewhat weak. He Jinbao told us that all eight striking methods (sweeping, cutting, chopping, hooking, shocking, blocking, seizing, and grasping) of the Lion system are contained in that single posture. I'm almost certain I've felt the first four and know their location and method of action, but I'm more or less entirely lost on the last four. Finding those forces and focusing the mind upon them, either one at a time or all simultaneously, seems fundamental to the internal aspect of training Yin Style, Lion System. Therefore, I need to crystallize my understanding of the first four and develop an understanding of the last four. He Jinbao said, "Even if your body cannot produce all of the requirements of a posture or technique, focusing the yi on those requirements will eventually lead to the body finding them. Furthermore, while theorizing has its place, true development can only occur with practice and experience." Therefore, my method of research will be to search deeply mentally while focusing my intent on the requirements, trying to feel and thereby understand the forces in question. Eventually, also, I need more direct experience with what is meant to be felt in the waist and legs. Intellectually, I know this turns, that is tight, this one pushes, and that one pulls back, but experientially, I've barely touched these things.
In addition, I reckon my mind is a bit too active still, though it's much calmer than it was a month or two months ago. I may, soon, start to carefully document a huge proportion of my thoughts and thought processes in order to increase my awareness of them. I suspect my mind (xin) is still running the show and doing the job rather poorly, preventing my xin and yi from harmonizing (the first internal harmony). If I understand the source of the wildness of my xin, then I can marry it with my yi and develop much more deeply and effectively. This will require time, which luckily, thanks to my career, I have a plenitude of for the next month and a half (thought eventually, I'm going to have to start working on math again...).
2 comments:
Jim, I finished my training session for today, took a nice long shower and cleaned-up for "the 4th" activities this evening. While Cathie is getting ready, I decided to check out your blog. Comments below.
Suggestion for calming the mind - I've went thru several stages in my turning progression that each open a new level of perception of the exercise. One of which was the habit of counting my revolutions around the circle. This is something that we've discussed before and given you affinity for numbers probably comes second nature to you. I decided that counting was something that was holding me back in my development. It was focusing my thoughts on achieving a specific number of revolutions, how much revolution number 250 sucked in comparison to number 150, how many more do I have until I hit my goal for the day, or any number of thoughts that seemed to help the overall discomfort associated with holding lion posture and turning for a serious number of minutes. Basically, my intent was not on turning, but on numbers. So, I stopped counting and started "just" turning. There is a marked difference in the quality of my turning practice by just stopping the revolution count.
Now, what to do with the "wandering mind" during the time that you turn. As you know, it does take a fair amount of time to turn and our western minds can tend to wander to various non-bagua things while we turn.... especially if we aren't focused on counting. Some of my suggestions is to focus on one aspect of turning and mentally repeat it while at the same time focusing on the physical sensation. Some that I use are “squat lower”, “extend”, “hollow the chest”, “drop the shoulder”, “sink the qi” and “fingers straight”, just to name a few. I repeat them in my head similar to reciting a mantra. This allows me to have a higher quality of turning than back when I was so focused on counting revolutions. I feel that once anyone makes gains in their turning to the point that the thirty-minute mark is fairly easy then it is useless to worry about time and revolutions. Instead focus on one of the aspects that will improve your turning. Repeat it mentally as you turn. At the same time, focus on the physical sensations that are occurring in regards to your “focus”. It is just like when you start getting the correct feel for a particular exercise. First, it will only occur in approximately 20 out of 100. Then it will be 50 out of 100. Before long it will 100 out of 100 (barring any loss of focus). Eventually, the quality of your turning will start to reflect the various focus elements that you mentally recite during training in the same manner. I’ve found that in a 30 or 40 minute turning session that I will focus on several different aspects during that time. At times I just mentally recite “Stable, Accurate, Vicious, Cold, Crisp, Fast” when I get in what I consider a good solid posture. I’ve found this to be very beneficial to my personal development as it helps keep my mind off the discomfort of turning and reinforces the combative principles of YSB.
To a little higher degree and in reference to one of your earlier posts, the mental/physical connection to any of the eight striking methods contained within the Lion posture can be trained in similar manner as outlined above. Not by mentally reciting the name, but by focusing on the combination of the physical aspects of one of the striking methods, which can be realized while doing the corresponding standing exercise (think about various tensions and stretches) and the mental aspect of “thinking” about the specific striking method in relation to the Lion posture. I feel that I’ve had success with this recently with the shocking and seizing striking methods, but that will require some feedback from someone further along the path to confirm. Remind me on our next face-to-face and we’ll discuss it in detail.
Great blog and keep up the good work.
Later,
Rand
Other mantras I use:
"my waist moves my feet;"
"my waist moves my hands;" and
"I get sore too." :-)
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