THE SECRET OF SONG

One of the many things that you must do when doing tai chi chuan is to be song. In many tai chi chuan articles, song is translated as relax. Personally, I think it is more proper to translate song as loose.

The word ‘relax’ gives the impression of resting or doing things without having to exert effort. This is not entirely correct in describing song of tai chi chuan. To be song means your body, muscles, tendons and ligaments are not fastened or pulled tight and allowed to move around freely without any restraint. However, internally your mind is sharp, concentrated and alert.

It is very important to understand correctly what song is. If you missed this by an inch, you will end-up thousand miles away. The secret of song is to emphasize internal first and external second. Internally, you embrace the alertness of a cat about to pound on a mouse; full of alertness and concentration. You feel and are aware of every inch of your physical movement and internal sensations. Externally, you let loose of all stiffness and physical tensions. If you can do this, you are in line with the yin yang concept. Internally your mind is concentrated and chi excited (yang), and externally you are soft, loose and without strength and tensions (yin).

This is called excites the shen (mental) and calms the chi. This is the secret of song. If you are able to do this, song will gradually give rise to nei li (internal strength).

So the next time you do taichi, pay more attention internally.

THE SECRET OF TAI CHI GONG

The fighting effectiveness of tai chi chuan is not in its techniques nor strategy, but in its internal power and strength, also known as taiji gong. To acquire tai chi gong, you need to practice tai chi chuan routine with full alertness and scrutinize what is going-on internally.

Let me give you some hints; your tai chi gong will not develop without you engaging your mind in your tai chi chuan training. The stronger is your 'yi', the better it is for the development of your chi and jin. Firstly, consciously learn to 'fang song' and be absolutely clear that the sole purpose of your song is to facilitates the smooth flowing of chi and development of jin. You don't do song for the sake of doing it. Everytime you fang song, also try to feel the presence of your internal energy. Never mind if you don't feel anything in the beginning. If you persist you will feel it eventually. When you are alert and song enough, you will notice a strong presence of chi.

Then with this feeling of energy, you train to perfect your body alignment and coordination. Again, in each movement feel how strength is connected and flows from one part of your body to another. When you are aware of how strength is integrated in your body, you will begin to apprehend what is pengjin; an important jin in tai chi gong.

With more training and improved internal alertness, you will be able to feel more and more how chi and jin flow through each part of your body. This alertness will enable you to explore other internal skills like sinking, expanding, absorbing, lifting, adhering and etc more easily. Only by looking internally will you be able to realise internal kungfu or gong. This understanding will alleviate your tai chi chuan beyond external techniques.

So friends, engage your mind and look internal when doing tai chi chuan as it is not called internal art for no reason.

SEX CHI KUNG

Chi kung or qigong can be used to cultivate sexual energy and improve vitality, sexual health, pleasure and eliminates many common men's ailments. Qigong exercise of this nature is best performed with the bladder comfortably empty. This men's sexual qi gong exercise tonifies the male endocrine system, increasing overall vitality, sensuousness, centeredness, and turns uncomfortable bottled-up sexual desire into relaxed, enjoyable sensuality.

Here is how you do it; sit comfortably, either cross legged or on the edge of a chair and make sure you are not in a drafty or cold area. Relax yourself and settle the mind. Spend time loosening-up all the tensions in your body starting from head all the way down to the toes. Imaging the tensions and stiffness in your body as a block of ice melting away. When your breathing starting to slow down and deepen, your chi or qi will naturally sink to dantian (an area located 3 inches below naval). This stage normally takes 5-10 minutes to attain after your quiet down your mind and relaxed your body. Your dantian will feel inflated, tingling or warm. This is the sign of the presence of chi.

You then visualize chi as energy. When breath-in imaging this energy circulate to a point called mingmen. Mingmen is located directly opposite dantian at the back of your body. When breath-out, imaging the energy flows to huiyin acupoint located right between anal and the reproduction organ. Do not force the breathing and the energy flow. Breath naturally, let your breathing settle naturally and deeply, and let the energy flow slowly and smoothly but abundantly. Start with 7 circulations and work your way up to 49 circulations.

Once you are comfortable with this exercise of circulating the energy between mingmen and huiyin acupoints. Visualise the energy also flows through the penis before completing a full circulation to huiyin acupoint. In short, when breath-in, energy flows from dantian to mingmen. When breath-out, energy flows from mingmen to penis and then to huiyin completing a circle. Do this 7times. Do it naturally and do not force. In 2 weeks to 1 month you will have abundant of sexual energy.

You will even feel more energized after intercourse.

ARE THERE SECRETS IN TAI CHI CHUAN?

Are there secrets in tai chi chuan? Yes, if you don't have a knowledgeable instructor. Tai chi chuan is a very profound martial art and if you don't practice correctly, you will not be able to master the true essence of tai chi chuan. However, if you have a qualified and knowledgeable instructor, chances are he or she will not keep any secrets from you. Gone are those olden days when martial arts were kept as family pride and secrets where only sons were taught and not daughters and outsiders. It was feared that daughter may divulged the family secrets to her husband and subsequently he may shared the same with his family members.

Today, most tai chi chuan masters I've met are eager to pass on their knowledge to the next generation as they feel it is their obligation and responsibility to do so. But if there is truly no secret, why are they so many serious tai chi chuan practitioners still fail to acquire real skills in tai chi chuan? The answer lies in at least 3 faults.

Firstly, unlike karate, tae kwon do, judo, boxing and so on that require a lot of physical training, tai chi chuan is comparatively more difficult to grasp because it requires students to explore internally. It requires students to quiet the mind and observe internal feelings and sensations to gain understanding and mastery. Even if right instruction (or some may prefer to called it secret) is given, students may still not get it because it takes time and hard work to understand internal stuff. Take for example the instruction of 'fang song', many understand it as relax. Which in actual fact is let loose and it must have the quality of pliability and full mental alertness. Song is the pathway to internal force or jin. Within this softness of song, students must seek hardness which is the internal strength or nei li. The instruction (secret) is simple and easy but the work required is humongous. Lao Tze said the most profound things are often the simplest. Song in tai chi chuan is definitely one of the example.

Secondly, many students today are too eager. They want to know the A to Z of tai chi chuan in one week. After 2-3 years of practice they want to be as good as their masters who had probably spent 20-30 years in tai chi chuan. Before they fully grasp the essence of one skill, they already moved on to the other. Unfortunately, many of tai chi chuan's higher skills must be build on top of those so-called lower skill (in fact, it is wrong to segregate this way). Example, in push hands, before students can master the proper and correct way of neutralizing, they already moved on to other advance skills like emitting force or applying fancy techniques on each other. This way, even if they knew the secret, they will not be able to manifest it entirely and skillfully.

Thirdly, most of the time a student who is not ready or have not reached a certain level of skills yet will not be able to grasp any higher instruction or secret even if told. A person who is not song enough and haven't acquire the internal skill of fang song will not understand how to sink. Similarly, a person who haven't achieved internal body alignment will not understand how to derive internal strength or peng jin (ward-off force), he will probably use muscular strength instead and so on.

They are many more reasons why even secrets have been told and students still unable to gain real skills. I've just shared a few of them. In tai chi chuan it is said a teacher can only guide you through the door but you alone have to walk the journey. In your tai chi chuan training, it is always good to once a while take time off and reflect on past instructions that had been told to you. You never know your instructor could had transmitted secrets to you but you failed to notice.

Happy training.

TAI CHI CHUAN IS THE MANIFESTATION OF TAO

When all people know beauty as beauty, ugliness arises.
When all people know good as good, evil arises.
Thus being and non-being generate each other.
Difficult and easy complement each other.
Long and short form each other.
High and low support each other.
Tone and voice harmonize each other.
Front and back follow each other.
(Tao Te Ching)

One of the keys to Taoist thought is the recognition of dualities as one. All processes have active and passive principles. All physical conditions have opposites. All mental perceptions have differentiation and comparison. Most failures come from thinking of the dualities as polarities. Instead of seeing opposite actions and aspect as complementary, we label one as good, automatically making the other bad, and try to ignore or eliminate the other.

Tai chi chuan is the manifestation of this principles (Tao). When opponent attack, we yield to unite with his motion. When opponent retreat, we advance. When he is yin, we will be yang. When he is yang, we change and complement as yin. There is no conflict and struggle, merely harmonizing and balancing to make the motion whole.

If you truly understand and able to grasp this yin yang principle, your tai chi chuan skill will improve dramastically. They will be no opponent you cannot handle no matter how skillfully they are. Tai chi chuan is called the ultimate supreme boxing not for nothing.

EMPTINESS IS THE TRUE NATURE OF EVERYTHING

One day the Fifth Patriarch of Chan Buddhism named Hung Jen told all his disciples to express their wisdom in a poem. Whoever had true realization of his original nature (Buddha Nature) would be ordained the Sixth Patriarch. All the monks persuaded the most senior monk named Shen Shiu to compose a poem. They regarded him the most learned and best candidate to take over from the aged Fifth Patriarch. Shen Shiu obliged and wrote the following poem on the temple's wall:

The body is like the wisdom tree,
The mind is like a bright mirror in a stand,
Take care to wipe it all the time,
And allow no dust to cling.

The poem was praised by all the monks. In this poem Shen Shiu expressed his understanding that one must guard the mind all the time and exert great efforts to free it from desires and false thoughts. The Fifth Patriarch read it and knew that Shen Hsiu had not yet found his original nature. Then there was this young monk named Hui Neng who was lowly regarded by many monks because he was young and illiterate. Hui Neng was not aware of the Fifth Patriarch's intention for calling the poem writing contest. Hui Neng couldn't even write, so he requested a layman to help him write down his poem beside Shen Shiu's poem, which read:

Fundamentally no wisdom tree exists,
Nor the stand of a mirror bright.
Since all is empty from the beginning,
Where can the dust alight?

When the Fifth Patriarch read it the next morning, he immediately knew Hui Neng had enlightened to the Buddha's nature but he pretended that he wasn't impressed with this poem either. In the middle of the night he summoned Hui Neng to his room. The Fifth Patriarch gave him the insignia of his office, the Patriarch's robe and bowl. Hui Neng was told to leave for the South and to hide his enlightenment and understanding until the proper time arrives for him to propagate the Buddha Dharma. Hui Neng's poem clearly expressed his deep penetration of the subject matter. Everything is empty in nature. It is the mind that associates meanings and feelings to them hence, we become attached to them. If we can see through this and realized our own true self nature, attachments will cease to exist and so will suffering.

The next time when you feel angry and disturbed, take a moment to reflect on this; does the anger you are feeling right now really exist? Look deeper how does it feels like to be angry? What are the physical sensations that you are experiencing and so on. You will then realized that 'anger' does not exist, it is void and empty without 'self'. Anger is but a combination of many bodily and emotional sensations. It does not exist on its own. As soon as you can step back and look at it, stare at it, it will vanish. Since all is empty from the beginning, where can dust (in this case anger or whatever feelings) alight?

Same principle applies in Tai Chi Chuan push hands. If we do not resist and be empty, no matter how hard and strong our opponent pushes, his force will have no place to land. If we can achieve this, we will not be affected by anything and we will always be in control of ourselves.

Cheers.