Yang Family Tai Chi Discussion Board

WB

Absolutely. The Yi is part of the 'equation/process' that creates taiji movement - as soon as you use it to reflect on the effects of that process - the process itself changes.

Taiji is about creating an 'enviroment' for the movement to occur, rather than creating the movement or simply moving.

So - I think you are right - stick with the process rather than the result.

Stephen

[This message has been edited by Anderzander (edited 06-03-2005).]

Greetings WB,

I am working on the bubbling well, rooting, Central Equilibrium, keeping elbows down, and respecting continuity of intent in my movements.

Take care,
Audi

Louis?

share where you are with us?

fruitarian moon poetry

--Louis

:-0

is that an alternately named posture?

LOL...

Oops, guess I was a bit too harsh yesterday in my posts. Louis and I have a slight difference of approach in reading Chinese, probably in part caused by differences in our backgrounds: I studied linguistics and lived for many years in Taiwan and tend to take a more 'ordinary language' approach, while Louis has a more literary and academic background, I think. The result is that I tend to think of Chinese words and sentences as having more discrete and simple meanings while Louis tends be be a bit more open-ended and look for associations and entailments. Louis is also better read in taiji literature than me. Both have good points and bad...

However, I do stick with what I was trying to say yesterday that there is no special taiji meaning for the names of the points on the acupuncture meridians. These have the same status in Chinese as anatomical terms in English. They are part of the backdrop of Chinese culture and accepted casually by Chinese in ordinary conversation. So when a Chinese hears 'welling spring' he does not really think much about the component syllables of the name but rather of a place on his foot. That is the only point I was trying to make.

Never mind that Jerry

tell us what you are working on?

Well we had an unusually rainy winter and spring here in the SF Bay area and I generally practice on a flagstone area in my back yard. So I was practicing less and less during the winter and there were even a few weeks when I stopped completely. I got divorced and was depressed for a while too which contributed to this lapse. So mainly I am just trying to practice more. Some things that I've been concentrating on these days are smoothness, continuity, footwork in diagonal flying.

I'm working on: rooting through the bubbling well, relaxing the waist and hips to root the torso through the legs, not dipping my head to maintain central equilibrium, using the felt-sense of central equilibrium to correct head posture/gazing direction, using the mind to guide the body in a single unbroken trajectory that is _precise_. For example, in making the waist turn from roll back to press I have a tendency to go too far to the right, internally, so I'm trying to maintain a tighter intent so as to maintain a tighter and more precise curve with no wasted motion or internal detours. It's like driving around a curve: the difference between aiming correctly and holding the wheel at the precisely the right angle and turning it smoothly; or having to make many small steering corrections in the middle.

Kal

Sorry to hear about the divorce, Jerry.

Take care,
Kal

Jerry

I'm coming your way from the UK next year - would you drop me a mail at Anderzander at ntlworld.com

Steve

[This message has been edited by Anderzander (edited 06-09-2005).]

Greetings All,

One thing I’ve been concentrating on in my form practice is the injunction to “contain the chest.” I thought I had a fairly good grasp of the practice, but I’ve discovered that I was only really aware of it in certain postures. I’ve been trying to integrate it into the whole form, so that I focus on “containing the chest” in movement and transition rather than in ending postures only. I’m finding that this focus is helping me to feel more of a connection between my two arms, and a greater sense of arm movement being integrated with my torso. I’ve also been noticing a difference in the way the more extended and stretched-out postures feel as a result of containing the chest. Overall, it seems to enhance the focus on the torso as opposed to the limbs, and on core movement as opposed to peripheral movement. It also occurs to me that the notion of containing the chest is just another aspect of the all important requirement to fangsong.

Take care,
Louis

the way i understand it,a press is a push, a push is a press. you can do a press(actualy a push) in just about any direction. push, i think, is always done in a downward motion, youre com-pressing the opponents mass downwards first, then your really guiding the person away on the release as oposed to an actual push.