Isolation and integration

For the past few days (ie. years) I've been learning interesting things about specific elements of standing... rooting through the feet, rising from the upper back/neck, opening the hips, energy meridians...

Focusing on one angle reveals important details, yet often I lose myself in that area (ie. wow this rooting thing is awesome, or holy shit I can feel my entire thumb-big toe meridian) and my scope of awareness narrows. When I noticed this I re-expand my scope of body consciousness, maintaining awareness of the detail (feet, knees, hips, neck, hands, etc.) within the context of my entire physical (and energy) body.

Awareness scope and intensity seem to have an inverse relationship, which is what makes zooming in on one part so seductive... yet as soon as I tune out of my larger body, tension creeps in! Where tension begins, qi stagnation occurs... compromising my entire practice. The micro is key... within the macro. Detail in context!

This oscillation between isolation (where intense learning can occur) and integration (where that learning is incorporated into my practice) is a natural process perhaps... I'm just surprised how persistently I'm having to reestablish my comprehensive awareness...so easy to lose the forest for the trees.

The power of rooting

Since beginning iron shirt, I spend 80% of my time in horse stance, doing "embracing tree". Horse stance is famous and is used in several qigong flavors... yet in iron shirt the postural instructions are very specific:

-- feet shoulder width apart
-- second toes aligned with heels, pointing straight ahead (feels weird at first!)
-- weight distributed evenly between heel, ball of foot (front-inside edge of foot) and outside edge of the foot
-- bend knees (of course)
-- tuck tailbone (sink + curve forward)
-- straighten back
-- "open" spine and allow each vertebrae to fill with energy and rise slightly upwards
-- "float" head as if suspended from heaven by string

This is a lot to keep in mind (especially when you are not supposed to be "thinking" at all!)...and over the past couple months I have discovered a few details that have amplified my qi concentration powers greatly. One of the most striking is the importance of rooting!

I have always visualized my body energy flowing through the "bubbling well" points at the bottom of my feet into the earth (and vice versa)... yet the specific postural alignments and iron shirt horse stance radically increase my sense of energy flow. There are many key points... here are my thoughts for just the feet:

-- bubbling well points are two thirds up your foot from your heel (I used to think of them directly in the middle)
-- weight is distributed evenly between the tripod of points described above (ball of foot, outside edge, heel)
-- toes are also touching yet not really bearing weight
-- "claw" the ground with the ball of your foot and outside edge... (not toes)... not actually moving, more of an intention... the beginning of a movement... let's call it a proto-movement

There are many more postural points to be aware of as you go up the body... these foot-points have helped me improve my rooting tremendously though, which in turn has had a huge impact on my overall practice. I'm raving about it because I'm really surprised myself...(!)...

Iron shirt revolution

On my recent two month travel through Asia, I took the opportunity to study a new flavor of to go... iron shirt, as taught by Mantak Chia.

Similar in many ways to the taoist qigong I've been practicing for four years, yet many differences in the details. Actually, different in that there are many details... perhaps a dozen key postural points to keep in mind for the spine alone, for example.

I've been spending 20-30 minutes per day doing a mixture of three exercises; embracing tree, golden urn yin and golden urn yang. I notice dramatic increases in energy levels, speed of concentration and cohesion (comprehensive awareness) of energy meridians! After such a long time of freestyle, initially the iron shirt stance felt slightly awkward and forced... yet within a week I was achieving results EVERY session that I could only have expected once in awhile from an extraordinary session with my freestyle techniques.

Granted, this is fresh for me and I'm going a bit about it... yet it's been almost 3 months of daily practice, and I can't see myself abandoning this new path. Very exciting stuff.