Yin-Yang-Yoga

Author: chibotaichi

  • Flip It If You Gotta

    The Law of TaiJi tells us that there is always something to be uncovered if we believe we have arrived at a conclusion.

    When we dream up our ideal life, we rarely consider what suffering is included.

    We talk about the qualities we want in a partner, but rarely acknowledge what kind of quirks we can reasonably tolerate.

    We play the (unduly simplistic) Opposites-Game.

    I want this quality which I like.

    I don’t want this quality that I do not like.

    Which qualities that you don’t like do you want? Which qualities that you want are you happy to do without?

    See how this works?

    I’ve been thinking about the Practice of keeping a Grattitude Journal after listening to a Sharon Salzberg lecture, but I know from experience that I don’t fare well with the conventional approach to this Practice.

    List three things, each day, that you are grateful for. Easy enough, but it quickly becomes a merely cerebral exercise and feels like a chore. It feels like the kind of forced and potentially-fake positivity that is so pervasive in the SocialMedia landscape.

    So I poked around my mind for awhile, and it became clear that I could also ask myself, what are three things I’ve taken for granted today?

    What we take for granted is where our grattitude truly lies, and it seems to me that the beauty of it all actually depends upon our taking it for granted.

    That’s how Grace works.

    It’s not that we must never mention or recognize it. In fact, when we do it will be all the more genuine. It’s like getting lost in Presence and then realizing what’s happening. Rather than searching for it, it simply arises.

    You can be grateful for all the little, and the big, joys and surprises during the course of a given day, but for my Mind it is much more powerful to pause and recognize all the things I am able to not even notice and to appreciate that this not-noticing is even possible.

    Afterall, the Good and Bad aren’t so obvious in the long run and with enough Looking you can see how to flip them into each other anyhow!

  • Stubborn Child’s Pose

    It is a very common experience in a vinyasa yoga class to be told that Child’s Pose (Balasana) is a resting pose, and to utilize it whenever we need a break or a rest.

    The posture fulfills that purpose nicely as it is a tri-doshic posture and therefore energetically neutral and balanced.

    However, in my own experience, Child’s Pose is an excellent place to build strength and energy in the hands and arms, as well as prep the shoulders, hips, and core for postures like Four-Limbed Staff Pose (Chathur-Anga Dandasana) and Downward-Facing Dog Pose (Adho-Mukha Svanasana).

    All of those benefits of the posture, of course, largely vanish if the posture is treated as a resting posture.

    It’s not so much a matter of a resting posture being “wrong” but rather a matter of being willing to ask: what if I treat this as something other than a resting posture?

    A dear teacher I’ve known would often remind us to “activate the posture” and this is precisely the premise I am interested in here. To activate the body, dynamically and definitively, while in Child’s Pose creates a much different experience than we get when we are using the posture as a place to rest.

    If the Mind is uncomfortable with the idea of Child’s Pose being anything other than your “homebase” when you need to rest during a vigorous practice, then give yourself the chance to explore a “Stubborn Child’s Pose” once in a while so you can take full advantage of what the posture has to offer besides being just a place to rest.

  • S**T.

    Surely everybody knows the phenomenon: you go to the bathroom and the result doesn’t match the expectation. You might think you’re going to evict days worth of food and get rabbit pellets. You might plop down expecting nothing to happen at all and require the courtesy flush! That’s life, eh?

    Practice sometimes feels the same way.

    Oftentimes when it seems like our efforts won’t be fruitful is when we get the wildest results, or have the most incredible experiences.

    If ever there were a meaningful case for DailyPractice, surely this is it.

    There are no guarantees that we will have epiphanies or transcendent highs, but if we don’t attend to Practice we are assured to not have such moments.

    The Gretzky-classic goes, “You miss one-hundred percent of the shots you don’t take.”

    Even when it seems irrelevant or unimportant, Practice.

    There aren’t substitutes or shortcuts. You just do the work.

    Sometimes it will feel wonderful and amazing.

    Sometimes it will feel procedural or difficult.

    But Practice is not about how it feels in that moment. It’s about tending to the moment, no doubt, but Practice is largely just for Practice’s sake. You do it because you can.

    Because you want to.

    Because you have to.

    Because what you develop through Practice pays off when it’s time for “performance”, so to speak.

    You don’t have to like Practice to get results. But you will have to do it.

    Shit.

  • A Tai Chi Glossary

    Wu Ji (Wu Chi): Without Ridgepole/No Polarity/Boundless
    Tai Ji (T’ai Chi): Great Ridgepole/Grand Polarity/Yin-Yang
    Yin: Feminine Principle, Cold, Dark, Earth
    Yang: Masculine Principle, Hot, Light, Sky
    Qi (Ch’i, Chee, Chi): Energy/Breath/Force
    Qigong (Chee Kung, Ch’i Kung): Energy Cultivation
    Taijiquan (T’ai Chi Ch’uan): Grand Polarity Fist
    5 Major Styles of Taijiquan: Chen/Yang/Wu/Hao/Sun
    Dan Tien: Energy Center/Elixir Field
    Meridian: Pathway for Qi/Acupuncture Lines
    Yi: Intent/Focus
    Song: Relax/Open
    Peng: Open/Expand/Full
    Zhan Zhuang: Post Standing
    Tui Shou/San Shou: Push Hands/Sparring

    This non-definitive list of important TaiChi concepts and translations can help us recognize and understand the route a simple philosophy travels to become useful in different circumstances. The TaiJi Principle shows up, naturally, according to the manner which we choose to make use of it. The same dynamic of Yin and Yang allows us to cause great damage, as well as great healing. TaiChi is useful in both Martial Arts and Medicine.

    Once we have understood Qi, our Practice is super-charged, regardless of where we seek to apply the knowledge and skills. The fast-track to cultivating and experiencing Qi is Stillness. Indeed, from the TaiChi principle it can be realized that the Movements lack meaning unless there is mastery of Stillness.

    Every time we allow Wuji, we are arriving at The Well of Taiji wisdom. Anything that happens after Wuji is normal. It is all Taiji out there in the World. TaiChi is the very mundane matrix we experience day after day. Liberation from that is only possible by side-stepping into Wuji. Anything else is merely being caught in the tides. To know the nature of The Flow and to be caught up in It are different affairs.

    Pay Attention. Stillness has the answers.

    Return to The Well again and again. Each time it will offer something novel, but each time it will seek to remind you of what you already know. Return to The Well. Return to Wuji. Return to the state of remembering.

  • 🕉

    Om was The Word/

    That still Occurs/
    PeacePeacePeace…

  • The Forms are a Vehicle

    In Tai Chi, as well as in Yoga, the outwardly-visible is never the whole story.

    The movements of Tai Chi forms are not routines to be learned for the sake of accomplishment and performance, but rather to train energetic and mechanical alignment and efficiency, as well as to cultivate a quiet mental focus or intention.

    The same underlying premises and directives exist in all Tai Chi postures and movements. What is to be done in one particular movement is also the imperative in all the others.

    To borrow the great Yogic maxim: Sub Ek. All One.

    The reason a skillful Tai Chi player appears calm and relaxed is because there is nothing exciting or compelling in their experience of executing the forms. The quiet moment before commencement is present throughout the entire sequence.

    An external-only approach to playing the Tai Chi sequences is like walking around a tranquil and still lake. The internal approach means to become the lake.

    Whether you count 8, 24, 48, 73, 97, or 108 forms in your Tai Chi sequence of choice is not relevant once we are practicing the internal aspects.

    There is only YinYang, the Tai Chi, and as we allow Yin and Yang to flow we hold to the Wu Chi in the center. We carry and become the stillness around which movement occurs. We become the lake, rather than merely walking around it.

  • Zhan Zhuang

    zhanzhuan

    This illustration shows the vertical nature of the body in Zhan Zhuang practice.

    Other variations of the posture will have more or less bend at the knees, but the overall alignment is the same.

    Without adding effort or tension to the body, the vertical alignment is created and maintained so that the posture becomes efficient and comfortable.

    -Comfortably-spaced feet (Parallel)

    -Knees bent and relaxed

    -Hips free, to allow articulation of the Pelvis

    -Tailbone tucked and/or aligned with the thighs (keep the Pelvis level)

    -Lower Belly relaxed and expanded (keep the Pelvis level)

    -Spine straight (NOT the natural curve of the Spine)

    -Shoulders neutral (allow the Arms to lower the Shoulders)

    -Chest relaxed (as if resting against the Spine)

    -Crown lifted, Chin released (lengthen and straighten the back of the neck)

    -Tongue-Tip toward the roof of the Mouth 

    -Eyes relaxed or closed

    Remember that the goal is to have Gravity be the source of the Standing. Allow the Body to be heavy down below and light up top.

    The TaiChi principle is YinYang. By going Down, we are able to be Up!

  • More Circle GIFs

    Hopefully this ludicrously-lame GIF makes more clear the action of the Arms in our TaiJi Circles…

    arm-paths

    The Arm action has been reduced to it’s most basic form:

    “In with the Elbow…Out with the Hand”

    The two components not as clearly articulated here are the “Turn the Waist”-phase of the Circles, as well as the “Recovery”-phase.

    This serves as a good reminder that once the arms have completed their task, they no longer need to DO anything (except for Listening or holding space, as the case may be), and the rest of the Body continues to direct and/or utilize the Energy.

  • 24 Forms at The Arb

    One of my favorite places is the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.

    There are numerous gardens, as well as natural habitat to explore, among other sights.

    You can observe a number of quirks with this performance of the forms, most notably some variations with the footwork in the last few forms.

  • “Chathuranga,” Chips and Salsa…

    Chathuranga Dandasana (Four-Limbed Stick Pose?!)- a staple of American Yoga.

    In vinyasa classes all across the country, countless iterations of “high to low plank” are unfolding. In general, this is probably great news. However, there are surely some statistics to demonstrate at least some kind of measurable effect from all of these repetitions.

    According to the ____, and certainly by my accounts as well, all this “Chathuranga” business is causing some injuries among the growing number of Americans attending yoga classes. Repetitive movements and stress on troublesome joints seem to be the most common culprits cited by the ____ percent of people who report having been injured as a result of their yoga practice.

    While some people (high Pitta, anyone!?) truly thrive on the ecstatic and empowering action of holding (as well as flowing to, or through,) Chathuranga Dandasana, many Bodies simply don’t need that type of work. Indeed for those among the statistic, it has ultimately proven harmful.

    Sometimes we allow the will of the Sangha to string us along. There are certainly instances when it helps to utilize that group energy to inspire and motivate our practice, but it’s useful to remember that Practice is about opportunity rather than obligation.

    The “Chathuranga” flow in vinyasa class reminds me of the bottomless baskets of chips and salsa you sometimes get at a Mexican restaurant. You can eat to your Heart’s content, yet still more and more will keep coming. If you have a delicious entree in the kitchen though, you might not want to fill up on just chips and salsa.

    I often find that during power-flow classes, even something basic such as a Corepower C1 class, I will politely decline some of the early refill offers on my chip-basket.

    As I’m eating the main course, however, I will delightedly dip several chips at once and savor the crunch and the spice (if the salsa is sufficiently bold, that is!).

    The unlimited-chips offer isn’t going to be rescinded if we don’t eat enough chips.

    It isn’t a limited-time offer.

    Chathuranga Dandasana isn’t going to vanish from Reality just because we decide to not play it on a loop.

    Even if we’ve been modifying to the most gentle variation we can find, it’s fine to let a “Chathuranga” pass by; it might even feel sublime and divine.

    If only once-in-a-while, enjoy the act of not-pushing, of not-racing.

    When you partake of the Chathuranga Dandasana, be fully present and committed to it. If we’re careless with alignment and technique, it’s just as well to lay off.

    Chathuranga on purpose, with Intention.

    Or skip it, with that same purpose and Intention.

    It comes back to the familiar refrain we’ve all heard, and many of us have said- “listen to your Body.”

    When the Body is not craving chips, don’t eat chips. If the crunch of those tasty triangles is calling, then eat ’em all up!