Tai Chi’s Unseen Power

Where does Tai Chi’s strength or power come from?

Many of us have seen Tai Chi masters can send their opponent a few steps away with ease, some masters never even touched their opponent at all. look at this 92-year-old tai chi master used tai chi push hand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL2s07_oQZA

Where the unseen power comes from? This power in English doesn’t have a word for it, in Chinese it is called ‘劲/jin’ , it is like Qi’s gathering from the whole body and the earth, this Qi stores every where in Tai Chi masters’ body, every cell is full of it, and they can feel it. How to collect and feel this ‘劲/jin’ in the body? The best way is giving the body a chance to align with heaven and earth and let it to do its healing work, there’s a method called million pound posture, Standing Like a Tree or Stand Post.

If there is one exercise I have to pick from thousands, it would be this one, Stand Like a Tree, for we are told and I have experienced, when we don’t move outside our inside start to move, it starts to heal itself, we are getting ourselves out of the way, the body knows how to heal, go back to its best and natural self again as long as we give it time, don’t interrupt its process.

There are two posts are the most used by Qigong masters and Tai Chi masters, these posts allow the practitioners to be grounded on earth like their feet grow root, making them solid and steady like mountain, unmovable.

Mother Posture

Parallel your feet, heels hold more body weight naturally like, if you feel centred of your feet holds the main body weight is ok, for we are different build, let’s say 70% of the weight on centre or heel, the rest spread to the rest areas. Imagine your feet grow roots under the floor which will give you more stability.

Your toes, knees and body are pointing the same direction, forward, and knees gently bend.

Your waist sits on your hips naturally, like you are sitting on a high chair which you can use to hold your weight.

Your back is stretched and your tailbone is tacked in or turn the tailbone forward, lifting up the anus, gently stretch the gluteal muscles outward and downward, and then gently converge forward and inward, just like the buttocks wrap the pelvis, and like the buttocks hold up the lower abdomen.

Chest holds in slightly and back lift up.

Drop down the shoulders and elbows.

Chin is tacked in.

You feel the top of your head, crow point is tied to a string which is pulling you upward,

Keeping the joints open, and muscles relaxed.

Looking forward slight below your eye level, without looking anything particularly or focus on one thing, or you can simply close your eyes and focus inward. Breathing from your Lower Dan Tian which is below belly button 3 inches area.

Lift your both arms up about shoulders height, fingers pointing each other, a bit upward, feeling your arms are holding a balloon, you don’t want it to drop it down and you don’t want to squeeze it neither, feeling the inside space of your arms are real and feeling the arms are supported from the centre of earth, pass onto your body, feet, legs, hips, waist, pass onto your arms; some people support the arms from the centre of their body’ Qi/’劲/jin, constantly, but not arms muscle.

At the beginning your arms will be supported by your arm muscles, but the more you are looking for the bodily Qi the less you will use your arm muscles, once you can use more Qi/’劲/jin than muscle you will feel all your doing is less effort. Because this 劲/jin is everywhere in the body and constantly.

The key point is we need to feel 70% inward movement while relax and loosing all the tension, and 30% of our attention goes outside.

This posture will allow your body to heal itself and get everything flows freely and smoothly.

Peace posture

if you feel tired from holding your arms high for Mother Posture, you can drop your arms down to your waist height. You hold a balloon there, not let it drop, and not to squash it, so your hands aren’t slack, but filled with Qi and awareness, you aware everything inside yourself and outside yourself.

Everything stays the same as Mother Posture, relaxed but alert, not to fall asleep.

This posture can nourish our kidney Qi, where is all life begins, it will strength our legs and help our body flow freely, just constantly trying to relax your whole body, remain all joints and channels open, spine straight.

Why Tight Inside & Relax Outside

Bike example: Imagine if you find your bike’s one or more strips are loose, so the wheel of your bike won’t be that supported and the circle might ruin, the bike function won’t be as well, what would you do? You would tight the axle where the strips go loose. Our inside, trying to have our spine straight and firmly sits on the hips, which acts as the axle, the better body alignment inside out the more relaxed the outside will be, our facial expression, our tonality, our body language act as the circle of the wheel. When the inside is right the outside will follow.

Whip Example: Do you know how to crack a whip? Imagine in your hand you hold the handle of a good whip in your dominant hand firmly, standing firmly on your both feet, send the lash crack in the air, no one would like to be hit by that whip, right? But if you lash is too tight, not in a loose state, can you make your whip works as effectively? Of course not. And the lash acts as the joints, muscles of your body. Meaning we need to be relaxed deeply to have power released from within.

Reminder

No matter in the walk or stand posture in Tai Chi or Qigong, the practitioner is asked to loose up the body completely, only then the power can be gathered quickly in the body, for only when the body is loose (the channels are open) the Qi can travel with ease. So Tai Chi’s power is coming from everywhere and sent to one point when it is decided. Remember if we don’t feel powerful, meaning we aren’t relaxed enough, our unseen power comes from relaxation.